Southern Cross Cable
Encyclopedia
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
company Southern Cross Cables Limited, is a trans-Pacific
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
network of telecommunications cables commissioned in 2000.
The network has 28,900 km of submarine
Submarine communications cable
A submarine communications cable is a cable laid on the sea bed between land-based stations to carry telecommunication signals across stretches of ocean....
and 1,600 km of terrestrial fiber optic
Optical fiber
An optical fiber is a flexible, transparent fiber made of a pure glass not much wider than a human hair. It functions as a waveguide, or "light pipe", to transmit light between the two ends of the fiber. The field of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and application of...
cables, operated in a triple-ring configuration. Initially, each cable had a bandwidth capacity of 120 gigabit/s, but was doubled in an upgrade in April 2008, with a further upgrade to 860 gigabit/s at the end of 2008. Southern Cross recently upgraded the existing system to 1.2 Tbit/s in May 2010, and has announced trials of 40G technology and a planned upgrade to occur by 2nd Quarter 2012 .
Landing points
- AlexandriaAlexandria, New South WalesAlexandria is an inner-city suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Alexandria is located 4 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of the City of Sydney...
, NSWNew South WalesNew South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area... - BrookvaleBrookvale, New South WalesBrookvale is a suburb of northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Brookvale is located 16 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Warringah Council and is part of the Northern Beaches region.-History:The first development in...
, NSW, Australia - SuvaSuvaSuva features a tropical rainforest climate under the Koppen climate classification. The city sees a copious amount of precipitation during the course of the year. Suva averages 3,000 mm of precipitation annually with its driest month, July averaging 125 mm of rain per year. In fact,...
, FijiFijiFiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island... - WhenuapaiWhenuapaiWhenuapai is a suburb and airport located in the western Waitakere area of Auckland City, in the North Island of New Zealand. It is located on the northwestern shore of the Waitemata Harbour, 15 kilometres to the northwest of Auckland's city centre. It is one of the landing points for the Southern...
, New ZealandNew ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga... - TakapunaTakapunaTakapuna is a central, coastal suburb of North Shore City, located in the northern North Island of New Zealand, at the beginning of a south-east-facing peninsula forming the northern side of the Waitemata Harbour...
, New Zealand - Kahe Point, HawaiiHawaiiHawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
, USAUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... - Samuel M. SpencerSamuel M. SpencerSpencer Beach Park is a county park named for Hawaii island politician Samuel Mahuka Spencer .Spencer was born in the area in 1875, and died on February 28, 1960.He was named for Samual Mahuka who was a judge in the area from 1893 to 1901....
Beach, Hawaii, USA - Hillsboro, OregonHillsboro, OregonHillsboro is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and is the county seat of Washington County. Lying in the Tualatin Valley on the west side of the Portland metropolitan area, the city is home to many high-technology companies, such as Intel, that compose what has become known as the...
, USA - San JoseSan Jose, CaliforniaSan Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
, CaliforniaCaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, USA (Terrestrial Connection only) - Morro BayMorro Bay, CaliforniaMorro Bay is a waterfront city in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 10,234, down from 10,350 at the 2000 census.- History :...
, California, USA
Submarine
- A. Alexandria-Whenuapai (2280 km)
- C. Takapuna-Spencer Beach (8000 km)
- D. Spencer Beach-Morro Bay (4135 km)
- F. Kahe Point-Hillsboro, Oregon (4540 km)
- G1. Suva-Kahe Point (5830 km)
- G2. Brookvale-Suva (3540 km)
- I. Spencer Beach-Kahe Point (460 km)
Terrestrial
- B. Whenuapai-Takapuna (15 km)
- E. Hillsboro, Oregon-Morro Bay (1590 km)
- E1. Morro Bay-San Jose (350 km)
- E2. San Jose-Hillsboro, Oregon (1600 km)
- H. Alexandria-Brookvale (30 km)
Topology
The network topologyNetwork topology
Network topology is the layout pattern of interconnections of the various elements of a computer or biological network....
is configured to have redundant paths and be self-healing
Self-healing ring
A self-healing ring, or SHR, is a telecommunications term for loop network topology, a common configuration in telecommunications transmission systems. Like roadway and water distribution systems, a loop or ring is used to provide redundancy...
in case of physical damage.
In the cross section
Cross section (geometry)
In geometry, a cross-section is the intersection of a figure in 2-dimensional space with a line, or of a body in 3-dimensional space with a plane, etc...
diagram shown:
- Insulating high density polyethylenePolyethylenePolyethylene or polythene is the most widely used plastic, with an annual production of approximately 80 million metric tons...
