Undersea Fiber Communication Systems

Undersea Fiber Communication Systems

Second Edition

Edited by

José Chesnoy, PhD

Ex-CTO of Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks, Independent Expert, Paris, France

Table of Contents

Cover image

Title page

Copyright

Biographies

Foreword by Yves Ruggeri

Foreword by Valey Kamalov

Foreword by Neal S. Bergano

Preface

Submarine cables: a strategic domain

Why a second edition?

Objectives and outline of the book

References

Part I: Introduction

1. Presentation of submarine fiber communication

Abstract

1.1 Preamble

1.2 Configuration of a submarine communication system

1.3 Multi-terabit submarine optical technology

1.4 Recent and future evolution

References

2. Historical overview of submarine communication systems

Abstract

2.1 Introduction

2.2 The era of telegraph on submarine cables

2.3 The era of telephone on coaxial submarine cables

2.4 The era of fiber optic submarine cables

2.5 Conclusion

References

Part II: Submarine System Design

3. Basics of incoherent and coherent digital optical communications

Abstract

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Optical channel

3.3 Modulation formats

3.4 Noise and signal and noise interplays

3.5 Direct detection (incoherent) optical communications

3.6 Coherent optical communications

Acknowledgments

List of acronyms and abbreviations

References

4. Optical amplification

Abstract

4.1 Introduction

4.2 EDFA amplification principles

4.3 Characteristics for submarine systems

4.4 EDFA optimization for Long-haul operation

4.5 Engineering features

4.6 Operation with L-band EDFAs

4.7 Implementation of Raman amplification

4.8 Further amplification perspectives

References

5. Ultra-long haul submarine transmission

Abstract

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Chromatic dispersion and nonlinear effects

5.3 Modulation format and coherent receiver

5.4 Key features of long-haul transmission systems

5.5 Gain equalization

5.6 Transmission systems

5.7 Next-generation undersea system

References

6. Technologies for the mitigation of transmission impairments in ultra-long haul submarine networks

Abstract

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Compensation of linear effects in ultra-long haul submarine systems

6.3 Compensation of nonlinear effects in ultra-long haul submarine systems

References

7. Unrepeatered Transmission

Abstract

7.1 Introduction

7.2 History and recent developments

7.3 Applications

7.4 Unrepeatered system technologies

7.5 Optical impairments and limitations

7.6 Implementation considerations

7.7 Standards

7.8 Main laboratory demonstrations

7.9 Commercial unrepeatered systems

7.10 Evolution

References

8. New applications for submarine cables

Abstract

8.1 Introduction

8.2 History and origins of alternative applications for submarine cables

8.3 Scientific cabled ocean observing systems

8.4 Offshore oil and gas communication systems

8.5 Offshore oil and gas monitoring systems

8.6 Subsea control systems for oil and gas production

8.7 Mixed oil and gas – telecom – science systems

8.8 Green systems

8.9 Military applications

8.10 Looking forward

References

Part III: Submarine Equipment

9. Architectures and management of submarine networks

Abstract

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Application of undersea cable systems in global networking

9.3 Network architecture

9.4 Network management system

9.5 Future of submarine networks

References

10. Submarine system powering

Abstract

10.1 Introduction

10.2 Power feeding design parameters

10.3 Environmental considerations

10.4 Powering topology

10.5 Power feeding equipment design

10.6 Fault localization

References

11. Submarine fibers

Abstract

11.1 Introduction

11.2 Optical fiber overview

11.3 Fiber attributes

11.4 Impact of fiber parameters on system design

11.5 Conclusion: fibers for coherent receivers

References

12. Submerged plant equipment

Abstract

12.1 Overview of submerged plant

12.2 Repeaters

12.3 Gain equalization

12.4 Branching units

12.5 Mechanical engineering of submarine equipment

12.6 Reliability

12.7 Future trends in submarine equipment

References

13. Cable technology

Abstract

13.1 Introduction

13.2 Cable requirements

13.3 Cable characteristics

13.4 Cable design

13.5 Cable qualification

13.6 Conclusion

Acknowledgement

References

14. Submarine line terminal

Abstract

14.1 Introduction

14.2 Transmission equipment for WDM systems

14.3 Supervisory and fault location

14.4 Views on future development

14.5 Conclusion

References

Part IV: Planning, Operation and Maintenance

15. System planning and deployment

Abstract

15.1 Introduction

15.2 The initial concept

15.3 From concept to project

15.4 System deployment

15.5 Operation and maintenance

15.6 Upgrades

15.7 Conclusion

16. Submarine cable upgrades

Abstract

16.1 Introduction

16.2 Innovations

16.3 Tools

16.4 Design methodology

16.5 Installation and operations

16.6 Conclusion

References

17. Marine and maintenance (from inception to end of life)

Abstract

17.1 Introduction

17.2 Tools of the trade

17.3 Installation planning activities

17.4 Marine installation program

17.5 Maintenance operation

17.6 New development

Acknowledgements

References

Index

Copyright

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Biographies

Caroline Bardelay-Guyot was born in Reims, France, in 1967. She graduated from Ecole Estienne (Graduate School of Arts and Printing Industry) in Paris, and from ENSSAT, a French engineering school where she specialized in computer sciences and electronics in 1993. She joined Alcatel in 1994 as a software developer where she was involved in the development of 2.5 Gb/s transmission terminal equipment and network management application. As development team manager, she has contributed to network management solution improvement along the years welcoming 10 Gb/s, 40 Gb/s, 100 Gb/s systems, a variety of topologies and enhanced system functions. In parallel she has contributed to process improvement activities including CMMI internal audits. She is currently the product manager of the network management solution in Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks.

Dominique Bayart was born in 1967. He graduated from the Physics Engineering School from INPG, Grenoble in 1990. He joined Alcatel’s research center in Marcoussis, France in 1991 in the optoelectronic unit. In 1993, he moved to the optical systems unit where he has designed successive generations of WDM amplifiers, first as a study leader and later as a team leader from 1998 and then as deputy unit manager. Fields of research include both terrestrial and submarine applications. In 2006 the research center moved to Nozay, France and was renamed Bell Labs France. His research then broadened to dynamic optical networks. From 1998 to 2001 he served as a member of the technical program committee of the OSA Topical Meeting on Optical Amplifiers and their Applications (OAA) and from 2002 to 2005 of the OSA Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC). In 2001 he coauthored with E. Desurvire the book Erbium-doped Fiber Amplifiers, Device and System Developments, Volume 2, Wiley (New York) and the first edition of the current book, Undersea Fiber Communication Systems. In 2001 and 2004 he received the Alcatel Distinguished Technical Staff Award. In 2008 he moved to the Optics Division business unit in Velizy, France as a technical expert for the bid of Alcatel-Lucent WDM transmission systems (1626LM and 1830PSS). Since 2014, he has been working for Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks in Nozay, France as a network engineer on the 1620LM product. He contributed to several world records for capacity in both submarine and terrestrial experiments and presented invited and regular papers at major conferences (OFC, ECOC, OAA, and LEOS). He authored or coauthored nearly 100 technical papers and has filed more than 30 patents.

