Third Undersea Cable Cut 655
Many readers are reporting that another undersea fiber optic cable has been cut, apparently caused by another wayward anchor. It looks like Iran has completely lost Internet connectivity."
Factorials were someone's attempt to make math LOOK exciting.
Iran hasn't lost connectivity (Score:5, Informative)
Iran hasn't lost connectivity, the specific router that Internet Traffic Report is checking has lost connectivity.
Even the University that hosts the router that ITR is checking is still up: http://www.iust.ac.ir/ [iust.ac.ir]
Re:Can anyone enlighten me? (Score:2, Informative)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7222536.stm [bbc.co.uk]
Re:Can anyone enlighten me? (Score:5, Informative)
Includes a nice picture, and description of each layer.
Here's the picture link directly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Submarine_cable_cross-section_3D_plain.svg [wikipedia.org]
Re:Can anyone enlighten me? (Score:5, Informative)
The first cable - the Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe (FLAG) - was cut at 0800 on 30 January, the firm said.
INSIDE A SUBMARINE CABLE
cable infographic
1 Polyethylene cover
2,4 Stranded steel armour wires
3,5 Tar-soaked nylon yarn
6 Polycarbonate insulator
7 Copper sheath
8 Protective core
9 Optical fibres
Not to scale
A second cable thought to lie alongside it - SEA-ME-WE 4, or the South East Asia-Middle East-West Europe 4 cable - was also split.
FLAG is a 28,000km (17,400 mile) long submarine communications cable that links Australia and Japan with Europe via India and the Middle East.
SEA-ME-WE 4 is a submarine cable linking South East Asia to Europe via the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East.
The two cable cuts meant that the only cable in service connecting Europe to the Middle East via Egypt was the older Sea-M-We 3 system, according to research firm TeleGeography.
It's amazing that a ship's anchor could have the strength to pull apart two layers of stranded steel armour wires, a layer of copper, kevlar layers, and three polyethylene layers.
Silence at last! (Score:4, Informative)
All my co-workers phones aren't ringing off the hook with callers trying to subscribe them to worthless trade publications today (very likely a coincidence, but it sounds good anyway). So, now we know how to really stop all those nagging calls from people with really poor english on a noisy connection. Then again, so goes many of the tech support and customer service lines, too.
Re:Iran has completely lost Internet connectivity? (Score:3, Informative)
Yeah I know you're a troll but I don't care.
Re:Shallow seas (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Third cut? (Score:5, Informative)
I hope that people who have seen Star Wars think it's funny. I'm sorry if I offended you.
I don't support my country's Middle East policy, for the record.
Re:Third cut? (Score:4, Informative)
Who the hell thinks this comment is funny? "
Lighten up Francis [youtube.com]. It's a quote from Star Wars, Episode 1.
chances? (Score:3, Informative)
Seriously, what are the chances of this?
Re:How to tap the cable (Score:3, Informative)
Re:How to tap the cable (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Third cut? do i smell Conspiracy BS? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Third cut? (Score:3, Informative)
It's not that ship anchors have become more dangerous, it's that humans have become more careless.
Re:Shallow seas (Score:2, Informative)
Then realize that *your* recent memory isn't a very good thing to base odds on. Better to search.
This one particularly stands out from my top-of-the-head recollection: http://whirlpool.net.au/article.cfm/388 [whirlpool.net.au]
There has been at least one major undersea cable disruption ever year of this decade. Either maintenance accidents, shipping accidents, earthquakes....
Re:How to tap the cable (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Proposal for special +10 brilliant rating (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Third cut? (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Third cut? (Score:5, Informative)
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today
I wish that man would go away.
Hugh Means (1875 - 1965)
paranoia (Score:4, Informative)
There's one other possibility: the companies who own the networks are leasing glass from each other and there's really only one cable. For example, Level3 (lvlt) builds a network. Since it expensive to build out, they trade glass with whoever may have dark fiber available (often times telcos). It shows up on the books as theirs, but really it maintained by a telco. Happens all the time in the US.
Re:Accidental/occidental (Score:3, Informative)
I've seen 7 rolled 12 times in a row.
It is known that randomness tends to be clumpy.
The US has no interest in cutting those cable and it make no sense for them to do so.
Now something might be going on. Sure, but lets not be jumping to wild speculation.
Re:WHat? are you serious? (Score:3, Informative)
You can't prove the positive either. You can only infer one hypothesis or the other based on testing each, arriving at a refined hypothesis through the process of elimination. In science, we call that "science".
One must formulate a hypothesis before anyone can test it. If I postulate, I have no responsibility to show evidence of such postulation--other people can do that. If they are wise, they will consider this possibility here, or risk more cables getting cut through mechanisms they have chosen to ignore.
Let us consider the facts here. For as many years as I know of, no cable has been cut. Lets think about the probabilities. We'll assume one cable is cut per 1500 days (< 5 yrs) on accident. So, on any given day, the probability is 1/1500 assuming its just another day at the beach (so to speak). Now, I have read about 3 cables being cut in as many days. We can use binomial probability to determine our expectation for 3 cables being cut in just your ordinary average year: 0.0018. How about an ordinary average week? 1.034e-8. Ok, the latter was a pretty improbable event, wouldn't you agree? How about your ordinary average stretch of 3 days?
So you are going to tell me that its even less likely that the cables were cut by one nation or organization acting maliciously to achieve some end?
[Tinny voice sounding like you]You know what, actually I think the terrorists who hijacked the planes on 911 were not colluding with each other--but I am exempt from proving this because "you can't prove the negative".[/Tinny voice] Do you see how idiotic you sound?
We knew to look for colluding terrorists after 911 because three improbable events (planes running into buildings) happened closely in time. Do you see the similarities, or are you going to assert that its just a coincidence?
Re:Third cut? (Score:2, Informative)
For systems with built-in redundancy, you might question the odds, of a complete failure.
When talking about foreign nations whose leaders have antagonistic personal or ideological relationships, I also tend to be less willing to assume the worst. More than enough of that goes on without my help, for my liking. I might turn out to be wrong, but if inaction is incorrectly taken until more solid information is available, no harm is done. Making the opposite mistake is a more serious matter.
Have a great day!