 52 j u l y Voice 2010 of the ISSN 1948-3031 Industry

Subsea Technology Featuring: SubOptic 2010 Wrap-up ISSN 1948-3031 Submarine Telecoms Forum is published bimonthly by WFN Strategies. The publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, in whole or in part, aturday - “Le Tour de France pour le But I bent to the demand and created a without the permission of the publishers. petit déjeuner; 15 mile run for lunch; Crew Group, as well as my own personal Submarine Telecoms Forum is an "Predators" and popcorn planned for page. And information and news started independent com­mercial publication, S Dinner... All's right with the world.” passing via Facebook, which they then serving as a freely accessible forum for professionals in industries connected with respond and comment and “like” or submarine optical fibre technologies and I started a Facebook page last year in “dislike” or whatever. The funny thing is techniques. order to better communicate with my coed that it actually works, and my various 14 to Liability: while every care is taken in Venturing Crew. 20 year olds, both here and at some college, preparation of this publication, the publishers cannot be held responsible for “talk” and plan through our Facebook the accuracy of the information herein, or For 9 years I have been passing event page. any errors which may occur in advertising or editorial content, or any consequence information the old fashion way – through arising from any errors or omissions. email – and that seemed to work just fine I have just been informed by one of The publisher cannot be held responsible until a new generation of Scouts arrived my twenty-somethings that Facebook for any views expressed by contributors, who cared little for that antiquated is becoming passé, and texting is the and the editor reserves the right to edit any advertising or editorial material submitted technology. For a number of months new instantaneous way to express your for publication. I would diligently forward necessary innermost thoughts and annoyances. I Contributions are welcomed. Please information, only to find out at one of our really don’t know what I will do. My forward to the Managing Editor: two monthly meetings that nobody was thumbs are too big… receiving the details. Why?, I asked, only PUBLISHER to learn that the kids couldn’t be bothered Wayne Nielsen to look at their emails. Tel: +[1] 703 444 2527 Email: [email protected] I had resisted Facebook; I really didn’t want to discuss what I was doing at that EDITOR moment, or what I was thinking about, or Kevin G. Summers what I liked or disliked of someone else’s Tel: +[1] 703 468 0554 postings. Frankly, I don’t much care what Email: [email protected] others are momentarily feeling; so why should they care about me?

2 Copyright © 2010 WFN Strategies Subsea Technology In This Issue Exordium 2 SubOptic 2010 The event, the mo- 24 Back Reflection 50 Wayne Nielsen ments and the memories Stewart Ash & Kaori Shikinaka Fiona Beck News Now 4 Conferences 52

Coherent 40G and 100G Go the 8 Some SubOptic 2010 Highlights 27 Letter to a Friend 53 Distance Per B. Hansen (and Things I Learned After Senior- Jean Devos High) Colin Anderson Optical Transmission Trials Not quite 14 Advertiser Index 54 as simple as they seem Letters to the Editor Tony Frisch 35 Coda 55 Kevin G. Summers Suriname to Guyana 36 SubOptic 2010 The Almost Perfect 19 Jas Dhooper Event! John Horne Main One Cable Will Revolutionise 46 Telecom Tayo Adelaja

3 News Now  20 Operators team with Alcatel-Lucent  Cable & Wireless to Boost Submarine  Global Marine Systems awarded to bring fast, lower-cost broadband Cable Links Between Caribbean consecutive Gold Awards from the connectivity in Africa with a new Networks Royal Society of Prevention for 17,000 km submarine system Accidents (RoSPA)  EASSy cable system begins testing  Activ Financial Selects Hibernia  Hibernia Atlantic Adds Tibus To Its Atlantic  EASSy on Track for July Launch Channel Reseller Program To Further Its Reach in Northern Ireland  ALBA-1 Marine Survey Underway  EIS awarded to AECOM for Hawaii interisland wind power project  Huawei Marine and Global Marine  Allied Fiber is Constructing a Systems Complete Construction of the  Fujitsu and NSW Complete Indonesian Nationwide, Network-Neutral, Dark Suriname-Guyana Submarine Cable Submarine Optic-fiber Network Fiber Cable System System  Gateway Communications wins GTB  Bangladesh mulls alternative  IFC supports Seychelles submarine Award for its African MPLS services on submarine cable link cable project SEACOM  Blue Offshore and Caley Commence  Level 3 Invests in Manchester  GBI and Pacnet Announce Network Design of Innovative Basket Carousel Resiliency, Deepens European Presence Extension Partnership  BMG Telecom Plans New Undersea  Main One Cable Company Limited Cable relies on Alcatel-Lucent to maintain 6,800 km cable system, linking Portugal to Nigeria  Main One Cable Goes Live  SEACOM service down: SEACOM  Telecom Egypt to link undersea cable actively seeking solutions to Jordan  Nexans Adds Cable Solutions and Services for Ships and Platforms  Seacom switches on direct cable link  Thai Carrier Expands Internet to Europe Gateways, Drops Submarine Cable  NorGer uses Offshore Marine for cable Plan consultancy role  Seasoned Investors and Directors Strengthen Pacific Fibre  WFN Strategies announces new office  NTT Com, Infinera and Ixia to Provide location in Houston, Texas World’s First Practical 100 Gbps  Sify Technologies Limited (SIFY) Ethernet Interconnection at Interop Becomes the First-ever Integrated  WIND arrives in Cape Town with first Tokyo 2010 Information & Communication load of recovered submarine cable Technology (ICT) Company to Land an  O3b Networks and Telecom Cook International Undersea Cable in India Islands Sign Long Term Agreement on Bandwidth Provision for Internet  SubCom Successfully Demonstrates 40 Connectivity Gb/s Long Haul Transmissio

 Ocean Specialists, Inc. Introduces its  Submarine Cables Key to Telkom SA s Portable Dynamic Riser for Mobile Strategic Direction Deepwater Assets  Submarine Networks World announces  Offshore Marine Management 2010 conference commissions unique O&M vessel  Tata, CEC Withdraw Equity Joint  Offshore Marine supplies guard vessels Venture Application for China for major European projects  TE SubCom Completes Installation of  OFS and Hengtong to Form Joint Main One Venture Company to Produce Optical Fiber Preforms in China  TE SubCom Completes Phase 1 Marine Installation On Main One Cable System

5 6 7 Coherent 40G and 100G Go the Distance

8 Per B. Hansen ppetite for bandwidth has proven points. Avoiding deployment of a new wet are simple to implement and have served relentless. International Internet plant saves both time and money. optical networking well for years, both Atraffic has grown at an annual rate in terrestrial and submarine settings. of more than 60 percent for the last three When spectrum is available on the cable, However, design tolerance increases years. More people are getting access to new 40G or 100G channels can simply be linearly or even exponentially with bit the Internet, and the speed with which added. Even when a cable is already at its rates, and these architectures suffer from they connect keeps increasing. maximum channel count and all spectrum a number of limitations, including poor has been used, replacing existing 2.5G and spectral efficiency. While demand is strong, cable operators 10G transponders with new 40G or 100G are facing challenges on service pricing. cards is typically advantageous. Not only Coherent detection provides the ability to Price erosion of more than 20 percent does this defer investment in a new cable access the phase of the optical signal and annually is typical on many submarine system, but upgrading a cable also lowers enables advanced modulation techniques, routes. This can be attributed mainly to the cost of bandwidth in most cases. In where symbols are encoded using both increased competition in certain markets, addition to capital expense advantages, the amplitude and phase of the optical a general move toward higher-bandwidth higher-capacity transponders offer field. The ability to track polarization with services, and lack of service differentiation. significant operational benefits—especially coherent detection simplifies polarization as demand grows for increasingly higher- de-multiplexing in the receiver, enabling Competing for the growth in demand bandwidth wavelength services. dual-polarization modulation formats to further increase spectral efficiency. Submarine cable operators are adding The most capital-intensive resource of Likewise, the high rejection of neighboring capacity to capitalize on the opportunity a cable system is the optical spectrum. channels allows very close spacing of created by growing demand, but this does Often, 50 to 60 percent of a new carriers. In fact, the rejection is so high that not necessarily mean laying new cables. transoceanic system’s cost—which may encoding schemes can take advantage of total $300 million to $900 million—can sub-carrier multiplexing within a normal Novel transceiver technologies have be attributed to cabled fiber and in-line channel window of 50 GHz. greatly increased the potential capacity amplifiers. Hence, spectral density is a of already-deployed cables. Newer key metric for the cable operator. While The vendor community has almost cables often can be equipped with four one 40G transponder alone offers capital unanimously embraced coherent to ten times the capacity of their original and operational benefits over four 10G technology for high-speed networking. design; older cables may offer an even transponders, the appeal is even greater Performance is one reason for this higher multiple. Where each wavelength if the transponder also provides more acceptance—rather, it was a prerequisite originally was designed to support 2.5G efficient use of an operator’s most scarce for this level of support. Another key or 10G, now each can carry 40G and 100G resource, the spectrum. piece of the puzzle was advanced high- over similar distances. speed Digital Signal Processor (DSP) Spectral efficiency technology. While coherent transceiver From a planning and deployment technology is well known in wireless perspective, capacity upgrades also allow Conventional encoding schemes, such communication, breakthroughs in DSP installation of all new equipment in easy- as intensity modulation or differential algorithms and chip technology now have 9 to-access locations at cable termination phase modulation with direct detection, made it attractive for real-world optical transmission applications. Since the early Addressing the challenges of ultra-long dispersion-compensating fiber may be 2000s, Nortel*’s Metro Ethernet Networks transmission distances used to counteract the residual chromatic (now part of Ciena) has invested significant dispersion of the cable. Such devices add research and development efforts in Technical requirements for submarine loss, often requiring additional amplifiers electronic dispersion compensation and transponders differ from those typically to maintain signal level and fidelity. advanced DSP technologies. seen for terrestrial systems because, obviously, the distances are much longer— Coherent technology allows for the The advances made in DSP technology often several thousands of kilometers— correction of impairments in the electrical enable more extensive performance and the cable and in-line amplifiers for domain. The electrical domain is more cost- optimization for coherent receivers. submarine systems do not accommodate efficient than the optical domain for signal Likewise, DSP opens the door to new impairment-mitigating equipment easily. processing. Dispersion compensation, for modulation schemes and polarization- A number of impairments, in addition to example, is accomplished in the electrical diverse transmission techniques that the inherent accumulation of noise, limit domain through a conventional electrical allow for more efficient use of the optical the transmission distance. filter. Furthermore, this technology fiber spectrum while spanning submarine supports adaptive compensation over a distances. Some optical devices can mitigate very wide range, simplifying deployment impairments. For example, spools of by eliminating much of the planning