Loren Berg has been working in the fiber optic transmission business since graduating with a B Sc and M Sc in Electrical Engineering from Queen’s University in Kingston Ontario, Canada in 1991. Loren began working at Bell Northern Research upon graduation in the area of electro-optics. Since then he has been involved in the design of many generations of optical transmission systems starting with early un-amplified WDM systems at OC-48 rates, early optical amplifier based WDM systems and onto DWDM systems with Layer 0 agility with Nortel and eventually Ciena. Currently Loren is an Advisor for Photonics and Submarine Systems Applications for Ciena.

Neal S. Bergano is the Vice President of R&D and the Chief Technical Officer of TE Subsea Communications LLC, Eatontown, NJ (TE SubCom). Neal received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of New York, and the M.S. degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1981, he joined the technical staff of Bell Labs’ undersea systems division. In 1992, he was named a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff of AT&T Bell Labs, where he became an AT&T Technology Consultant in 1996 and AT&T Technology Leader in 1997. From 1998 until 2013 he was the Managing Director of the System Research and Network Development at TE SubCom. He holds 31 U.S. patents in the area of optical fiber transmission systems. His main research has been devoted to the understanding of how to improve the performance and transmission capacity of long-haul optical fiber systems, including the use of wavelength division multiplexing in optical-amplifier-based systems.

Neal S. Bergano is a Fellow of the IEEE, the OSA, AT&T, and TE Connectivity. He served on the Board of Directors for the OSA from 2009 to 2011, and served on the Board of Governors for the IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society from 1999 to 2001. He is a long-time volunteer and supporter of the OFC meeting, which includes General Chair and Technical Chair in 1999 and 1997, Chair of the steering committee from 2000 to 2002, and is currently the Chair of OFC’s long-range planning committee. He is the recipient of the year 2013 TE Connectivity Life-Time Achievement Award. He is the recipient of the 2002 John Tyndall Award, for outstanding technical contributions to and technical leadership in the advancement of global undersea fiber optic communication systems.

Scott R. Bickham has been an optical physicist and fiber design expert in the optical fiber applied research/development group for Corning Optical Fiber since 1999. He holds the title of Senior Development Associate and received the 2014 Development Excellence Award for his sustained contributions to product and process development at Corning.

Scott has led the development of several types of optical fibers, including low attenuation submarine fibers, bend-insensitive single-mode fibers, and dispersion-managed fibers. In 2006, he led the development of the world’s first bend-insensitive multimode fiber and is now researching new fibers for silicon-photonics and short reach applications. Prior to joining Corning, he was a Director’s Fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory and an NRC Research Associate at the Naval Research Laboratory. Scott has a B.S. in physics from Purdue University and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in physics from Cornell University. He holds over 70 patents and has over 50 publications relating to optical fiber design and applications.

Do-Il Chang was born in Seoul, Korea in 1968. He received his Ph.D degree in Physics from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in 1998. His thesis covered laser wavelength conversion and signal amplification by stimulated Raman scattering.

He joined Xtera Communications in 2001 and serves as the Principal Engineer and Manager of unrepeatered optical high-capacity transmission systems. He has designed the multiple variants of Xtera’s flagship transmission systems from concept to transfer to production. He also manages process for investigation, analysis and solution for all issues related with unrepeatered transmission systems and has supervised more than 70 unrepeatered system deployments in the field worldwide.

Prior to Xtera, he was senior research scientist at Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI, 1998–2001) in Korea and visiting research scientist at Imperial College (1995–1997) in UK. He developed and demonstrated various Raman fiber amplifiers and lasers. Dr. Chang hold over 30 patents and has published over 60 papers, most of them for peer-reviewed technical journals or conferences.

Gabriel Charlet was born in Rueil Malmaison (France) in 1976. Gabriel Charlet received an engineering degree from the École Supérieure d’Optique in 1999 (Orsay, France) and a PhD in physics in 2011 from University Paris XI. He joined Alcatel Research and Innovation (now Alcatel Lucent Bell Labs France) in 2000. Since then he has been working on WDM transmission systems and realized several multi-terabit/s transmission records. He also addressed the topic of advanced modulation formats. He is the first author of more than 40 papers including 10 postdeadline papers in major conferences and holds more than 35 patents. Since 2008, he leads the WDM transmission group which intends to further increase total bit rate transported in an optical fiber without compromising the transmission reach. In 2007, he received the Fabry de Gramont award for his work on fiber optics communication. In 2010, he was selected by the Technology Review from MIT (TR35) as one of the 35 innovators below 35 years for his work on 100 Gbit/s product using coherent detection. In 2011, he was selected by Fast Company as one of the 100 most creative people in business and also received the World Technology award in communication technology.

José Chesnoy graduated from Ecole Polytechnique in 1977. After a PhD in 1981 on femto-second laser physics, he entered the French "Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS).

He joined Alcatel research organization, and led the advent of amplified submarine cables from 1989.

Then, he became head of the System Development in the Submarine Business Division, extended to Terrestrial Network Division in 1999. He then moved successively to development of terminal WDM equipment, submarine product management and technical offers, and finally he became CTO of Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks up to end 2014.

During the course of his technical carriers, José Chesnoy granted more than 50 patents in the field of fiber optics. He was nominated Bell Labs Fellow in 2010. He organized many workshops, including the chair of the program committee for SubOptic 2004 in Monaco, and was editor of the first edition of the present book in 2002.

José Chesnoy is retired from Alcatel, and stays active inside the ecosystem of the submarine cable community.

Bertrand Clesca is Head of Global Marketing for Xtera and is based in Paris, France. Bertrand has over twenty five years of experience in the optical telecommunications industry, having held a number of research, engineering, product management, marketing and sales positions in both small and large organizations.