(17 mm) - CopperCopperCopper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
tubing (8.3 mm) - SteelSteelSteel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
wires - Optical fiberOptical fiberAn optical fiber is a flexible, transparent fiber made of a pure glass not much wider than a human hair. It functions as a waveguide, or "light pipe", to transmit light between the two ends of the fiber. The field of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and application of...
s in water resistant jelly (2.3 mm)...
Damage incidents
There have been several incidents damaging sections of the Southern Cross Cable; in part due to it traversing the Pacific Ocean's Ring of FirePacific Ring of Fire
The Pacific Ring of Fire is an area where large numbers of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in the basin of the Pacific Ocean. In a horseshoe shape, it is associated with a nearly continuous series of oceanic trenches, volcanic arcs, and volcanic belts and/or plate movements...
and its long length.
Late 2007
In late 2007, Southern Cross Cable's operations vice president, Dean Veverka, confirmed that hurricane strength storms and flooding had wiped out the carrier's Oregon cable route and halved its bandwidth between AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
/New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
/Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
and USA. A Southern Cross customer (iiNet
IiNet
iiNet Limited is Australia's second largest internet service provider with over 1.3 million customers as of 15th August 2011. Their focus is primarily on ADSL-based Internet access, using their own ADSL2+ infrastructure, and reselling Telstra ADSL1. iiNet also provides dial-up and voice...
) said that emergency works have been organised to perform a more permanent fix for the damage to the cable. These works were performed on 3 February 2008 at 12 midnight AEST.
March 2008
In March 2008, the then head of Telecom Wholesale,Matt Crockett, mentioned to the National Business ReviewNational Business Review
The National Business Review is a weekly New Zealand newspaper aimed at the business sector. The paper is owned by Barry Colman who also publishes the Grocers Review and several other small trade publications....
that there had been a recent undersea earthquake that destroyed a shunt on the Southern Cross Cable. However due to the Cable's redundancy and spare capacity, users experienced no change in access or speed.
Construction and ownership
Construction of the cable began in July 1999, and the system was in use by customers by November 2000. Additional works and upgrades have since taken place to increase the network's capacity to 480 Gbit/sBit rate
In telecommunications and computing, bit rate is the number of bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time....
. In August 2007, SC Cables contracted with Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent is a global telecommunications corporation, headquartered in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France. It provides telecommunications solutions to service providers, enterprises, and governments around the world, enabling these customers to deliver voice, data, and video services...
to upgrade the cable to 660 Gbit/s by the end of the first quarter 2008 and to 860 Gbit
Gigabit
The gigabit is a multiple of the unit bit for digital information or computer storage. The prefix giga is defined in the International System of Units as a multiplier of 109 , and therefore...
/s by the end of 2008, with future upgrade also by Alcatel-Lucent to 1.2 Tbit/s in May 2010.
The company is owned by Telecom New Zealand
Telecom New Zealand
Telecom New Zealand is a New Zealand-wide communications service provider , providing fixed line telephone services, a mobile network, an internet service provider , a major ICT provider to NZ businesses , and a wholesale network infrastructure provider to other NZ CSPs...
(50%), SingTel
Singapore Telecommunications
Singapore Telecommunications Limited , commonly abbreviated as SingTel, is a Singaporean telecommunications company, with a combined mobile subscriber base of 416 million customers from its own operations and regional associates in 25 countries at end of June 2011 increased by 19 percent from a...
(39.99%) and Verizon Business (10.01%).
See also
- List of international submarine communications cables
- Other Australian international submarine cables (and year of first service):
- Pipe Pacific CablePipe Pacific CablePIPE Pacific Cable is a submarine cable laid by PIPE Networks between Guam and Australia.The cable is approximately 6900 km long, and runs from Cromer, Australia, to Piti, Guam....
(2009) - Telstra Endeavour (2008)
- Australia-Japan CableAustralia-Japan CableThe Australia–Japan Cable, or AJC, is a 12,700km submarine telecommunications cable system linking Australia and Japan via Guam that became operational in 2001. It had an original design capacity of 640 Gbit/s, but was initially equipped to utilise only 80 Gbit/s of this capacity. In April 2008 a...
(2001) - SEA-ME-WE 3 (2000, Australian portion in service earlier)
- JASURAUSJASURAUS (cable system)Jasuraus is a 5 Gbit/s, 2800km optical submarine telecommunications cable connecting Jakarta in Indonesia to Port Hedland In Australia. The name was derived from a concatenation of the original planned sites of 'Jakarta' - 'Surabaya' - 'Australia'...
(1997) - Pacrim WestPacRimWest (cable system)PacRimWest was a twin pair 560Mb/s optical submarine telecommunications cable which served as Australia's main link to the world along with its partner cables Tasman2 and Pacrim East ....
(1995)
- Pipe Pacific Cable