10 and engineering effort that is required transmission performance are minimized years—and in some cases, just five years— otherwise. in real time, so operating margins may now can be rejuvenated and sustain be reduced safely, saving resources. The profitability over much longer periods. In fact, a number of impairments are not measures taken to mitigate impairments economically corrected in the optical also may be analyzed and logged, allowing The capacity of a cable is, of course, finite, domain. Instead, system margins are continuous observation of the fiber plant’s and new cables will be needed eventually, often set aside to accommodate these properties and enabling timely preventive both because of increasing bandwidth impairments. Typically this process maintenance with minimal traffic demand and the number of undeserved applies to residual chromatic dispersion, downtime. geographies. Because new bandwidth can polarization-dependent dispersion, and be added on demand, new cables may be polarization-dependent loss. By correcting Meeting the business requirements of cable installed with less bandwidth to minimize these factors on a per-wavelength basis, operators the initial fixed-capital investment. This a coherent transceiver offers higher strategy will allow for healthier business performance in addition to operational The advent of transponder technology, models in the submarine communications simplicity and provisioning velocity, which supports higher bandwidths such industry while keeping pace with evolving allowing operators to deploy additional as 40G over wet plants designed for 10G, communication needs across the globe. capacity in response to actual demand has changed the way cable operators and without having to worry about the international service providers can compete. A proven technology engineering or equipment associated The ability to add new wavelengths while with additional dispersion compensation preserving spectrum—or, by replacing old While coherent technology is clearly the technology. transponders, even recouping spectrum— next-generation upgrade for submarine in response to actual demand changes networks, it is also a mature and proven Other impairments are nonlinear in nature the business model. and therefore depend on the modulation The cable operator format and power level of each channel. gains agility by While advanced coherent transport adding bandwidth implementations offer significant on demand. This mitigation of nonlinear effects, these are capability aligns generally irreversible and residuals lead revenue growth with to system margins. A highly sensitive capital investments, coherent receiver allows for lower launch lowering the powers and pure phase modulation as financial burden that the encoding format, both of which, otherwise challenges in combination with high rejection of the industry. Wet interfering signal components, minimize plants that were nonlinear penalties. designed for a 25-year lifetime but usually Because a coherent receiver is continually got decommissioned 11 self-optimizing, time variations in after only 10 to 15 technology. Nortel Metro Ethernet both terrestrial and submarine networks, applications. A reduction in service Networks installed 40G coherent allowing for a true common architecture pricing over the last 20 years has allowed transceivers on already-deployed that, for the first time, supports a more customers to connect, irrespective of submarine cable systems in 2008, and ubiquitous global mesh network. distance. Business models had to change, these systems have been carrying live and new technologies were implemented. traffic ever since. The convergence of submarine and Coherent transceiver technology will terrestrial network technologies offers push the envelope even further and help Maximum distances will depend on the tremendous benefits. Higher combined submarine cable operators bring more design of the cable system. Likewise, the equipment volumes, resulting from bandwidth to more people. ultimate capacity will vary, as the width a single platform for transport and of the optical spectrum has varied greatly switching across both domains, help drive Per B. Hansen is currently over the last 15 years—from single-digit to down costs. With a global mesh, operators Senior Director, Submarine nearly 30 nanometers of spectral width. can manage just one platform to serve Solutions at Ciena, customers worldwide, mitigate the effects where he is focused on A great deal of industry attention of cable faults, and provision services the networking needs of currently is focused on 40G deployments across the globe while maximizing submarine cable operators. and upgrades. Trials and commercial utilization. Per joined Ciena in September 2008 from deployments have shown that 40G ADVA Optical Networking, where he coherent transceiver technology performs The concept can be applied regionally or was responsible for NA Enterprise Sales well on both submarine and terrestrial globally, enabling service providers and and Business Development. Prior to ultra-long-haul networks. Transmission cable operators to evolve their business joining ADVA in 2004, Per was one of five distances as far as 12,000 km and spectral models and enhance competitiveness. founding professionals who established densities up to two bits/Hz (100G on a Photuris Inc., an early innovator of 50 GHz grid) have been demonstrated on Connecting the world dynamic optical networking solutions. deployed submarine cables. Earlier, he was with Bell Labs. Per holds Nowhere is the impact of networking a doctorate in electrical engineering from While 40G is the next step in capacity-per- technology more apparent than in the the Technical University of Denmark and wavelength for most cable operators, there submarine market. Over the course of less Master of Business Administration from is no reason to believe demand stops there. than 20 years, the maximum capacity of a the Wharton School of Business at the Coherent technology also supports higher single fiber pair on a transoceanic system University of Pennsylvania. bandwidths, such as 100G and beyond. has increased by a factor of 1,000, and is Trials have shown the technology’s now approaching 10 Tb/s. Nevertheless, viability already, and 100G will follow in bandwidth consumption continues to the footsteps of 40G. grow and challenge the infrastructure.

The global mesh network Not any bandwidth will do, however; it has to be reliable and economical to meet Coherent 40G and 100G technology offers the business needs of operators and the

12 performance improvements applicable to worldwide demand for high-bandwidth *’Nortel’ is a trademark of Nortel Networks, used under license by Ciena.