Bertrand holds an Engineering Degree in Physics and Optical Engineering from Ecole Superieure d’Optique, Orsay (France), an MSC in Telecommunications from Telecom ParisTech (formerly known as Ecole Nationale Superieure des Telecommunications), Paris (France), and an MBA from Sciences Politiques, Paris (France).

Olivier Courtois is presently director of product strategy and management for Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks. He was born in Paris in 1970. He graduated from a French engineering school Ecole Superieure d’optique in 1995 where he specialized in optics. In 1998, he joined Alcatel-Lucent and led system design activities for WDM product development on 10/40/100 Gb/s & repeater/ROADM technologies during almost 10 years. He joined the submarine division in 2007 as product line manager for transoceanic systems.

He published ~10 patents in Europe and US on WDM system and published different papers for international conferences.

Barbara Dean joined Bell Laboratories after receiving the Ph. D. in Chemical Physics from Ohio State University. At that time, she contributed to the development and reliability analysis of optical transmitters, receivers and passive components for both terrestrial and undersea applications, authoring several papers on the concept of functional reliability. During the introduction of optically-amplified systems, her engineering team developed the qualification and certification strategy for the first-generation undersea pump lasers. Barbara subsequently joined the undersea system division (now TE SubCom) and is currently Managing Director, responsible for Quality Management implementation and Reliability Management and assessment.

Darwin Evans (B Sc in Engineering University of Manitoba 1998) joined Nortel in 1999 and held a number of positions in the optical division before moving to Submarine Optical Systems where he was focused on development of the WSS based SLTE. Darwin’s most recent role is as product line manager for Submarine Optical Systems at Ciena.

Herve Fevrier is currently the Chief Strategy Officer of Xtera Communications. Prior to this position, he has held different positions with Xtera Communications. Among those, VP of Photonics and more recently Chief Operating Officer. He led for the past 15 years the product development, the product marketing and sales effort of the Xtera All-Raman technology applied to the different segments of the core networks: terrestrial long haul networks, unrepeatered submarine cable systems and submarine repeated cable systems.

Herve holds an Engineering Degree in Physics from the Ecole Centrale Paris (France) and a Doctorate in Physics from the University of Paris XIII (France).

Gérard Fouchard has been an actor in the submarine cable field during half of the 20th century at a senior official level. He started as an onboard testing officer, and then he promoted the maintenance agreements for the Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea. He then managed the industrial complex in La Seyne sur Mer.

He was associated with the deployment of major cables such as Atlantis 1 and 2, Sea Me We 1, 2 and 3, and SAT2 and 3. He is currently a recognized expert in the cable business and has become a major reference person concerning the history of submarine cables.

Loic Lefur has started his career in FCR (a subsidiary of France Telecom), where he was involved in the procurement and implementation of various systems such as Atlantis 2 and SEA-ME-WE 3. After a short period within Tyco, he co-founded Axiom in 1999, which became one of the leading consultant in submarine cables. In Axiom, he was associated with the deployment of many systems among which EASSy, Akorn, Atlas offshore and Jonah.

Philippe Gallion obtained the Doctorat es Sciences degree from the University of Montpellier in 1986. He is presently Professor at Télécom ParisTech, formerly Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications, where he served as the Communications and Electronics Department Chairman from 1988 to 2000. He is also lecturing at the University Pierre and Marie Curie (ParisVI) as well as in several French and foreign universities. He carries out research at the Laboratory for Communication and Information Processing (LTCI), joint Télécom ParisTech research unit with the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

Philippe Gallion has made pioneering contributions in laser noise, injection locking, semiconductor laser modulation chirp and tuning, coherent systems and optical devices, digital optical communications systems and networks. His present research topics focus on quantum communication and quantum cryptography, nonlinearity and noise in Raman distributed optical amplifiers, advanced digital communications systems and networks. Author of several textbooks and book chapters and of over 145 international technical publications and over 145 papers and lectures at conferences, including many invited ones, he has supervised up to now 45 theses and participated in more than 150 thesis committees. Philippe Gallion is a Member of the Optical Society of America and a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He is the Chairman of the French Chapter of the IEEE Photonics Society Optics Society. More information can be found at: http://perso.telecom-paristech.fr/~gallion/

Lara Garrett received her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in the area of semiconductor engineering and integrated optical receiver arrays. She joined Bell Labs and moved to the area of long haul WDM transmission research at Bell Labs Crawford Hill and then to AT&T Research Labs, with a specialty of novel chromatic dispersion compensation devices. After a stint at Celion Networks, a transmission startup company, where she was part of the lead design team responsible for defining, prototyping and testing a novel terrestrial long haul WDM product, she is now Director of Systems Engineering at TE SubCom, where she is working to combine the flexibility of terrestrial networks with the reliability requirements of submarine networks to establish a new level of network flexibility.

Robert Hadaway Robert (Bob) Hadaway has broad technical, manufacturing and business experience in Telecommunications, Optoelectronic and Microelectronic industries, resulting from his tenures at Bell-Northern Research, Nortel, Bookham, and most recently Ciena. A varied and rewarding career has provided opportunity for involvement and leadership in all aspects of research, product development, product delivery, customer partnering, manufacturing and supply management. Significant international exposure has broadened his work experience, including an expatriate assignment in the United Kingdom, and coincident management responsibility for separate business units in Canada and England. He has also been responsible for off-shore supply and manufacturing in India and China. Most recently, as leader global Product Management & R&D, he initiated the original efforts and remains focused on Submarine Optical Systems solutions, taking Ciena to a global leadership position in submarine cable capacity upgrades. Bob has numerous technical publications, holds a number of patents, has participated as an invited speaker at international conferences and workshops, and participates in Industry, Government and Academic Advisory Boards.

Elizabeth Rivera Hartling received a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering at Queen’s University, Ontario, Canada. Since 2008, she has been with Nortel and Ciena where her work has been devoted to all aspects of upgrading submarine cable systems.

Elizabeth held a position in the submarine research and development team for 5 years, where her work focussed on the understanding and correction of optical transmission impairments, and the application of coherent technology to Submarine cables – a task which involved extensive simulations of a large number of cable systems, as well as execution of dozens of submarine cable system field trials. This experience has allowed Elizabeth to become one of the industry’s leading experts on the challenges involved with upgrading submarine cable systems with coherent technology.

