The severing of two undersea cables illustrate the importance of redundant systems, said Vishal Sharma, principal consultant and technologist at Metanoia, a communications consultancy firm. The most immediate solution is to use satellite technologies to reroute traffic. The problem, though, is the bandwidth capabilities are limited, making it an imperfect solution.
Increase Customer Sales with VerticalResponse Email Marketing! Quickly and easily send email newsletters, coupons & sales announcements to your customers – no technical expertise needed. Sign up for your Free Trial today and send 100 emails on us!
Severe Internet and phone service outages hit Egypt and India Wednesday after two submarine cable communication lines were severed.
Submarine cable lines are the main connection lines for Internet service providers (ISPs) and telephony companies. The two lines that connect Egypt sit just off the coast of Alexandria. They were severed at approximately 6 a.m. local time. The accidents knocked out Internet connections throughout 70 percent of the country and international calls throughout 30 percent of the country, according to the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.
India had nearly 50 percent of its capacity knocked offline, although its ISPs were able to reroute traffic through a backup system in the Pacific, said Vishal Sharma, principal consultant and technologist at Mountain View-based Metanoia, a communications consultancy firm.
The Line Lowdown
The accidents illustrate the importance of redundant systems, Sharma said. The most immediate solution is to use satellite technologies to reroute traffic. The problem, though, is the bandwidth capabilities are limited, making it an imperfect solution.
Instead, redundancy plans usually need to be in place while the initial lines are being laid. There are some private firms that specialize in laying cable, but typically submarine cables are laid by an international consortia consisting of ISPs, governments and other interested service providers since the cost is so steep.
The only way to ensure connectivity is to have two separate lines. The cables can be laid in two ways: pairs or rings.
Most major systems in the Atlantic and Pacific are pairs that contain two cable ducts, each which may contain a multitude of cables, Sharma said. The ISPs then either use one cable for all the traffic, keeping the second in reserve; or they can split capacity on each cable, re-routing to one cable in an emergency.
The other option is to lay the cable in a ring shape around a geographic region, connected nodes -- such as Guam, Singapore and China -- both to each other and the outer loop. This creates a networked configuration, which allows traffic to be re-routed through the loop if one node happens to be severed, Sharma said.
The Fix
There has been no definitive answer for how the cables were cut. Initial reports of a ship's anchor severing the lines appear erroneous as the lines were located two miles from each other, according to the government.
Egypt, along with other affected Arab nations, rushed a task force into place, searching for alternative means of communication as repairs to the two cables will likely take two weeks, according to the Ministry.
Using E-Mail as Storage: A Cautionary Tale January 28, 2008
For some people, losing an e-mail account is akin to losing family photographs in a flood or fire. Even if the service is free, the offending company had better be prepared to apologize gracefully and profusely, said Ben Chestnut, cofounder and partner of MailChimp.
Related Stories
FCC Wades Into Net Neutrality Swamp With Comcast Probe January 15, 2008
"Comcast blocking BitTorrent is the canary in the coal mine for corporations that seek to take over the Internet," noted Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press. "The FCC should immediately stop Comcast from blocking Internet traffic and then proceed with this important investigation and public comment process."
Election 2008: Web Gains but TV Still Rules January 14, 2008
"The Internet has become a ubiquitous tool for people who want to learn about anything, from what movies are showing to what the candidates are saying," said Julie Barko Germany, deputy director for The Institute for Politics Democracy & the Internet at George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management. "It's always on, it's individualized and you can always get what you're looking for."
Network Solutions' Flack-Producing Moves January 14, 2008
By parking domains and making them live, Network Solutions may be doing essentially the same thing as those tasters, said Domain Tools President Jay Westerdal. "It's a deplorable action to announce potential domains to the world," he said. By doing so, he added, the company is actually making domain testing easier for cyber-squatters, who can judge the traffic a parked domain gets without having to register it themselves.
More by Brad King
Amazon Tells NY Tax Man to Take a Hike May 05, 2008
Amazon believes New York's Internet Sale Tax Collection law is unconstitutional, and it's taking its argument to court. The law requires e-commerce vendors with any presence whatsoever in New York to pay sales tax on all purchases made by New York residents. Amazon says the law considers independently operating, New York-based sites that post links to Amazon products as engaging in active solicitation.
Sun Suffers a Reversal of Fortunes May 02, 2008
Sun Microsystems saw its quarterly results drop from a profit of $67 million a year ago to a loss of $34 million in the company's fiscal third quarter. The company said it will cut thousands of jobs and expects difficult times ahead due to the mortgage fallout and general economic malaise.
Will a $199 Price Tag Debase the iPhone? April 30, 2008
The latest Apple rumor to circulate has AT&T offering a subsidy on a 3G iPhone when it's released in June, bringing the price into the same neighborhood as all the other commoner phones. Will Apple stoop so low as to allow such a thing to happen?
Headline Feeds
Talkback: 