Optical Transmission Trials Not quite as simple as they seem

14 Tony Frisch Transmit power (dBm) key question for most upgrades way to ensure a truly is how much capacity can be representative test, -6 Aachieved? Simulations can provide but is generally not an answer, but the results are only good a good solution. One -12 if the input data is correct, and potential operator recounted buyers are not always able to supply his experience of what needed. Typically, the data available having a potential -18 includes nominal values which may be supplier ship him a deliberately a little pessimistic, or initial complete terminal -24 values which may no longer be up-to-date consisting of several Good test regions due to system repairs/ageing. Additionally, racks, and the system owners may take the commercial irritations of having -30 position that they will not be responsible to first install them for the accuracy of data used. The value and then take them of a measurement/demonstration is down. The time taken -36 that it gives the potential supplier the and the disruption 1550 1555 1560 opportunity and responsibility for getting caused were much Wavelength (nm) the data he requires and it should also greater than for demonstrate directly what capacity can tests done by others really be achieved. who had used more compact, specialised In this particular example, it’s clear that test equipment; this approach tends to measurements done in the centre of the The reality, of course, is never quite so work well for all involved – for potential band, or at the long wavelength region, straightforward. There can be problems suppliers it reduces shipping and involves would produce a somewhat optimistic if the test fibre is carrying traffic and fewer people. picture in terms of the power needed – in measurements can be done only in part this case a 1.4 dB error using the centre of the bandwidth, or if a different, but Given that tests will be done with point. Chromatic dispersion, non-linear “similar” fibre is offered for measurement specialised equipment, how can one ensure effects and amplifier noise figure also tend – how similar is it? In the case of a network that the test results will be meaningful? to change across the band, with the noise with several links it’s generally impractical Ensuring that the test equipment replicates figure sometimes changing quite rapidly to test all of them and the objective will be the conditions of the proposed upgrade as at the edges of the band – important if the to test the most demanding one; in general closely as possible and performing tests proposed upgrade puts wavelengths here. this will be fairly obvious from a technical over the full bandwidth are two key points. It’s worth noting, however, that the most viewpoint, if not from a commercial one. Experience shows that many systems extreme channels have only one adjacent show significant variations in transmission neighbour, so they may not be the best Assuming that a test fibre can be made performance with wavelength, as seen in ones to measure as they will experience available, how does one make sure that the following graph which shows how the less crosstalk than others. the results are meaningful? Using real power needed can vary with wavelength 15 terminal equipment sounds like the best due to non-optimal gain flattening. The following diagram shows a simplified the wavelengths. While a Bit Error Rate Test Line G.977 Parameter Field schematic of a test set-up that can get close to Set (BERTS) can be used to supply test data, measurement the ideal: it cannot really measure anything because 1 Mean Q value Calculated the power levels should be (assuming no from measured Pre-emphasised WLS set close to those needed for impairments) OSNR WL real operation and FEC output 1.1 Propagation should thus be error-free. impairments (non- WL linearity etc.) Cannot be measured An Optical Spectrum Analyser 1.2 Gain Flatness individually OSA (OSA) is usually needed to impairments help with the initial set-up – 1.3 Non-optimal optical checking existing wavelengths, pre-emphasis measuring Optical Signal to impairment WL Laser Mod Noise Ratio (OSNR) etc. to 1.4 Wavelength tolerance compare with predictions impairment from simulations and (more Test 1.5-7 Mean polarisation FEC importantly) to set power penalties Data RX Filter levels. Setting power levels – 1.8 Supervisory Should be and sometimes establishing Production Unit impairment known the best wavelengths to be 1.9 Manufacturing Cannot be used – usually represents the and environmental measured first day or so of a programme impairment individually Here a number of adjustable light sources which takes a few days. Getting close to the 2 Time Varying System Measured are set to the wavelengths and power levels proposed upgrade conditions makes it much Performance (5σ rule) (5x standard of the proposed upgrade and then fed into a easier to extrapolate to what performance is deviation) production unit which has been modified to really possible. 3 Line Q Value (Line Measured – allow the test wavelengths to connect to the 1 – Lines 1.1 to 1.9 – TVSP modulator in place of the laser that is normally Because optical power budgets focus on Q, Line 2) used. This ensures that the entire bandwidth the parameter one needs to measure is the 4 Specified TTE Q value Known can be filled with modulated signals and FEC correction rate, from which the Q value (back to back) that the transmit and received units are is derived using the inverse error function, 5 Segment Q value Calculated representative of what will be supplied. There and the tests need to last 12-24 hours to from Lines 3 will usually be dispersion compensation assess fluctuations in the performance to & 4 & amplifiers, and most suppliers tend to determine Time Varying System Performance 5.1 BER corresponding Calculated interleave “odd” and “even” channels with (TVSP), Line 2 in the power budget defined to segment Q without FEC different modulating signals to avoid any by ITU-T recommendation G.977, the most question that having the same traffic on used standard for submarine systems with 5.2 BER corresponding to Calculated adjacent signals might improve performance. repeaters. The following table shows the G.977 segment Q with FEC parameters and how the field measurements 5.3 Effective segment Q Calculated A tuneable optical filter before the receiver should relate to them: value with FEC 16 allows measurements to be done on any of 6 Q limit after FEC Known measurements covered the full bandwidth, correction (at 1E-13) (depends on that test channels had adjacent channels and FEC gain) that all power levels and wavelengths are those proposed for start of life, the process 7 Repairs, ageing and Specified for pump failures the upgrade is relatively straightforward. If this isn’t the case, then one will need to extrapolate from 8 Segment margin Calculated the results and there is the potential for errors and uncertainty which increase with the Line 1 is useful mainly as a comparison with degree of extrapolation. As an approximation predictions; if there is a noticeable difference a 0.5 dB error is sufficient to make around it suggests that some of the simulation inputs 10% difference to the prediction of ultimate may have been incorrect. A number of lines capacity. Channel separation during testing (such as individual impairments, Lines 1.1– also needs to be fairly close to that proposed, 1.9) cannot be verified, but Lines 2 and 3 can. as penalties can rise very rapidly as the spacing Line 2 should be equal to 5x the standard is reduced and there is generally no precise deviation of the long-term Q, while Line 3 formula which can be applied. relates directly to the average measured Q minus – Line 2. From Line 3 one can compute An optical transmission trial doesn’t sound Lines 5 to 8 and verify whether the margin is complex, but it represents a significant outlay sufficient. Key to this calculation is the FEC in time and effort for all concerned and critical gain and it’s important that the Net Coding decisions may depend on the results. This Gain (NCG) at the target BER is used. short article has tried to identify some of the key issues and hopefully showed ways to For practical reasons, it may be hard to replicate minimise errors/uncertainty and make results the conditions of the proposed upgrade from different suppliers comparable. completely – supervisory equipment is rarely included, and getting the precise power levels Tony started his working in may be difficult – so ultimate capacity has to British Telecom’s Research labs be calculated by extrapolation from the tests. working on early optical fibre Most types of supervisory add 0.1-0.2 dB submarine systems. After a of penalty which should be included in the number of years he moved to budget. More important is the extrapolation Alcatel Submarine Networks from the test conditions to those proposed in Australia and led the system for the upgrade, where it’s important to be testing team for the TASMAN 2 cable system. meticulous in handling the different power Following this, he spent a brief period with levels needed for different parts of the band. Bell Labs where he was involved in terminal design and troubleshooting. Family pressure If it’s desired to make comparisons between took him back Alcatel Submarine Networks, potential suppliers then care needs to be spending a few years in France working in taken, as the tests will almost certainly have Sales and Marketing and then moving back employed different methods and equipment. to the UK. Most recently he moved to Azea For the final optical power budget all should Networks, a start-up which was acquired by use the same margins for repairs, ageing and Xtera Communications, where he is currently operation, as these should not depend on Product Line Manager for Repeatered 17 which supplier is selected. Providing that all Solutions. 18 2010 SubOptic 2010 The Almost Perfect Event!

19 John Horne The overall assessment of the conference was that it rated good to excellent, with the results skewed more towards the latter.

The level of registration fee was again thought by some to be too high, but this is an argument we think we can never win. SubOptic is a non-profit making organisation which provides for one relatively low price, a full conference experience over three and a half days with an expert and diverse presentational programme, including: master class tutorials, Keynote Speakers and Roundtables, a full social programme to facilitate networking and an industry focussed exhibition. No other conference covering our industry comes near to providing this package at the price we charge, which can only be done by the industry itself arranging the conference programme.

The Programme for this conference, the item we pride the most, was also considered very good, with the Keynote Speakers coming in for exceptional praise. There ccording to the responses from evidence gathered by Executive and was also thought to be a better balance survey questionnaires, almost Program Committee members, still allows between technical and commercial papers, perfect is an apt description of us to gain a flavour of what went right and A with the technical papers delivering more SubOptic 2010 – a very good even excellent what needs some improvement for our value than at some previous events. event, but not quite perfect. next event: SubOptic 2013. There was some criticism that we still This time round we received only So what were the views of our attendees? do not get enough papers from carriers/ 55 responses, which though a little operators and that the strategic issues that disappointing from our experience The good thing is that the vast majority of drive their decision making are still under- of previous events, still represent people who attended enjoyed the event represented. We recognise this as fair, and approximately 8-9% of attendees. and found it of great value and were next time round we will try to look at Therefore, this together with the anecdotal looking forward to attend the next one. 20 procedures that allow us – for instance by encouraging more invited papers, if we do not receive the appropriate responses to our “Call for Papers” – to correct this.

We also received comment that there is quite a variation in quality of the presented papers, and there is insufficient time for Q&A at the end of presentations. Again we will review our selection procedure to try to ensure a consistency of quality in what is presented. This aspect, however, is also linked to the number of papers and number of parallel sessions we wish to run.

One approach is to have a diverse, heavily populated program to provide the greatest choice and coverage. An alternative approach might be to have a thinner programme, with fewer parallel sessions, or by providing authors with a longer time to present and field Q&A’s. We chose the former for this event to give as broad and diverse a programme as possible and will review whether this is the most appropriate, There was some comment however about once again not allowing any time or space for the future. their timing, the lack of suitable refreshments for any real dialogue with the audience to and the number that were run in parallel. We be realised. Some respondents went so far We were glad that the Poster Session worked are, however, limited in the way that we can as to say that the “Day of the Roundtable well, and I hope by the quality of papers, provide these presentations. They require is over,” and that a series of more focussed rather than the attraction of drinks, was well considerable preparation and to provide events covering more defined topics – say in attended. This is intended to be one of the them during the conference itself inevitably the style of a workshop – may be the way highlight sessions of the conference, and I impacts the time available for the remainder forward. This is an area that we will have to think it achieved this goal. We did note that of the programme. review in depth before the next event. there was some criticism about physical spacing and the more successful the event, The element of the programme that received In terms of the overall programme, one the more we will need to take this into the greatest criticism was the Roundtables. interesting statistic we gained was that consideration. These were perceived as being a little in general about 50% of registrants are unstructured, with the panellists taking attending conference sessions, whilst the The Master Class/Tutorials attracted a good too long to set out their own positions and other 50% are doing other business. This 21 attendance, and again proved their value. suggests that we are achieving a high quality advance of our plan to put them and our into account the point in the economic cycle programme and maintaining a reasonable Conference Proceedings onto the “Archive that the industry is likely to be in. balance between those who are attracted Section” of our website, in the autumn. We by this and those who come to meet other are glad to report that this was done within We also received some criticism about the attendees for business and networking three weeks of the conference ending and opening hours of the exhibition, its position purposes. these are now available to attendees on a relative to the other conference activities private section of our website. We will ensure and the fact that some booth structures did In this sense one of the greatest requests for that for future events this is done as a matter not allow for more discrete commercial next time we received, was on the question of course. conversations, especially if organisations did of making a full list of registrants publicly not have a hospitality room. available and providing some form of So what about the other elements of the messaging service to allow attendees to conference? A suggestion was also made that oral contact one another. This is a service we presentations could be relayed either in recognise that other events, such as PTC, The Exhibition is an important element for us real time or in time delayed mode to the provide and we will examine its feasibility in revenue generation, allowing us to keep exhibition area, to facilitate attendance and for the next event. registration fees as low as possible. If we had reduce time conflict. Again, we will look had a larger exhibition hall we could have at improvements in this area for next time, We were also asked to make the presentations sold additional booths, and this is something though some of these difficulties are dictated themselves available to attendees, well in we will need to consider next time, taking by venue layout and company choice. 22 Again of interest, most attendees seem to have registered, either because they attended previous events, accessed the SubOptic website or through word of mouth recommendation and not through any other form of formal marketing.