Elizabeth currently works as a System Engineer in Ciena’s global submarine sales team where she is responsible for customer network design activities on submarine cables around the globe.

Mark Hinds has been working in the fiber optic transmission business since graduating with a B Sc and M Sc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Saskatchewan in 1989.

Mark his career in fiber optics with MPB Technologies on the TAT-9 cable system test, installation and maintenance, including installation and maintenance on cable ships. Mark also worked as a designer and architect on the development of EDFA & transponder products for the un-repeatered submarine market.

At Nortel, Mark worked as a hardware & system designer and an architect for several generations of photonic products, resulting in several associated patents and publications.

Currently, Mark is an Advisor in Submarine Systems Applications: a role started with the genesis of the submarine cable upgrade program, which has now grown into a market leading business.

Mark continues on submarine network upgrade activities in an R&D team focused on developing new submarine specific products, developing lab tests, performing analysis and validation of field measurements.

John Horne Secretary to the SubOptic Executive Committee.

John Horne has been involved with the development, planning and implementation of Submarine Communications Systems since 1969. In the 1980’s he was responsible for the fibre optic development activity in the British Telecom Research Laboratories at Martlesham. At SubOptic 2001, he was a Vice Chairman on the Papers Committee responsible for organising the session on Cable Installation and Repair. Since SubOptic 2004, he has been the Secretary to the SubOptic Executive Committee who has overall governance responsibility for this series of conferences.

Michael Hubbard has been working in the field of high-capacity, fiber optic telecommunications since graduating with a BSc. in Engineering Physics from the University of Alberta (1996) and an MSc in Electrical Engineering from Queen’s University at Kingston, Ontario, Canada (1999).

Michael began working at Nortel in 1998 in the area of optical propagation characterization for terrestrial 10 Gb/s DWDM systems. Michael then transitioned into a systems architecture role, which continued through Ciena’s acquisition of Nortel’s optical business unit. In this role, Michael’s work focused on 40 Gb/s and 100 Gb/s coherent optical transmission technology and its related Layer 1 and 2 protocols such as SONET/SDH, OTN, and Ethernet. In 2013, Michael’s focus shifted to submarine when he became manager of Ciena’s Submarine System Development team. This team focuses on the development of coherent optical terminal systems for subsea telecommunication cables.

Maurice E. Kordahi, PhD has over 30 years of undersea experience. Presently, he is Managing Director of the Wet Plant Development organization at TE SubCom, responsible for the design of several underwater product lines, including fiber optic amplifiers, cables, couplings, joints, and their introduction to manufacture and field deployment. Dr. Kordahi initiated the work and developed system hardware for integrating Wetmate Connectors into Oil & Gas Telecommunication systems. He has had responsibilities for the set-up of a new repeater factory, as well as the build of the Global class cable ships for laying undersea networks throughout the world.

Dr. Kordahi is an Adjunct Full Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Stevens Institute of Technology. His expertise spans the Energy and Structural areas, advising and teaching graduate courses in Energy Storage Systems, Heat Transfer, Vibrations, Lubrication, Mechanical Design & Analysis, Numerical Simulation & Modeling, and Combustion.

Dr. Kordahi was part of the Bell Laboratories team that developed and installed the first undersea fiber optic systems in the early 1980's (Optican and TAT-8). He initiated the work on the Quick Joint and Millennia Joint and is a member of the Universal Quick Joint/Universal Joint/Universal Coupling Governing Board. Dr. Kordahi's experience has spanned a wide range of undersea cable activities: from marketing & sales in South America, Europe and the Middle East, to cable system manufacturing and integration, to cable ship instrumentation and machinery, to cable jointing, installation, burial and at-sea maintenance. He has authored many papers and/or chapters in technical journals. He is the recipient of the 2015 TE Connectivity Lifetime Achievement Award.

Maurice holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Dayton in Ohio, and both Master’s of Science and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, all in Mechanical Engineering. He holds several dozen patents, published extensively, and also holds an MBA from AT&T’s School of Business.

Raynald Leconte, graduated from Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications (ENST), has started his career in Opto-Electronic Reseach Department of the ENST. He has been in charge of the transmission department of the Long Distance Network of France Telecom at the time where optical fibers were introduced. After 7 years being project management in Indonesia for France Telecom, he was head of submarine cable division. He was chairman of several submarine cable consortium including Sea Me We 3 and TAT 14. Since 2007 he is president and CEO of Orange Marine the subsidiary of Orange operating 6 cable ships.

Stephen Lentz received Bachelors degrees in chemical and electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1987 and a Master of Science in business from the Johns Hopkins University in 1998. He has been actively involved in submarine cable projects since 1988. He was the lead network designer for the NEPTUNE Canada cabled oceanographic observatory and developed the technical specifications for the BP Gulf of Mexico system. Mr. Lentz is currently Director of Network Development for Ocean Specialists, Inc. in Stuart, Florida.

Arnaud Leroy was born in Pessac, France, in 1971. He received a Ph.D in optoelectronics from Institut National Polytechnique of Grenoble in 1994. He joined Alcatel-Alsthom Research in 1998 as a research engineer where he was involved in the research of innovative components for Access and WDM networks. Since then, he has held several positions in the Research and Development domain, with a particular focus on WDM transmission. He has contributed to pilot projects related to GMPLS, 40 Gb/s and 100 Gb/s, as well as to research activities in the photonic components domain. He is currently the product manager of the submarine line terminal equipment in Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks.

Haifeng Li received the B.S. and M.S degrees in electronics engineering from Tsinghua University, China, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland Baltimore County. In 1998, he joined Tyco Submarine System Limited, currently TE Subsea Communications LLC (TE SubCom), as a Senior Member of Technical Staff, where he is now the Director of Wet Plant Optical Development. His current responsibilities include the design and development of next generation optical amplifiers, gain equalization units, fixed and reconfiguration optical add/drop nodes for undersea WDM optical communication systems, as well as various high reliability undersea optical components such as gain equalization filters, high power pump lasers, OADM filters, optical switches, and wavelength selective switches.

Jean-François Libert was born in France. He graduated in 1982 from Hautes Etudes Industrielles of Lille (France). He joined Alcatel in 1984 where he was involved in the development of optical submarine cable designs and new technologies for cable and joint manufacturing process and metrology. He then held the position of technical directorate manager and of cable competence center manager for the Optical Submarine Cable division. He then worked on advanced materials and cables and on cable transmission for submarine application. Since then, he has been involved in implementation of submarine telecommunication systems within ASN.

