Undersea cable networks are a key component of the global communication infrastructure, linking many countries and continents. Global businesses and consumers rely extensively on internet and communication technologies for a multitude of reasons across today’s digital landscape, making the stability and performance of underwater cable networks evermore critical. As we will discuss in this article – the first of SUBCO’s ten-part series on submarine optimisation and diversity – diversity is one of the most important techniques to improve the stability and performance of underwater cable networks.

Undersea cable diversity has various advantages for organisations and customers – five of the most significant advantages are higher dependability, improved performance, enhanced security, decreased latency, and reduced congestion risk.

For companies and consumers, increased dependability is a key benefit of undersea cable diversity. The chance of a communication failure is minimised with numerous connections since traffic may be re-routed through other cables in the case of a breakdown. This is especially vital for critical services like financial transactions, military communications, and emergency services that demand high levels of dependability and availability.

Underwater cable diversity also fosters improved performance. Multiple cables boost the network’s data transmission capacity, allowing for more data to be delivered in less time. This can assist to minimise data latency, or delay, which is especially crucial for time-sensitive applications like online gaming, financial transactions, and high-definition video conferencing.

Another additional benefit of diversity is increased security. Because underwater cables can be physically damaged by ship anchors, earthquakes, and other natural disasters, having numerous cables provides a redundant method for data transfer, lowering the chance of communication failure. This is especially true for sensitive information including financial transactions, medical data, and secret communications.

Lowering latency is another advantage of underwater cable diversity. Latency is the delay in data transmission that can be caused by a myriad of variables such as distance, congestion, and cable quality. Data can be delivered via the shortest feasible path using many connections, lowering latency and boosting overall network performance.

Subsea cable diversity can also help to alleviate congestion. As the demand for internet services grows, so does the number of users and the volume of data transferred over the network. With a varied network, data traffic may be distributed across numerous connections, decreasing the danger of congestion and maintaining the network’s ability to meet expanding demand.

It is ultimately the dependability, performance, security, low latency, and decreased congestion of diverse undersea cable systems that make them advantageous. The necessity of a diversified undersea cable network will only rise as the demand for internet and communication technologies grows. Diverse underwater cable networks support the global communication infrastructure’s continuing stability and performance by offering numerous and redundant data transmission pathways.

Found this article interesting?

Stay tuned for the next article in SUBCO’s ten-part series on submarine optimisation and deployment, where we will explore how diverse undersea cable networks improve reliability and performance.