So the final conclusion from this review is that SubOptic 2010 was a very good conference. Not perfect in all respects, but one which We laid on a full Accompanying Persons at airports to provide transit information met the needs of the industry at this time. programme for this event, and we are glad would have been appreciated. Our challenge will be to make SubOptic 2013 to say we attracted more than 50 partners even better! to Yokohama, who took the opportunity to The hotels were thought good, but the wifi attend some of these and gain an appreciation internet service in the Intercontinental was To make sure you receive updates as this of Japanese culture. heavily criticised. A comment was also conference is developed, and to receive received that some corporate entities do not news on the Interim Activities we undertake, We also laid on a full Social Programme to allow the use of wifi and require a wired register for E-Alerts on our website: www. facilitate networking, which is one of the LAN service to be used. There was also some suboptic.org. most important aspects of this conference. comment about the lack of a good bar/social Whilst most respondents commented gathering point in the hotels that could have John Horne has been involved favourably about their ability to do this facilitated networking. The Irish Bar near with telecommunications during these occasions, some improvements Yokohama Railway Station was too far away networks for nearly 40 to the Welcome Reception, Lunchtime to fill this gap, and no alternative nearby was years, most of the time arrangements and the Gala Dinner were found, or if it was it was not well promoted. in the international field. suggested. This centred mainly about the John’s involvement with quantity of food available and the lack of The general level of conference organisation SubOptic started with the first conference seating and entertainment programme was thought very professional and the event in 1986, where he presented a paper on during the Gala Dinner. We have heard these ran very smoothly, thanks to the efforts of the branching potential for optical fibre comments and will do better next time. our co-Hosts NEC & Fujitsu and their Event systems. He was a Vice-Chairman of the Management Company, ICS. Papers Committee for SubOptic 2001 and Yokohama as a venue was generally well has been Secretary to the SubOptic EC since received and the closeness of hotels and Many people used the SubOptic website, then. John is a Fellow of the UK’s Institution the conference centre was well appreciated and though there was some criticism of the of Engineering Technology and holds a by attendees. This followed the general registration process, most found it workable. Diploma in Management Studies from principle established at our previous event Many people also gained information about Middlesex University. in Baltimore. The distance between Narita the conference itself, via the website or the and Yokohama was mentioned as a negative associated eblasts that we sent out to our by some attendees, and more assistance registered database. 23 SubOptic 2010 The event, the moments and the memories

24 Fiona Beck SubOptic was of a very high standard and this is also a credit to the Programme Committee chaired by Colin Anderson. The Committee’s tireless work in refereeing and organizing the programme ensured we were able to deliver a quality product. It is important to me SubOptic is seen as an industry highlight and a pinnacle to strive for. In the past I have described Sub Optic as an Olympic event. To be accepted and recognized here is an achievement.

With over 735 participants in total, 296 companies and 50 countries and regions represented, SubOptic 2010 was a resolute success and had a wider reach than ever before. As I have said previously, we are a not for profit organsiation so any surplus funds are carried over to the next event.

SubOptic is unique in that it is a conference where you look forward to attending the sessions. I am pleased to say we had excellent attendance at our sessions and we received many comments from delegates that SubOptic is one of the very few conferences where they make an effort to clear their diary because the sessions are both interesting and relevant. This year we had some remarkable developments presented including 40G and 100G technology, questions on marine ships hey say the cheery blossoms come out I am very pleased and proud to say what a availability, on the next Trans Atlantic cable, on but once a year. They arrive; bloom and success SubOptic 2010 was. My thanks goes oil and gas platforms and their unique design then they are gone so quickly. They are out to the co-hosts NEC and Fujitsu for such a features, on the technical life of systems and T how OSS is getting more relevant information a fleeting moment of beauty. commanding event. Also I would like to thank all the presenters of papers; both oral and out to customers. These are some of the topics In some ways SubOptic 2010 in Yokohama was poster and, of course, the keynote speakers. I to name but a few. similar. There was so much preparation and think this was one of the best line up of keynote The exhibition was sold out very quickly, and hard work by so many people to ensure the speakers we have had. The blend of culture I know many delegates wished they could event would be a success, and then suddenly it and understanding, new technology, new have spent more time going through the finer is over. I am sure you will all agree SubOptic ideas, the role of information and the wave of details of the exhibits. We will make sure 2010 will hold many positive memories for the future was just the ticket to get the each day more functions are held in the exhibition area 25 those that were fortunate enough to attend. started. The quality of papers presented this to ensure those opportunities can be taken up. interesting topics so we will see what can be announcement of the next location. I am sure done to progress others. there is a sweep stake as to its location minus I know SubOptic has a rich tradition of mixing the cruise ship concept. It was also my privilege business with great networking opportunities, The success of SubOptic depends on the and honor to announce at the conference that and we will look at ways to continue to deliver goodwill and support of many and this means I will be continuing on as President for the the value add for companies to attend, whether we have to grow and to develop. This might next cycle. As I mentioned there is more to be this be at an exhibition level or a meeting mean: done in developing the SubOptic vision and to level. SubOptic is sometimes described as an ensure we in the industry continue to support • Engaging new support at the extended family, and the social aspects of the the industry. networking are not to be underestimated. In Executive/Programme Committee many cases the friendships, understanding level. And at the end of the day it is about quality. and relationship building that goes on at Quality is something that lasts and SubOptic • Better supporting host organizations. SubOptic carries forward to many future 2010 was a quality event. I thank everyone business associations. • Looking at new sponsorship value. for their participation and support and I look forward to seeing you again soon. Plus we have photos to prove what a success • Providing exhibitors with a space that this event was. We have almost 1000 of them, showcase their products and services Ms Beck is the President and and some of these will be posted on our and provides them with networking Chief Executive Officer for website in the not too distant future!!! Our opportunities. Southern Cross Cable Network. thanks goes out to the various companies She was appointed to this that hosted events during the evenings of • Being the event where anyone can position in May 2001 where SubOptic 2010 leading up to the Gala dinner. I contribute a good idea, a paper and prior to this she represented know many bars were frequented outside the have their opportunity to deliver Telecom NZ as a Director events, and I am pleased everyone still made ground breaking thinking. on the Board of Southern Cross Cables and the early morning sessions. various other major companies such as EDS Also as an industry body we need to evaluate (NZ) and ConnecTel. Ms Beck was a senior I also know the accompany persons who how we can add value, whether this is through manager within Telecom NZ responsible for joined many of you were pleased to have an our web site, our interim activities or through Telecom’s corporate planning, EVA analysis, opportunity to meet their partners’ business the conference itself. We have been asked capital investment reviews and corporate colleagues and associates and to put names to also if and how we could extend our reach to advisory service. She is a chartered accountant faces. become more of an industry voice. The vision and holds a Bachelor of Management Studies of SubOptic is by the industry and for the (Honours) degree in Accounting and Finance We will continue to see how SubOptic can industry. We do need resources, and support in from Waikato University, New Zealand. grow, maintain its relevance and be enduring. order to fulfill that promise and this I am sure We started developing our role in-between will be discussed over the coming months. conferences with the interim working group concept. We were very pleased to see the What I like about SubOptic is that you come first of these projects - the guidelines for away thinking “that was an event, something a framework for Submarine Construction to remember”. The conference happens once Contracts - presented at this SubOptic. Our every three years with the next one to be next interim activity is targeting an industry hosted by Alcatel Lucent, so watch this space reference guide and we have a range of other (or our website www.suboptic.org) as to the 26 Some SubOptic 2010 Highlights (and Things I Learned After Senior-High)

Colin Anderson

27 Colin Anderson uperanda Omnia Ferendo (Latin: “all can from Iceland in late March 2010 cleared for a Markets: New Opportunities”, “System be conquered by endurance / hard critical period and so had almost no impact Design: Network Topologies”, “Operations Swork”) was the motto of my senior on the conference; and the conference timing & Maintenance”, and “Marine Services & high-school. It would be nice if it was true, (decided 3 years in advance) was such that Marine Operations: Tool of the Trade”, all but of course, like many such catch-phrases other things like the talk of a double-dip had around 125 attendees. And the two it’s not. recession in USA, or a financial meltdown sessions on Friday afternoon, “Marine in Europe seemed not very significant to our Services & Operations: Special Topics”, and Aristotle said, “it is possible to fail in many registrations. “Project Development & Implementation” ways... while to succeed is possible only in one also attracted audiences of 120~125. way”. To achieve something worthwhile Some Program Highlights you usually do need perseverance and The Roundtable “The Submarine Cable hard work. But among other things The MasterClass Tutorials which were held Environment’s Criticality to Global you also need at least a modicum of on Tuesday 11 May were very well received. Economics” and the “SubOptic Construction skill or talent, preferably with help from In total almost 750 people attended one or Contract Workshop” had almost 250 some other skilled team-members, and more of the seven Tutorials. “The Benefits of attendees in total; and the Roundtable “Over equally importantly you need good luck. Proper Route Engineering, to Mitigate Risk the Horizon: the Future of the Industry” had During the Design Life of Submarine Cable almost the same number. Commenting in early 2010 on why it took Systems” and “Enabling Technologies for the New Orleans Saints 43 years to get to Ultra High Speed Transmission” each The Poster Session on Wednesday afternoon the Super Bowl, Bob Marshall of The Times- attracted over 125 attendees, but the other had over 70 posters, was very well attended, Picayune in Florida USA contended that Tutorials were not far behind in audience and as usual was one of the highlights of “Getting to the big game is one of the hardest numbers. SubOptic. accomplishments in sports because it requires a team to achieve in four areas, only three of which We had 70 oral papers they can control: They need good management, presented in 14 separate good coaching, a handful of good players, and Oral Presentation lots of luck ...” sessions, attended in total by 1,420 I think it’s pretty much the same for audience members. SubOptic as for the Super Bowl. Success is The Wednesday a combination of effort, skill and luck - and session “Global the luck part is always beyond anyone’s Markets: Growth control, except that of the Fates. Opportunities” was standing-room-only Fortunately, on the Program Committee for with over 140 in the 2010 we did have skilled players, we had a audience. lot of good external coaching, and one or more of the Fate sisters must have favoured On Thursday, the us. The volcanic ash which started erupting sessions “Global 28 Keynote Speakers upon his experience in the international community. We were very fortunate to have three exceptional Keynote Speakers for SubOptic Utsumi-san introduced 2010. Keynote speakers can often polarise the us to the ‘magic word’, audience of a conference, and I am delighted sumimasen, which in that we have had wonderful feedback this Japanese means “I am time and it seems that we managed to please sorry” or “excuse me”. most of the audience. But it can also be used w h e n y o u w a n t to say “thank y o u ” .