Eduardo F. Mateo was born in Madrid, Spain in 1977. He received his Ph.D. degree in physics from the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, in 2005. During his Ph.D he conducted research activities on optical computing and all-optical processing with nonlinear integrated devices. He was Research Scientist at the CREOL-Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers Orlando FL, USA) until 2009. At CREOL, he conducted pioneering research in optical communications. He is the author and co-author of seminal works and patents on digital back propagation for the compensation of nonlinearities in fiber transmission. In 2009, he joined NEC Laboratories America (Princeton NJ, USA), where he conducted research activities in ultra-long haul transmission and large capacity systems. He has participated in groundbreaking works in high order modulation, digital signal processing and space-division multiplexing. In 2012, he joined the Submarine Network Division in NEC (Tokyo, Japan) where he currently works in the design and development of next generation submarine systems.

Hazel B. Matthews was born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1968. He completed his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from North Carolina State University in 1990 and his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1997.

He joined Corning Incorporated’s Wilmington, North Carolina facility in 1997 as a Development Engineer in the Product & Process Development (PPD) organization of the Optical Fiber & Cable division. His project career has centered around development of the low-loss and ultra-low-loss fiber products, and associated manufacturing technologies, that serve Corning’s submarine and terrestrial long-haul customers. He is currently the Glass Development manager for PPD with a continuing focus on development of new optical fiber products for telecom applications. He holds 4 patents in the field of optical fiber manufacturing.

Priyanth Mehta received his B.Sc. (Hons) (2007) and M.Sc. (Hons) (2009) in Physics from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He then obtained a PhD in the nonlinear properties of semiconductor optical fibres from the Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton, in 2013 with a strong emphasis in theoretical and experimental optics. Soon after, Priyanth joined the submarine research and development team at Ciena in Ottawa, Canada as an optical systems designer. At Ciena, his primary fields of research are focused on improving transmission capacity, reach, and user operability through modem, line terminal, and software enhancements. Priyanth has a number of journal and conference publications and actively serves as a contributing delegate in standardization at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for Optical Transport and Access.

Dr. Snigdharaj Mishra is a Senior Project Development Associate with Corning Optical Fiber in Wilmington, NC. His work has included modeling and simulation, design, development and characterization of optical fibers. Dr. Mishra joined Corning in 1999 after completing post-doctoral research works in Physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Max-Planck Institute, Stuttgart, Germany and began working on submarine and terrestrial transmission fiber systems. He has B.S, M.S, and PhD degree in Physics. Dr. Mishra holds 41 US patents and has co-authored over 15 publications.

Bruce Nyman is currently a Senior Director at TE SubCom where he is responsible for new product development of both terminal and undersea equipment. Previously he was VP of System Solutions at Princeton Lightwave developing single photon detectors for QKD systems. Prior to that he held a number of management positions at JDS Uniphase. His primary focus was on EDFAs and test and measurement equipment. Before that he was at AT&T Bell Laboratories where he worked on undersea fiber optic systems. He has a Ph. D. from Columbia University in integrated optics.

Pascal Pecci After his PhD in 2000, Pascal Pecci started working for Alcatel Research and Innovation on 40 G transmission in optical fiber and had 2 world records transmission. He then transitioned to development where he specified a design tool used worldwide for terrestrial networks. He also designed networks for customers such as Telecom Italia, Orange, Verizon, Embratel, Bharti… After 9 years in R&D he joined the Product Line Management team to become a PLM of the Alcatel Lucent design tools for terrestrial networks. In 2013, Pascal Pecci joined the Submarine division of Alcatel-Lucent, he is currently responsible of the design rules for submarine and designed many advanced networks on Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Wayne S. Pelouch (M’03) was born in Libertyville, IL in 1965. He received his B.A. degree in Physics (Honors) and B.S. degree from Northwestern University in 1987, and his Ph.D. degree in Applied Physics from Cornell University in 1992. His thesis covered ultrafast lasers and nonlinear optical processes with applications in semiconductor physics.

After graduation he joined the University of New Mexico / Air Force Research Labs in Albuquerque, NM and then worked for the Lions Eye Institute in Perth, Australia as a Laser Physicist. Subsequently, he joined Coherent Technologies in Lafayette, CO where he was Principal Investigator on a number of SBIR programs related to waveguide laser and amplifier technology. Currently, he is the Director of Photonics at Xtera Communications, Allen TX where he leads all Photonics activities including research, product development, and system network design. He has authored numerous publications and patents related to Raman technology.

Dr. Pelouch is a Member of the IEEE Photonics Society.

Dr Philippe Perrier is currently serving as Xtera Communications’ Corporate VP, Product Line Management. Since joining Xtera in 2000, he has held a number of positions, including Director of the Photonics group and Vice President of Engineering, responsible for the design, development, and transfer to manufacturing of Raman-based optical transmission systems.

Prior to joining Xtera Communications, he was with Alcatel for 10 years where he served in many capacities, both in France and in the USA.

He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University (New York City, NY) in 1984, 1985, and 1989, respectively. His thesis was in the field of optical networks and optical processing. After completion of his post-graduate studies, he held a Research Assistant position at Princeton University (Princeton, NJ) pursuing research activities in high-speed optical networks as well as a lecturer position on Communication Theory.

He is the author/co-author of about 100 refereed papers and conference contributions in the fields of optical networking, transmission, and switching, holds two dozen patents, and has served on the Technical Program Committees of several conferences.

Omar Ait Sab was born in Casablanca, Morocco in 1971. He received the Eng. Degree in electronics and computer engineering from the Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieur de Brest in 1993 and the Ph.D. degree in digital communication from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications de Bretagne, France in 1998. He joined Alcatel Submarine Networks (ALSN) as design expert for enhanced error correcting codes for DWDM transmission systems in 1998. He has been involved in the design of FEC coding schemes for 10 Gbps, 40 Gbps and 100 Gbps DWDM transmission systems. Since 2006, he has contributed to ITU-T Study Group 15 standards and he is currently an associate rapporteur of Question 8 group dealing with submarine transmission systems. In 2008, he led the Correlation OTDR project which ended up with field validation of the final product on major transoceanic submarine systems. In 2013, he received the Bell Labs Distinguished Member of Technical Staff award. Currently, he offers his expertise in system design department of Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks. He authored and co-authored more than 25 papers presented in international conferences.

