The man who repaired the Internet
Remember how in December 2008 the Middle East and part of Asia turned out to be practically disconnected from the Internet due to damage to the submarine cables in the Mediterranean (75% of traffic between the Middle East and Europe passes through them)? Then the problem was quickly fixed. All forgot about it. But we did not understand how these cables were repaired, who did all the work. Journalists conducted an investigation and even found out the name of this person.
57-year-old Scot John Rennie (John Rennie) works as a submarine engineer on the ship Wave Sentinel, which is owned by the British firm Global Marine Systems, laying and maintenance of cables in the North Atlantic Ocean. It is Rennie who with the help of a joystick controls the descent module “The Beast” (weight 6 tons, cost $ 10 million, equipped with metal detectors, video cameras), performing all the black work at a kilometer depth. In the photo they are together.
In general, submarine cables are permanently damaged (internet slowdowns usually go unnoticed). Literally every day there are signals about breaks when the cable is touched by an anchor or a fishing net. However, on December 19, 2008, three cables were damaged in the Mediterranean at once.
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Egypt disconnected from the Internet almost completely (80% of external channels were disconnected). The Middle East, Southeast Asia, down to Taiwan and Malaysia were badly hit, and even the army of Indian programmers felt problems.
It is possible that the incident in the Mediterranean occurred as a result of sabotage (using these cables, the US Army Command Center handles operational groupings of troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the instantaneous transmission of video and photos from the battlefield is critical for the Center to work effectively). Other versions: vessel anchor or underwater seismic activity.
This whole story is another reminder that without constant service, the Internet will very quickly fall into separate fragments, because no more than 10% of world traffic passes through satellites. In addition, it is now clear that the Mediterranean Sea is one of the most vulnerable places in the entire world system of submarine cables , of which about 800,000 km have already been laid.
via Popular Science
57-year-old Scot John Rennie (John Rennie) works as a submarine engineer on the ship Wave Sentinel, which is owned by the British firm Global Marine Systems, laying and maintenance of cables in the North Atlantic Ocean. It is Rennie who with the help of a joystick controls the descent module “The Beast” (weight 6 tons, cost $ 10 million, equipped with metal detectors, video cameras), performing all the black work at a kilometer depth. In the photo they are together.
In general, submarine cables are permanently damaged (internet slowdowns usually go unnoticed). Literally every day there are signals about breaks when the cable is touched by an anchor or a fishing net. However, on December 19, 2008, three cables were damaged in the Mediterranean at once.
')
Egypt disconnected from the Internet almost completely (80% of external channels were disconnected). The Middle East, Southeast Asia, down to Taiwan and Malaysia were badly hit, and even the army of Indian programmers felt problems.
It is possible that the incident in the Mediterranean occurred as a result of sabotage (using these cables, the US Army Command Center handles operational groupings of troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the instantaneous transmission of video and photos from the battlefield is critical for the Center to work effectively). Other versions: vessel anchor or underwater seismic activity.
This whole story is another reminder that without constant service, the Internet will very quickly fall into separate fragments, because no more than 10% of world traffic passes through satellites. In addition, it is now clear that the Mediterranean Sea is one of the most vulnerable places in the entire world system of submarine cables , of which about 800,000 km have already been laid.
via Popular Science
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/54731/
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