word “sumimasen” - if we wish to kiss our Further, he explained partner. His advice here was to simply “say that, sumimasen can also nothing”. be used for “please” when you want to invite He talked about how Japanese people are somebody. Or you can often perceived as inclined to group interests use sumimasen when rather than individual interests, and more to you are requested to long-term interests rather than short-term do something and you interests say “no, I cannot”. But surprisingly, you can also Utsumi-san exemplified this by telling Following the formal opening of the use sumimasen when you want to say “yes, us the popular Japanese fairy tale conference by Fiona Beck, and brief I can”. So, in almost any case you can say “Shitakirisuzume”, about a small sparrow, welcome remarks from NEC and Fujitsu, we sumimasen to the Japanese and they will an old man and his wife. In this fairy introduced our first Keynote Speaker. Mr understand you, while in the western world tale, we can see many of the philosophies Yoshio Utsumi, who was the deputy Minister you should clearly say “yes”, or “no”. which are considered to be fundamental of Telecommunication of Japan (1998~1999) virtues of Japanese society: love for the and Secretary General of the ITU in Geneva This, he explained, can be seen as a link to the nature; kindness to others; humility; not from 1999 to 2006, gave a presentation Japanese tradition that “silence is golden”. to be greedy; to wait until you are given; titled “The Inscrutable Japanese”. In it, he People can often understand others without and so on. He then contrasted this tale to gave us a personal insight into some of the hearing words. In this regard, Utsumi-san some common western fairy tales, and the fundamental cultural differences between did caution us that there is one case where he philosophies that they promote or invoke. Japanese and typical western cultures - based imagined we should not use the ‘universal’ 29 Utsumi-san concluded that the differences The Japanese do not talk much, between Japanese and western societies he said. Do not claim much. can largely be attributed to geopolitical Do not show their sentiment differences and the influence of Buddhism. much. They wait until they are given. But they think very Japan is a mountainous island country, much, and they take care of and historically people lived on rice, which others. Only when they judge was produced at rice paddies cultivated by the situation is matured do multiple generations. Intensive farming they take action. They stand up was essential, and the productivity of only after they have pondered farming depended upon the cooperation for a considerable time. When of community members, as well as their they decide to take actions, knowledge and experience of farming - they will carry out their duties which can be shown to lead to a preference perfectly because they are very of group interests rather than individual serious and industrious. Japanese take the position of “as well as” in interests, and long-term interests rather than almost every aspect of their life. short-term interests. In general, in western Though these are all general and broad societies the strongest were the most statements, as someone who lived in Japan Finally, Utsumi-san explained that the successful. But on the other hand, in Japan for almost 14 years, I can attest that they are group philosophies which were essential for good coordinators who could maintain very often correct. survival in an island country, together with order were the most successful. the teaching of Buddhism and Confucianism, In his keynote presentation “Accelerating have developed in Japan a strong sense of Utsumi-san gave us an simple introduction the Future: Telecommunications responsibility called Bushido. Bushido to Buddhism, which was adopted in sixth Tomorrow”, Michael Jones, Google Inc’s stresses benevolence, especially to lower century by Japan’s rulers, primarily to Chief Technology Advocate, gave us some ranking people; honesty to anyone, justice, establish social order and political control. fascinating and very thought-provoking honor, loyalty, rectitude, frugality and self- It brought new theories on government, insights into: sacrifice. The virtues stressed (such as a means to establish strong centralized honesty, honor, self-sacrifice, benevolence, authority, a system of philosophy and ethics, • the value of information in society; etc) can all be linked to the interests of the and advanced new technologies for building, • the role of innovation, ways to think community to which one belonged. painting and sculpture. He talked about the about change in technology, and how fundamental difference between western to build a culture of innovation in Utsumi-san concluded that generally it is not monotheism and Japanese polytheism, any society, government, country, or the distinction or identification of yourself and explained how, in Buddhism, different business; and from others, but rather the harmonization beliefs can coexist side by side, and so the • some often overlooked impacts of with others that the Japanese people Japanese are taught to avoid polarization. high-capacity data networks and consider to be the most important - because The “all embracing” nature which is a submarine cable networks. it was the wisest strategy for survival in the fundamental teaching of Buddhism, has past, and present-day culture is influenced permeated Japanese life so deeply that the Michael talked about information only 30 by that past. being useful when it can be understood. seem huge and all-encompassing, in fact the Using the example of legendary Japanese He explored how new technologies and current total use of the Internet only includes engineer and industrialist, Soichiro applications such as Google Earth can allow 22% of the world’s population. So 78% of Honda, who founded the Honda Motor us to access and understand the earth, to see the people on earth do not have access to the Company, Michael talked about Honda- through the oceans, or see all of the artificial Internet. Aliens visiting Earth for the first san’s pioneering spirit, and his concepts that and natural satellites in the sky - not by time, he suggested, would report back that ‘failure’ is a good thing; you should learn ‘creating information’ but rather by allowing “humans generally do not use the Internet.” from your failures; and you need courage to us to access it beyond the abilities of our make decisions, because the right path often normal senses, in this case human eyesight. Interestingly, at present, in many developing looks to be the wrong one. countries, the mobile phone fills many of the He then talked briefly about the ‘information same information roles economy’ and how it is in many ways that the Internet fills in outside the norms of conventional economic developed countries. theories - for example, in conventional economies value often comes from scarcity, Michael went on to talk but it is not so for the information economy. about uses of information by societies and As a key point in his presentation, he asked governments, and how us to keep in mind that although some of the same information can the statistics we regularly hear - such as be viewed by different 600 million users of Google Earth (which people as a cure or a has only existed for 5 years); and one billion weapon. viewings per day of YouTube - may at first He talked about the fundamentals of change m a n a g e m e n t , and explained in simple terms the Looking at innovation at the organisational mathematics of the ‘random walk’ level, Michael talked about Google’s (which is so pervasive in nature at philosophy of spending 70% of its resources the atomic and molecular level), on its core business, 20% of its resources on which exemplifies the importance ‘wild’ or ‘crazy ideas’ which might lead to of implementing ‘directed change’ development of the business in future, and rather than ‘random change’, and 10% of its resources on things unrelated to ‘thinking about the little things’, if we what Google currently does, but might be are to achieve our goals. We should big business in future. challenge everything, he contended, and ‘progress’ means simplifying not He noted that innovative organisations complicating. usually have a meritocracy. You do not 31 need to have gone to the ‘right’ school be more powerful again. or university in order to succeed or be And he gave us a view of promoted. You need to measure and trust the motivations behind people. But a good person is a good person the World Internet Project, - they have passion, and insight, they care, now involving over 30 they are intelligent and curious, and the countries, as well as many important thing is the ‘books in their head’ of its key conclusions not the ‘books on the shelf’. from the past 10 years of research data. The third keynote presentation, by Jeffrey Cole, Director of the Center for the Digital Jeffrey looked at mass Future, founder of the World Internet Project, media (including and Research Professor at the Annenburg radio, TV, newspapers, School for Communication at the University magazines, movies, and of Southern California, was titled “Falling more) and discussed how Apart & Coming Together: Media & they have adapted over the past decades, He went on to talk about the music business, Consumer Issues in the Digital Age.” and made some predictions about how they and the impact of legal as well as illegal on- may have to adapt in future to technologies line music downloading upon traditional Dr Cole gave us many insights about how such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc in music sales, in the past and in the future. digital technology is changing people’s lives. the future.. He talked about the migration form Radio And then Jeff looked at social networking to Television, the most powerful medium For example, in countries where the Internet and some of its impacts on society and how ever invented so far, and how the web will penetration reaches 30%, then almost always people live their lives. the circulation of traditional printed newspapers declines sharply. Some Finally, Jeff provided a fascinating summary magazine will be adversely affected while of the conclusions which are coming from the some others, for rational reasons, will not. World Internet Project data about teenagers’ behaviours (including 12 to 24 year olds). Television, he predicted, is going to These include, for example that teenagers: ‘escape from the home’ through a proliferation of new technologies such as • will never read a print newspaper Digital TV & Internet on mobile phones. • will read some magazines It will grow exponentially and become • will never own a land-line telephone our ‘constant companion’, at the airport, • will probably never wear a watch; in the aircraft, in the back seat of our car, • will usually not watch TV on a fixed and will supersede the 5 billion mobile program schedule; phones (in voice or text mode) which are • are likely to trust unknown peers our current ‘companions’. more than experts; • are increasingly willing to pay 32 something for on-line digital content; • often have little interest in the source of information; • really believe that they are not affected Awards for Outstanding Papers or influenced by brand; • want to be able to move their content Submarine Telecom Forum sponsored two awards which the Program Committee form platform to platform; decided to present to the authors of an outstanding poster paper, and an • want to be ‘heard’; outstanding oral presentation paper. • think ‘email’ is something that their parents or other ‘old people’ use; Selection was not an easy task. There were many excellent papers on such a wide • have achieved power over reporters or variety of technical and commercial topics that selecting just one poster paper physicians, etc by use of digital media. and one oral paper was a difficult challenge. But we adopted the same criteria for evaluation as we had used during the initial Call for Papers, and selected papers Cyrus Field & the Laying of the First Trans- were: Atlantic Submarine Cable