Koji Takehira was born in 1956 in Japan. He graduated from Nagoya University Japan, where he majored in applied physics. He joined the submarine cable systems division in NEC Corporation, where he has been involved in the marine work management group, repeater design, semiconductor design for submarine repeater, system engineering and implementation of submarine cable systems for several projects since 1978. He joined NEC Networks & System Integration Corporation in 2012, where he is currently assistant general manager to manage the related work for the submarine telecommunication systems and ocean bottom seismometer systems.

Gary Waterworth born and educated in the UK, Gary started his professional career with STC in 1979, working on the first subsea cable tie back projects in the North Sea. STC provided an exceptional opportunity for experience in many varied areas including, submarine cable installation, cable design and manufacture, jointing, sea trials, special purpose handing equipment design, construction, commissioning and project management. Continuing with the creation of ASN, he led the teams developing and manufacturing the first submarine WDM optical amplifiers and associated wet plant. For the last 18 years Gary has been part of ASN’s customer facing teams, involving all types of submarine cable projects worldwide.

Foreword by Yves Ruggeri

Yves Ruggeri, Vice President Submarine Network Strategy, Orange, President SubOptic Executive Committee

The information age is almost exclusively powered by undersea cables. One should be reminded that 99% of the massive amount of international data is transmitted at the bottom of the ocean through the numerous multimillion-dollar cables. The first billion of internet connections was reached in 2005, the second billion in 2010, the third billion in 2014. In a largely virtualized world, the ability of a country to register and maintain dynamic growth and development is now measured in terms of its infrastructure, ease of communication and efficiency of information flow. The correlation between access to information and socioeconomic development is well established.

The submarine cable industry, while highly competitive, is also very cooperative, as the scope and scale of many projects require different actors within the industry to come together to make them successful. Deregulation in different parts of the world has encouraged the growth of private cable companies; consortium cables still remain very valid as a viable investment and governance model given the highly challenging economic, financial and geopolitical matters when connecting a submarine cable from one part of the world to another. The industry also saw the need for an organization for coordinating, encouraging and fostering sustainable growth and cooperation among different industry players and actors. This crucial role has been played by SubOptic since 1996.

Vendors remain the key drivers of change and progress in technology. However, growth, diversity and connectivity needs continue to drive the demand for upgrading of existing cables and the construction of new cables, not only for the highly connected regions, but even more so for the underconnected parts of the world. Today’s world is moving faster than ever, further accelerated by the rise of the Internet and over-the-top services (OTTs) driving the shift of traffic nature and patterns.

Submarine cables, lying quietly on the seabed around the world, are key to our day-to-day life and our data security at national levels, and yet are vulnerable, as underwater cables are not easy to repair and they remain highly unknown to the general public.

I am glad that this book, with its extensive collective knowledge of the industry, now provides the A-to-Z on submarine cables. It provides comprehensive facts and info concerning the submarine cable industry and acts as a tribute to this unknown hero of today’s highly connected world.

Foreword by Valey Kamalov

Valey Kamalov, Information Transport Engineer, Google, July 2015

The information revolution led us to the age of the internet, where optical communication networks play a key role in delivering massive amounts of data. The world has experienced phenomenal network growth during the last decade, and further growth is imminent. The internet will continue to expand due to user population growth and internet penetration: previously inaccessible geographical regions in Africa and Asia will come online. Network growth will only be accelerated by improvements in integrated circuits. Transistor size has been halved every two years since the middle of the last century. The new internet-based global economy requires a worldwide network with high capacity and availability, which is currently limited by submarine optical communication cables.

New ideas keep coming from the information transport community. Since the first edition of Undersea Fiber Communication Systems in 2002, the optical fiber communication industry moved into the coherent era. We transport an order of magnitude more bits than just five years ago. We encode information into phase, polarization, and amplitude of electromagnetic waves. Michael Faraday would be proud of us, knowing that we send over 10,000,000,000,000 bits every second across the Atlantic Ocean in a single strand of fiber. We would leave in awe Sir William Thomson (known as Lord Kelvin), who was the scientific leader of an 1858 endeavor that built the first submarine cable with a transmission speed of one word per minute. Sir Thomson and Cyrus Field, an American businessman and telecommunications pioneer, would be surprised to find out how many tools developed during their first transatlantic expedition are still in use today. At first glance, the modern cable looks similar to the 1858 cable, which was copper based with a gutta-percha (trans-poly isoprene) isolator. In modern day cables, gutta-percha has been replaced with polyethylene. We still use copper to power submarine repeaters, and have added optical fibers during the last decade of the last century. This book is intended to help the next generation of researchers and engineers who want to change the world of subsea communications. Could we find better and cheaper conductors compared to copper, which has been used since 1858? Could we find materials with better isolation properties than polyethylene, which was discovered almost a century ago?

We have much more to do: the cost of submarine cables is unbearable for developing countries. Cable repair takes weeks. We lay cables at about the same speed as HMS Agamemnon did in 1858. The Suboptic community is unique in that it has to care about environmental impacts, the safety of cables and data, and maintain a fleet capable of overcoming the challenges of the high seas. This book is a nice introduction to the multidimensional problems of submarine projects.

Subsea cable design, installation, and maintenance in the harsh environment are based on the experience of several generations of engineers and the book is written by top experts in the field, recognized globally.

Large capital investment and complexity requires a long lifetime, and modern cables are often designed for 25 years of service. Successful installation, operation, and repairs are all dependent on the system architecture and component reliability. The uniqueness of this engineering marvel is a combination of information science, nonlinear optics, electrical engineering, material science, engineering practices, project management, marine expertise, and high reliability standard. Undersea fiber communication systems will continue to serve society, with important contributions from the readers of this book.

Foreword by Neal S. Bergano

Neal S. Bergano, Vice President Research and Development and CTO, TE Connectivity SubCom

The Earth’s continents are connected with a web of undersea fiber optic cables. We all use those undersea cables every time we surf the Internet, make an overseas call, or simply send texts to friends on other continents. However, many people throughout the world unknowingly use this system on a daily basis. When you take a photo with your smartphone and send it to a friend, do you even think about (or care) where in the world that person is located? Even though that person could be halfway around the world, your photo arrives, like magic!.

The average person’s use of undersea cables could be as simple as performing an information search on the web. The search results are most likely provided based on data from the content provider’s local data center. However, those data centers around the world are being synchronized on a daily basis by data flowing from continent to continent on undersea fiber optic cables.