On Friday morning we had an invited Poster Paper “Trans-Oceanic OADM presentation from Christopher Field who is Networks: Faults & Recovery” by a descendant of Cyrus Field, who pioneered Ekatarina Golovchenko of SubCom the first trans-Atlantic submarine cable (with co-authors Alexy Turukhin, in 1853 to 1858. Chris’ presentation was Adnan Akhtar, & Stuart Abbott); also very well received. It included many wonderful old images of the period, and was able to give us an insight into the personality and the “will to succeed against all odds” of his ancestor, Cyrus Field. Listening to the problems that this first trans-Atlantic cable suffered, some of us in the audience were and, Oral Paper “What’s Cooking for surely thinking how some things have not Submarine Networks ?” by Laurie changed even in over 150 years. Doyle of Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks. Conference Proceedings and Presentations Congratulations again to Ekatarina In line with previous conferences we will and Laurie, and also to all of our also be arranging to put the Conference authors for 2010 for the high standard of papers submitted. Proceedings and the actual presentations onto our website, www.suboptic.org in the late autumn of 2010. This will give everybody in the industry the opportunity to see what they have missed. 33 Your Feedback well as many personal tasks which were put sessions, which is such and enjoyable and ‘on-hold’ over that period), I am preparing important part of SubOptic. At the next I am as guilty as anyone at not filling in to personally thank as many as I can in the SubOptic, I can promise that without the the post-conference feedback forms after I near future. formal responsibilities, I intend to by a attend a conference - we are all busy and in normal registrant who participates, enjoys, a hurry to get back home and to our normal To avoid a very long list I will not make a list networks, and learns along with the other job functions – and to and catch up on the of names here, but I do want to express my attendees! dreaded email backlog etc. But please very sincere thanks to everyone who helped, remember that SubOptic is “by the industry” including: Colin Anderson has been and for “the industry.” So I encourage you involved in the international to help the Executive Committee and future • the professional teams in the host t e l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n s Program Committees to mould the next organisations, NEC & Fujitsu; networks industry for over SubOptic events in a way which satisfies • our Keynote and Guest Speakers; 20 years, and has held a range you the industry members, by giving your • all of the authors, co-authors & of marketing and engineering feedback about what we could have done presenters of papers and posters; roles in the areas of terrestrial optical better and what you would like to see more • the Abstract Review team members; networks and digital radio networks, before of or less of at future SubOptic conferences. • the presenters and panellists of entering the submarine networks industry, It can be by the official forms or by direct all of the MasterClass Tutorials, where he has played a significant role in the email to John Horne, covering many parts Roundtables & Workshops; design, bidding, award, and implementation of the conference or just one or two, and • the conference organising teams in of many international submarine cable attributed or anonymous - it’s up to you. ICS and JTB; projects - among them SEA-ME-WE 3, But all feedback will be appreciated, and • the Strategic Advisers to the Program Southern Cross, Japan-US, FNAL, SEA-ME- will be seriously considered. Committee; WE 4, FLAG FEA, AJC, AAG, & Unity. • my colleagues and friends on the Thanks Program Committee for SubOptic 2010; During the closing ceremony of SubOptic 2010, I was thanked for the Program and anyone else that I have unintentionally Committee’s effort and success in developing omitted above. It was my pleasure and the program for 2010. Unfortunately I privilege to work with all of you over the didn’t find an opportunity to formally thank past 3 years, and I sincerely thank you for the many people who helped me and the your contribution to making the conference Program Committee to make the conference the success that it was. a success. During the event itself I was like a frog on a I am now catching my breath after the past hotplate, darting from place to place, and so 2 years of hard work, and trying to get back I’m sorry that I did not get any opportunities into my normal marketing and business to actually relax and participate in the development job activities with NEC (as friendly networking outside of the formal 34 On Issue #51 What was interesting to note that one of the authors (The article Wayne, about Japanese) and mine also do I'm so impressed with the quality share a nationalistic feel for being of thought and content that goes part of the solution, specially into your Forum. when the three top companies from India: Tata, Reliance Globalcom and Stephen Miller Bharti Airtel do have the money and can build expertise if they really ***** want to. As given in the Pacnet article above one good thing is Dear Editor, there would be more connectivity I enjoyed enormously STF issue 51, and hopefully more landing stations especially the historical submarine leading to cheaper and faster cable articles. I am an end-user of broadband connectivity throughout. your product (an average broadband user) but also deeply interested I will be trying to see if I can get mostly in the social implications hands on the two previous issues that broadband connectivity on you did this year (January and various groups and businesses. I March) as I'm sure they would be am also highly aware how empowered equally interesting. At the end, communities can potentially get kudos and keep up the good work. with better broadband connectivity options. One interesting book on Regards, the subject which I am sure you are Shirish Agarwal also aware which has been there on the subject are Telecosm: The World After Bandwidth Abundance and Microcosm: The Quantum Revolution In Economics And Technology both by acclaimed writer George Gilder.

I come from India where we haven't yet had a good broadband play. I also have ranted on the situation faced here in one of my blog posts http://flossexperiences.wordpress. com/2010/05/06/hosting-from-home/ or http://bit.ly/bCVNDW. 35 Suriname to Guyana

36 Jas Dhooper he 1,249-kilometer Suriname Guyana-Submarine Cable system T(SG-SCS) recently installed by the JV, GMSL and HMN for Telesur & GT&T is an advanced telecommunications network aiming not only to provide sufficient bandwidth and digital communications capabilities, but also enhance communications between two developing nations. It also represents a common binding goal for their citizens, governments and economies. Two like minded organizations in South America; GT&T in Guyana and Telesur in Suriname are laying the foundations for the people of each nation that will positively impact the growth and development of their telecommunications sector and consequently expand the growth and development of the economic and social wellbeing of the region as a whole. South America is set to be an emerging growth, and neighboring Brazil is already home to active financial trading community As has been shown in Telecommunications infrastructure plays Communication: Modern networks allow many developing areas an important role in the roll out of ICT for easy, reliable, low cost voice, video and and acts as an enabler to enhance regional internet communications with the rest of around the world, modern skills, competitiveness and economic the world, making global communications t e l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n s growth. In conjunction with the provision accessible to almost everyone for both of educational programs to enable the business and personal use. technology, when paired young to play a part in the transformation with proper education, this can be of real value to a society, Education: Access to the Internet (IP whilst being aided by the application of Networking), allows teachers and training and economic internet hubs, or touch points for the local students to receive instruction, skills and community. access to information at the press of a development opportunities button. This provides a baseline to drive can be a source of significant Some key benefits of these initiatives are local knowledge and awareness into the benefit to citizens. listed below: home through last mile technologies, so 37 everyone can access the internet. SG-SCS Submarine Fibre Communications System

Each building block was designed and engineered so as to ensure the best match against quality, design and delivery, underpinned by extensive quality testing. The end result of this intensive work was to give birth to the system components and a developed manufacturing process for future systems. The process is of course an iterative one, and tasked with delivering a complex solution, one always has a watchful eye to inspect every aspect of the build cycle for continuous improvements, learnings and risk management. Like all aspects of design and build, it’s the methodology and adherence to quality that ensures each element is connected in the final system configuration, and when powered all the lights are glowing green.

But those that have worked in the submarine market know that when at sea not all variables can be controlled as easily as one would wish or think. So any It’s a combination effect that drives such system design, cable and equipment mishap often takes a few days to resolve communities to enhance technology at the supplier, marine, land cable, beach man- or even longer, particularly when bad ground level to drive home these aspects. hole works, cable landing station build weather comes into play. It’s a fact of life Coupled with Governmental initiatives and of course network management that most in the marine sector consider to and investment, the foundation of SG-SCS integration. With three shore ends, 17 be normal! cable system can really make a difference optical repeaters, a system branching in an expanding and growing region. unit, the building blocks of the system The section of cable installed into Trinidad, were manufactured together with optical being a direct shore end connection, was The SG-SCS Journey fibre cable supplied by Nexans, based in laid with few challenges and connected to an existing cable landing station The scope of the project under the ‘turnkey’ Norway. (Columbus Networks) as the interface for umbrella was to provide everything from 38 onwards international connectivity. the region also experiences rainy seasons.

Trinidad on the other hand was a direct shore end and marked the start of the system lay towards Guyana. Marine operations were undertaken by GMSL’s CS Sovereign (pictured laying out the system cable above) – she is a state-of- the-art cable laying vessel, with previous history in almost all the oceans and seas in the world.

The Challenges GMSL Cable ship Sovereign laying shore end at Trinidad The turn-key solution relied upon the expertise of many different teams and key Pre-laid shore ends were installed in personnel, and at times several activities Suriname (18km) and Guyana (2.2km) ran concurrently. This occurred through ahead of the main lay installation works, every stage of the process and even when meaning that one key aspect of the project there were some customer variations, had been completed – Landing the system such as new capacity or diverse land cable ashore. The local teams in Totness and routing, the teams were able to adapt their Georgetown enabled the operations to plans to incorporate any changes within progress well. The supportive nature of the project timescales. the local customer’s engineers played a Taking a hands-on approach at every stage critical role, and helped to overcome any of the project, now where’s that cable? This is no easy task as many will know, complications. it takes a certain mindset and skill to Heavy rain and hot sunshine during the juggle variables and still manage to installations provided opportunity for the conclude in line with project deliverables. install team to take mud baths, particularly A partnership approach with Telesur and during cable pulling activity into the beach GT&T made the process more productive man hole position. Simple operations are and brought to the table a supportive and often delayed when bad weather sets in, productive environment for the team. so the teams were able to enjoy the local cultural aspects and warm sun of this region. As a close neighbor of the Amazon, Simplified supply chain for delivery model

39 Make no mistake; turnkey delivery is not The snake was of particular interest in that easy, but ensuring a team performs and it appeared to have a rather large lump in maintains transparency fundamentally the middle. Coincidentally the little dog builds a trusted and robust customer was never seen again! relationship. This takes time, but in the end, it forms a key success factor in the The Application of New Technology overall service delivery process and a solid The beauty of using new technology in foundation for future work. Each element a well established market is that one can of delivering a turnkey solution includes take a good look at what the customer sub contractor management, potential needs rather than providing outdated delays due to weather & application of technology. This paves the way to create various management techniques, (PMI some market disruption and innovative principles, six sigma, etc). This requires A relaxing time during pre-laid shore end solutions. Maybe size does matter? extensive experience, detailed analysis, work and inspection in Georgetown intuitive knowledge and some luck. The • Provide an innovative repeater planning tools are useful at some stages, During the shore end operations we came design optimized to simplify but real experience comes into play during across some interesting challenges. Some the marine installation the execution phase, especially during locals asked for assistance in searching for process based upon proven the difficult stages when there are many a dog that had gone missing near the beach UJ technology easy to load, transport and bury concurrent activities or recovery plans in works. One of the interesting aspects of place. And if you think that all is going working in South America, is dealing with • The opportunity for slim line well, and that there is time to relax, then the long snakes as pictured below which design and enhance reliability that is a wakeup call to take another look are often found in close proximity to the (component reliability has and ask some critical questions. Unless of area around the cable landing station. improved significantly over course its Provisional Acceptance day - the past years), long-life lasers A visitor to the cable landing station, then a little rest is well earned! and proper pump redundancy Totness Suriname • Ensure key end user functionality for Service providers is build into the equipment, making Operational aspects simpler for lifecycle management

40 Key parameters of the repeater: years and it seems a natural progression for repeater design to follow in this way. • Bandwidth 35nm Most advancements in terminal equipment • Capable of nx40G, nx10G, and have been driven by demand from capability to mix 40G and 10G terrestrial network improvements geared channels towards increased capacity per wave and additional functionality. One key aspect • Compact slim line housing design the technology has majored on is having in- • Pump failure protection & Surge built COTDR capability. What the end user protection has here, illustrated below is the capability to monitor the submarine ‘wet’ plant both The 1650 Branching unit followed this in service and out of service and add in concept of a compact structure, small body performance measurements to monitor with 25 year service life as to ensure system the system and trigger an alarm should performance meets SG-SCS requirements. they be exceeded. Adding such capability Being based upon Universal JointingTM technology, the 1650 BU can be adapted aids the monitoring of the network and to be used in powered and un-powered enables the Network Operations Centre to scenarios – and even for insertion into setup appropriate alarm screens knowing existing systems. that the NMS has their interest at heart, every second of the day. Product lifecyle is an interesting aspect of subsea telecommunications. Cable design has significantly changed over the past 10 41 Adding the final touches in CLS Key functions of the SLTE: Georgetown, Guyana Multiple Services Access

 2.5G/10G/40G SDH/SONET/ OTN

 GE, 10GE

Excellent Equipment Performance

 10G SuperDRZ/10G DPSK and 40G eDQPSK coding technologies with good OSNR and nonlinear tolerance

COTDR example and application  Tunable dispersion compensation

The beauty really resides in the integration  G.823 Jitter & Wander compliant process, after all it’s the person in the NOC that would really like a simplified view  EDFA Pump 1+1 redundant and in to manage the network and possess the service replaceable. right integrated tools for fault finding.  1*E1 data channel per Transponder Simplifying the operational aspects are a key factor to driving down the complexity  Advanced cascaded FEC of managing this type of submarine cable technologies with 9 dB coding gain system. Small touches really make a big impact to end users!

Final inspection time at CLS Totness, 42 Suriname Are we there yet? With the delights of the midnight sun during summertime (very little darkness, With the building blocks in place, unless the curtains are shut tight) and only integration work followed which was the about 2-3 hours daylight during winter final stage for the team ahead of the marine months, coupled with snow and very low operations that would place the cable and temperatures, it all adds an interesting repeaters on the seabed. The journey now dimension to cable loading activities. That extended to the world’s most northern said, it is an amazing place to work and cable manufacturing facility, located on a very peaceful, with good opportunities for latitude/longitude of 67° 6’ 0” N / 15° 23’ fishing. 0” E being the Nexans cable factory based in Rognan. In November, the residents of As loading operations began, the The 1st Repeater leaves cable ship the first town north of the Arctic Circle, and advantages of repeater sizes almost a tenth Sovereign, under the watchful eyes of the the gateway to the Polar regions, awoke to of the industry norm became apparent. crew find a rather large cable vessel moored up Loading a fully integrated repeater took alongside their quay. no more than 2 hours each, saving almost four days from a typical system loading GMSL Cable Vessel Sovereign alongside schedule. in Norway

Main lay operations now well under way, on board Soveriegn

43 Closing remarks Jas Dhooper has 20 years Engineering honors degree from London experience within the University and has published several Our journey began during early 2009 Submarine & Service papers in the field of Telecommunications and was completed during the month of Provider sectors, currently and held technical positions on May 2010, combining some great team serving as VP Service International conference bodies and a work across ASIA, UK, US and Norway. Delivery Office for Huawei Chartered member of the IEEE. The combination of a multicultural team, Marine Networks (HMN) in China. He has supportive customers and a desire to drive gained significant experience in large scale for success, made this an exciting venture. telecommunications project delivery of Thanks go to many members of the team optical submarine systems and delivered and their hard work. many multi-million dollar projects in a The road to market credibility has begun number of countries. He was employed by and opportunity for customers to have STC Submarine systems in the late 1980’s, an alternative submarine cable system which consolidated into Alcatel Submarine provider is now a reality. We remain Systems in the 1990’s. He was involved grateful to Telesur and GT&T to have in a number of the major transatlantic placed their trust in us and the great submarine systems both in a development support from the parents of the joint role and in delivery, including time on venture that created the enterprise that is: cable ships. Jas also has held a number of Huawei Marine Networks (HMN). senior management & technical positions in the operator side, working for Cable & Wireless and Interoute Communications since the mid-1990s. Jas holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA),

44 45 Main One Cable Will Revolutionise Telecom

46 Tayo Adelaja s the public lauds the activation 1.92 terabit of data to its clients. As Main communications, agriculture and of Main One submarine fiber One becomes fully functional, expectation banking.” optic cable which effectively remains extremely high that it will usher A In education, it is expected, according to went live on July 1, telecoms operators the country into a new era in modern and other stakeholders are excited about communication. Dr Yomi Oscar, Department of Education, the immense impact that it will have in Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago- the telecommunications and the entire The President, Institute of Software Iwoye, “With the switching on of Main business sector in Nigeria. Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), Mr. One in July, broadband should reduce Chris Uwaje, said: “You will agree with me the marginalisation that has for so long While telecom users await sweeping that because our bandwidth is low, cost of paralysed our system. And if the proper changes in the way they experience internet services in the country have been mechanisms are put into place, we just multi-layered communication on existing high with poor performance. The tariff is might be able to achieve a more equitable platforms, operators say the arrival of high because of the cable we are using at delivery of educational services allowing Main One is set to help them drive down present. We are predominantly a wireless us to improve national and global costs, resulting in drastic cuts in tariffs for nation. This is why our tariff is high.” competitiveness. It will impact distance internet connectivity and international learning to the point where I presume calls. Speaking on the aspiration of Nigerians, universities in Nigeria will partner with Mr. Ike Ekweremadu, an ISP provider schools and Nigerians in the Diaspora in an The Corporate Services Executive, MTN enthusiastically said, “It will kindle effort to obtain and retain a qualified and Nigeria, Mr Wole Goodluck, said activation prosperity because it will allow fast, diverse repository of educators. Distance of the fiber optic cables will impact the cost effective, and reliable international learning will enable Nigerian students to telecom services and bring down the cost calls as well as access to the internet at connect, participate, collaborate, and share incurred at present by operators and by unprecedented and revolutionary speeds. educational and cultural experiences extension to the telecom users. Said he: This access to huge bandwidth and cheaper with other classrooms across the global “With the activation of the submarine fiber rates that it is expected to bring to Nigeria spectrum.” optic cables, there will be a reduction in will empower every sector including, the cost of bandwidth, and the reduction but not limited to education, On her part, the CEO of Main One, Funke in the cost of bandwidth will improve h e a l t h , b u s i n e s s , Opeke, assured that even in the health quality and drive down Internet prices. n a t i o n a l s e c u r i t y, sector, Telemedicine, online diagnosis, There will also be an improvement in the and video conferencing during surgery international voice calls. I am confident and research which will be as a result of that the landing of the optic fiber cables the take-off will provide opportunities will bring down tariff of internet and for Nigerians to receive better and timely international voice calls.” healthcare. She added, “In the business sector, Nigeria will have the capacity The activation of the fiber optic cables to engage in electronic commerce by Main One Cable Company will activities with African countries force down user rates with a more as well as Western countries. efficient link, delivering up to The security sector will benefit 47 from real-time information and engage for the requisite survey and operational One is about to birth. Solomon Asamoah in information sharing and collaboration permits. Among other activities, it also of African Finance Corporation is of the that will facilitate law enforcement. applied for and successfully obtained belief that, “As for foreign investment, Communications system in Nigeria will the first ever submarine cable landing many companies will want to ‘get a improve, becoming faster, reliable and licenses to be issued in Nigeria and piece of the pie’; that is take advantage cheaper. The agricultural sector will benefit Ghana, respectively. Main One obtained of the opportunities that Main One Cable from e-agriculture and m-agriculture; the necessary marine survey permits in Company broadband provides. And this farmers will have media through which January 2009 and commenced marine route will facilitate employment opportunities they can market their products in order to survey operations afterwards. In May, it in Nigeria.” That, it appears, is a view get a fair price. The banking industry will began cable manufacturing alongside the shared by businesses eagerly awaiting this be able to provide online banking which manufacture of Repeater Assemblies. By revolution. will facilitate e-commerce in Nigeria. June, Main One had concluded its marine The government will be able to develop survey operations. It also commenced the Tayo Adelaja writes a robust, scalable, and interoperable construction of its cable landing stations for African Interest(An E-government infrastructure that will in Accra, Ghana and Lagos, respectively American Media House), be used as a tool to improve public based on designs earlier sourced in was formerly with The service delivery. This e-government March and finalized in May. In Seixal, Guardian and The Sun infrastructure will provide an interface Portugal where the cable terminates, it is Newspaper of Nigeria for the development of the public sector, landing in an existing cable station with (at different timeas Correspondent and and the development of strategies VSNL. Still in June, the post survey route Senior Correspondent respectively.He is a to integrate those marginalised from was reviewed and the final cable route, member of the Nigeria Union of Journalist national initiatives. Information-sharing engineered. Very importantly, Main One with about two decades of practice as a will be enhanced thereby strengthening Cable Company secured commitments for journalist transparency and accountability through all of the $240million (two hundred and online reports, interactive debates, and forty US Dollars), required to fully fund public access to information.” the first phase of the project. The Phase Two of the project is expected to extend to Reflectively, the Chairman of Main One, South Africa. Fola Adeola said,” The Main One project began in 2008 when we carried out all Eventually, not only Nigerians will benefit 48 necessary desk-top research and applied from the widespread progress that Main 49 Back Reflection by Stewart Ash & Kaori Shikinaka Submarine Cable Ploughing of no more than 10 inches (25cm) would the 1976 East China Sea Cable (ECSC). The be practicable, given the tow forces that equipment used was a multi blade plough, Since the advent of fibre optic technology, would be necessary. In 1938, this plow was developed by the KDDI group and towed the burial of submarine systems on deployed from the Cable Ship Lord Kelvin by the KDD Maru. It was capable of a continental shelves to protect against off the coast of Ireland to bury sections burial depth 60 – 70 cm, in water depths external aggression has become of three of Western Union’s transatlantic down to 200 metres. This PLOW was also ubiquitous. However, in an industry that telegraph cables. used during the laying operations for the th celebrates its 160 birthday in August this Okinawa - Taiwan cable in 1979, Japan - year, simultaneous lay and plough (plow) Another 20 years was to pass before, due Korea and Kuantan – Kuchin in 1980 and burial is a relatively young technology. to the number of faults caused by fishing, the MST cables in 1982. For the majority of the telegraph and to TAT-1 (1956) and TAT-2 (1959) on the telephony eras, cables were surface laid eastern continental self of the USA, it By the early 1980’s, fibre optic technology and external aggression was managed became apparent to the system owners was promising system owners an unheard by heavy armour cable protection and that some improved form of protection of increase in cable system capacity. At network diversity. was necessary. From the early 1960’s, the same time, commercial fishing was Bell Labs, on behalf of AT&T, developed becoming more intensive; trawlers were Although a number of attempts to bury a series of plough systems (Sea Plow I to getting larger and were operating in submarine telegraph cables on the UK V) which were used in the 60’s and 70’s greater water depths. This combination continental shelf were made in the early to bury AT&T’s transoceanic telephone made system security an increasingly th part of the 20 Century, it is general cables. These plough designs, owed much significant consideration. In the UK, accepted that it was the Western Union to the Western Union plow, they produce British Telecom International (now BT) Telegraph Company that was the first an open trench of 24 inches (60cm), and conducted a thorough investigation into company to develop a viable ship-towed could operate to water depths of 500m. the risks to submarine cables for external cable plow. By the end of the 1930’s, Western aggression in the English Channel, North Union had completed development of its In the Far East, the first ploughing of a Sea and on the Atlantic Continental Shelf. 50 design and concluded that a trench depth long haul submarine cable took place on They concluded that: without cutting it. In the same year, KDDI into water depths of 1,500m and, where modified its existing PLOW system, in conditions allow, ploughing in even 1. It was uneconomic to bury cable to order to increase its burial capability to 1.5 greater water depths has been achieved. protect against anchor faults metres. This improved system was first 2. Subject to soil strength, a burial used to enhance the burial protection for depth of 600mm was sufficient to the ECSC system. give good protection against all From 1987, BT Marine and C&W Marine know fishing techniques. were equipped with SMD ploughs and, in 3. Burial should be carried out down 1992, KDDI introduced the SMD designed to the 1,000m contour. and manufactured PLOW-I. All these companies were then capable of 1 meter From this study BT, in collaboration with burial to water depths of 1,000 metres. By Soil Machine Dynamics (SMD), developed 2000, this plough design, had became the a new design of ship towed plough. This de-facto industry standard. plough was successfully sea trialled in early 1986 and was first used to install Over the last 10 years, though SMD in the historic UK-Belgium No. 5 system the UK, and companies like Perry Tritech the same year. The plough design was Inc. in the USA, development of plough a major step forward from the Sea Plow technology has advance even further. designs, solving a number of technical Today we have 1, 1.5, 2 & 3 metre burial drawbacks, such as cable residual tension, ploughs, plus jet assisted and rock ripping catenary management, ability to steer ploughs. Ploughing on the edge of and self loading/unloading of the cable continental shelves regularly takes place