It is often said that 99% of international telecommunications capacity uses undersea cables. People probably say 99% because they don’t know the actual number. However, my guess is that for typical Internet traffic the percentage is more like 99.999! Clearly, undersea fiber optic cables are the key to making the web truly worldwide.

The undersea telecommunications cable industry has seen major technology shifts that have allowed for tremendous capacity growth since undersea telephone cables were first introduced in the 1950s. First was the shift from analog coaxial cable to digital single mode fiber systems in the 1980s. Even though the change was a significant technology challenge, the capacity increase was modest at first. At the time it was well understood that fiber optic transmission systems had a huge amount of potential capacity; however, the use of electro-optic regenerators was the bottleneck that prevented realizing the full potential of fiber optic systems. It was the introduction of the optical amplifier based repeater in the 1990s that was the revolutionary technology shift. The past 20 years have seen three orders-of-magnitude of capacity growth starting with the ability to operate a single-channel at ten times the rate of the regenerated systems, and then to use wavelength division multiplexing with wide-band optical amplifier repeaters, and continues today with coherent transponder technology. TAT-12/13, the first optical amplifier based transatlantic system, was commissioned in 1996 with a single 5 GB/s optical channel per fiber pair. Compare this with today’s state-of-the-art systems that can support >10,000 GB/s per fiber pair (>100 channels each operating at 100 GB/s).

These large capacity undersea fiber optic cable systems operate in the Earth’s most remote locations – the bottom of the world’s oceans. The remote environment dictates a level of reliability unique in the fiber optics community. This high level of reliability has been maintained through focused efforts on quality and manufacturing processes over all technology paradigm shifts that have enabled the growth in capacity seen over the past years.

This book provides a comprehensive review of the technology behind international telecommunications networks based on undersea fiber optic cables, beginning with the basics of optical fiber communications, and then continuing through all of the important subjects related to undersea cables. Of particular importance are those characteristics of undersea fiber communication systems that are unique in the fiber optics industry, such as the long transmission distances between terminals and the placement of equipment in the harsh undersea environment. These characteristics require specialized design capabilities, including high-performance terminal equipment, special electrical powering capabilities, and of course a host of maritime equipment to deploy and maintain the undersea equipment.

Preface

José Chesnoy, Editor

Submarine cables: a strategic domain

For 25 years, lightwave systems have been installed at an incredible pace on land and under the sea. More than one million kilometers of submarine fiber cables are now laid on the sea floor and are smoothly supporting a monopolistic 99% of our full communication backbone. Satellite communication stations have been dismantled, or sometimes transformed into museums.

No technology other than submarine cables has had such a strategic impact on our society without being known as such by the people. But governments of industrial countries have known since more than a century that submarine cables are precious strategic, reliable assets.

This book, the second edition of Undersea Fiber Communication Systems, provides a complete and detailed view of optical submarine communication systems, covering all the technical facets. It provides the theoretical and practical background of the design rules of optical submarine systems and needed technology, as well as specific submarine equipment. The related industrial developments are also described, from the definition of equipment to the installation process, through to marine operations. For completeness, the historical and operational aspects are also covered.

This book has been a key reference since its first publication in 2002, as it has had few peers since the old reference collective books of the first age of photonics [1] or some of the good historical collections [2].

Why a second edition?

The first edition of the book was written in 2001, at the moment of the Internet bubble. Then the telecom industry was essentially frozen, including submarine cables, up to 2007. During that time the first edition of the book remained a fairly up-to-date reference for the technical area. Technical progress restarted in 2007, and thus, by 2015, the technical performance and features had greatly evolved once again and the first edition of the book definitely became obsolete.

This second edition arrives at a technical cornerstone: in the same way as Moore’s law displays some slowing down of electronic integration, optical transmission is approaching the glass ceiling of the Shannon limit of information spectral density. Submarine cables are no exception to this approach of the capacity limits. This offers the right time for a revised edition.

This fully updated new edition is intended to remain the best resource for demystifying enabling optical technologies, equipment, operations, and marine installations, and is an essential reference for those working in this field. The book will offer a complete updated coverage of the field, in addition filling some gaps. The book:

• Features new content on:

• Ultra-long haul submarine transmission technologies for telecommunications

• Alternative submarine cable applications, such as scientific or oil and gas

• Addresses the development of high-speed networks for multiplying Internet and broadband services with:

• Coherent optical technology for 100 Gbit/s channels or above

• Wet plant optical networking and reconfigurability

• Provides a full overview of the evolution of the field conveying the strategic importance of large undersea projects with:

• Technical and organizational life cycle of a submarine network

• Upgrades of amplified submarine cables by coherent technology

Objectives and outline of the book

As the technical field has evolved since the 2002 publication date of the first edition, the target of this second edition is to update the content to achieve technical and operational completeness, and to remain as the primary reference book of the submarine cable field. The content is organized as follows:

Section I provides an introduction to submarine networks.

I-1: Presentation of Submarine Fiber Communications by José Chesnoy, providing an overview of submarine communication systems.

I-2: Historical Overview of Submarine Communication Systems by Gérard Fouchard, providing a complete overview of historical developments, from the first age to the systems installed in 2015.

Section II provides background on the design of modern submarine optical networks and systems for all applications from long haul, to unrepeatered, through nontelecom applications.

II-3: Basics of Incoherent and Coherent Digital Optical Communications by Philippe Gallion describes the theoretical background of optical communications from modulation to reception, with a complete view of signal quality from electrical to optical noise sources, especially detailed for systems with optical amplifiers. It is now completed to introduce the basics of coherent transmission.

II-4: Optical Amplification by Dominique Bayart provides an updated comprehensive overview of the key fiber amplifier technology, erbium but also Raman, with the basics of the technology and the elements to properly understand signal and noise generation through chains of amplifiers.

II-5: Ultralong-haul Submarine Transmission by Gabriel Charlet and Pascal Pecci describes theoretically and practically the design of a WDM optical amplified line. It is the basic chapter that covers all the theoretical and practical aspects of WDM system design of ultralong-haul amplified systems. This chapter has been significantly reworked to cover all modern aspects of submarine transmission.

II-6: Technologies for the Mitigation of Transmission Impairments in Ultralong-haul Submarine Networks by Eduardo F. Mateo is a new chapter that is intended to disclose the different optical and processing techniques and technologies that are enabling improvement of transmission against adverse degradation from linear and nonlinear effects.