51 Submarine Networks World Africa 2010 12-15 July 2010 Johannesburg, South Africa Conferences www.terrapinn.com/2010/submarineza/ Submarine Networks World 2010 12-14 October 2010 Singapore www.terrapinn.com/2010/submarine/

Offshore Communications World 28-29 September 2010 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia www.terrapinn.com/2010/ofc/

Optical Transmission Vision APAC 11-13 October 2010 Novotel Clarke Quays, Singapore www.otv-apac.com/

Offshore Communications 2010 2-4 November 2010 Houston, Texas www.offshorecomms.com/

Pacific Telecommunications Council 16-19 January 2011 Honolulu, Hawaii www.ptc.org

52 My dear Friend from South Africa, They laughed loudly when I commented, “Eh, gentlemen are you dreaming of a possible Letter to a I lost the North! Columbus 4?” I heard in the noise of the crowd “Japan-Netherlands” and “South Korea- I recently attended the retirement party of Germany,” obviously referring to the rebirth Friend a good friend of mine. The participants, all of an Asia-Europe cable concept. This recently members of the submarine cable in various announced project would take the shorter roles and positions, were mostly French, but northern route, the polar route, now open also British and Italian. Talking to someone, thanks to climate change. a glass in my hand, I could hear a group of engineers a few meters from me chatting about Still a long way to go, I commented to myself. Africa and mentioning “France-South Africa.” Someone came up to me, “Hi Jean, I suppose This sounded natural to me since ACE’s C&MA you’re not too happy with the French Team.” and supply contract had just been executed a Suddenly I realized that they were all chatting few days before at the Eiffel Tower: a 17000 Km about the world cup running in South Africa! project which will connect 23 countries, some Stupid old man that I was, I was hearing only for the very first time (namely Mauritania, what I wanted to hear. Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sao Tomé and Principe, Equatorial Guinea), it was As I sat at home that evening, slightly crestfallen, very logical for such an event to be the subject my mobile phone rang. of exciting conversation within our community. South Africa has also been at the heart of our “Hi Bernard.” Bernard is one of my best clients, activity with projects such as WASC, Main One, regularly seeking my advice. EASSy, and Seacom. “Jean, “Greece-Libya,“ does that ring a bell to Walking around here and there, shaking the you?” hands of the many people I knew, enjoying “Oh no Bernard, I have lost interest in this World the friendly atmosphere, I passed by a group Cup!” of Marine people based in the UK who were clearly speaking of “USA-England“ and also “What has happened to you Jean? I am speaking “Germany-England.“ They were guessing, I of a real cable project.” supposed, about the possible dates for these very high capacity projects. “Sorry Bernard, I will investigate.” I accepted a few more glasses of champagne I decided that it was time to sleep at the end of and ate some more cheese toasts, happy to see day not to remember. and hear all of these people so dedicated to and enthusiastic about our business. My dear friend from down under, I have lost the North. I ended up saying hello to two of my former Italian colleagues, interrupting their chat in their mother language. I had recognized 53 “Italy-Mexico” and also “Argentina-Spain.” by Jean Devos Advertisers Index ISSN 1948-3031 Issue Themes: Global Marine Systems www.globalmarinesystems.com 7

January: Regional Outlook Huawei Marine Networks www.huaweimarine.com 45 March: Finance & Legal Nexans www.nexans.com 13 May: Subsea Capacity OFS www.ofsoptics.com 4 July: Subsea Technology September: Offshore Energy WFN Strategies www.wfnstrategies.com 49 November: Defense & Non-traditional Xtera www.xtera.com Cable Systems 17

Advertising enquiries:

Sales Coordinator Kristian Nielsen Tel: +1 (703) 444-0845 Email: [email protected]

Sales Representative, Europe & AFRICA Wilhelm Sicking Tel: 0201-779861 Email: [email protected]

Sales Representative, North & Central America Ben Skidmore Tel: +1 (972) 587-9064 Email: [email protected] Episode 5: Global Marine Systems Sales Representative, Asia Pacific Michael Yee Tel: +65 9616 8080 LISTEN TO US ON iTUNES Email: [email protected] KEYWORD: SUBTEL FORUM 54 Copyright © 2010 WFN Strategies by Kevin G. Summers

his June, I said goodbye to one where she lives. During my long trek everywhere except for at my house. As he generation and hello to another, all down I-81, I got to thinking about the grows, Roland will have the opportunity Tin the space of a few weeks. many changes that have taken place in the to communicate globally in a way that my years since my grandmother was born. grandmother never could have imagined While the rest of my staff traveled to and when she was growing up in rural from Yokohama for SubOptic, I stayed In 1917, the world was witnessing the Mississippi. in Virginia to be with my wife, who was dying throes of the telegraph, and at the expecting our third child. I'm happy to same time, the inception of the telephone. The question is, what will he do with that announce that our son, Roland Summers, Numerous telegraph cables stretched opportunity? was born on June 15th. across the world's oceans, but submarine telephone cables were still more than a Within a couple decade away. Meanwhile, the need for Congratulations of weeks of global communications was becoming Roland's birth, increasingly important, as the world was to Geun-Chang Lee who won an iPod I got a call that embroiled in the First World War. Touch after leaving a business card in my 93-year old our SubOptic iPod drawing g r a n d m o t h e r Ninety-three years later, the world had taken a turn is moving at light speed. Fiber optic for the worse. It was with a heavy heart cables crisscross the globe, and the air is that I made the lonely drive to Tennessee, bombarded with wireless signals. Well,

55 What do you think? Click on the Letter To The Editor icon and drop me a line. I’d love to hear from you.