II-7: Unrepeatered Transmission by Herve Fevrier, Bertrand Clesca, Philippe Perrier, Do-Il Chang, and Wayne Pelouch provides a complete and updated overview of the specific area of unrepeatered transmission systems.

II-8: New Applications for Submarine Cables by Stephen Lentz is a completely new chapter introduced in this second edition. It provides a complete coverage of the scientific as well as oil and gas industry applications that have developed in recent years.

Section III describes the implementation of the submarine equipment as well as all the enabling technologies involved in a submarine network.

III-9: Architectures and Management of Submarine Networks by Olivier Courtois and Caroline Bardelay-Guyot provides a description of submarine networks including network management. This chapter is considerably updated to take into account the direct IP connection, the introduction of ROADM, and their effects on network management.

III-10: Submarine System Powering by Koji Takehira is a new chapter introduced to cover this topic in a comprehensive way, which is quite strategic and specific for submarine networks.

III-11: Submarine Fibers by Scott R. Bickham, Hazell Matthews, and Snigdharaj Mishra updates the description of submarine fibers, including their evolution towards the new low loss, large effective area modern fibers.

III-12: Submerged Plant Equipment by Neal Bergano, Bruce Nyman, Maurice Kordahi, Barbara Dean, Haifeng Li, and Lara Garrett provides complete coverage of the wet plant equipment that is the key specific part of the submarine hardware. It also provides an important comprehensive new analysis of the reliability aspects of submarine networks.

III-13: Cable Technology by Jean François Libert and Gary Waterworth covers the technical aspects of submarine cable equipment.

III-14: Submarine Line Terminal by Arnaud Leroy and Omar Ait Sab is the chapter dedicated to transmission equipment. It has needed a full rework to properly cover modern coherent technology and signal processing.

Finally, section IV completes the picture by providing a full description of the operational technical aspects in order to ensure the completeness of the book’s coverage.

IV-15: System Planning and Deployment by Loic Lefur is a new chapter describing the life of a submarine project from the idea to system acceptance.

IV-16: Submarine Cable Upgrades by Robert Hadaway is also a completely new chapter which has been introduced following the advent of this new technical era, opening a new business.

IV-17: Marine and Maintenance by John Horne and Raynald Leconte is an update of the marine laying and maintenance techniques.

The book’s editor is especially grateful to all the contributors who have invested their time to produce a high quality work, introducing an original contribution. This high level panel of experts gives this collective book a unique coverage previously absent from any publication on the subject, and which could not have been achieved without their active involvement.

Three forewords are written by key actors of the domain: Yves Ruggeri, representing both a key Telco operator and Suboptic organization; Valey Kamalov, representing a Webco operator; and Neal Bergano, who is a key representative of an historical cable supplier. They are thanked warmly.

Before ending this introduction, the editor wishes to dedicate a special thought to Jean Jerphagnon who left us in 2005. He promoted submarine cable technology throughout his life, being an influential actor in its development. He was a sponsor of the first edition of this book. We can be sure he would be very happy to see the great progress in the field during the last decade.

References

1. Runge PK, Trischitta PR, eds. Undersea lightwave communications. IEEE Press 1986.

2. Salvador R, Fouchard G, Rolland Y, Leclerc AP. Du Morse à l’Internet, Edition Association des Amis des Câbles Sous Marins; 2006.

Part I

Introduction

Outline

1 Presentation of submarine fiber communication

2 Historical overview of submarine communication systems

1

Presentation of submarine fiber communication

José Chesnoy,    Ex-CTO of Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks, Independent Expert, Paris, France

Abstract

This introductory chapter provides a high-level view of submarine cables by José Chesnoy, PhD, editor of the book, and introduces the second edition of the book Undersea Fiber Communication Systems. As of 2015, the capacity of a submarine cable has increased by more than a factor of 200,000 since the introduction of optical technologies in the 1980s, leading to a capacity approaching 20 Tbit/s per fiber pair, equivalent to several billion simultaneous phone calls! Submarine cables constitute a continuous meshing of 1 million km of optical cables at the bottom of the world’s oceans; no other technology can now compete with them, and they are transporting 99% of the international voice and data traffic. Optical systems are based on four main inventions: optical fiber, semiconductor optoelectronics, optical amplification, and coherent transmission supported by powerful digital microelectronics. These four cornerstones have now all been implemented in submarine cables. This new edition covers the diverse technical field of submarine networks from fundamentals to operational including design, equipment, new applications and marine operations at the maturity of the optical era.

Keywords

Submarine cable; undersea cable; optical fiber; optical amplification; optical transmission; optical telecommunication; oil and gas industry; upgrade; WDM; cable; repeater; branching unit; submarine terminal; coherent optical technology

Chapter Outline

1.1 Preamble 3

1.2 Configuration of a submarine communication system 6

1.3 Multi-terabit submarine optical technology 11

1.4 Recent and future evolution 14

1.4.1 Recent evolution of submarine cables 14

1.4.2 Future evolution of submarine networks 15

References 19

1.1 Preamble

The image of submarine cable communications is uniquely diverse, ranging from rapidly evolving high technology to complex but slowly changing operations in an adverse sea environment. The field has in fact been subject to a permanent global evolution and definitely the technical aspects of this area deserve a full book in order to be properly appreciated and understood. This second edition of the book Undersea Fiber Communication Systems, published 15 years after the first edition, is an update of the technical field written by a high-level panel of experts and should fulfil the expectations of both professionals and curious engineers.

The laying of the first transoceanic communication cables was a big event in the second half of the 19th century, seen as the conquest of the deep sea and as the spanning of the tremendous distances between continents, at the same level of importance as the space adventure in the second half of the 20th century. After this heroic period, during more than 100 years, submarine cables evolved slowly and inconspicuously from telegraph to voice communications, in close competition from the first day with radio communications. When the Early Bird opened in 1965, the era of satellite communications, the first voice traffic transatlantic cable TAT1 was only 10 years old. During the following 20 years, a transatlantic cable did not carry significantly more capacity than a satellite, and the winner of this competition was uncertain.

When the first edition of this book was published in 2002, people had not generally realized that the last 10 years of the 20th century had seen a complete revolution of the communication backbone, with the introduction of fiber optics in submarine cables: thanks to optical technologies, the capacity per cable increased by a factor exceeding 10,000, leading to the possible transmission of more than 500 million simultaneous phone calls across the ocean.

Today, in 2015,