Page 28 - 4 Years Report

EMERGING SUBSEA NETWORKS:

NEW MARKET OPPORTUNITIES FOR, AND SOCIETAL CONTRIBUTIONS FROM,

SMART CABLE SYSTEMS

Christopher Barnes* (University of Victoria), David Meldrum (Scottish Marine Institute), and Hiroshi Ota (International Telecommunication Union)
Email: crbarnes@uvic.ca
*School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria, P.O. Box 1700, Victoria, BC V8W 2Y2, Canada; and Chair, ITU/WMO/IOC-UNESCO Joint Task Force

ABSTRACT:
The subsea telecommunications cable industry has the opportunity to enter a new era with the emergence of game-changing dual-purpose cable systems. These SMART cables will incorporate small external
sensor packages to transmit real-time environmental data without any impact on commercial traffic. The sensors will precisely measure temperature, pressure and three-axis acceleration across the world’s ocean
floor on a sustained basis in response to an increasing international need to monitor and mitigate climate and sea-level change and radically improve tsunami hazard warnings. SMART cable systems will provide
new market opportunities, engage non-traditional users, and make profound societal contributions.
1

A CHANGING ECONOMY AND THE INTERNET REVOLUTION
The recent emergence, evolution, and dominance of hardware, software and communication 2
companies has driven rapid change in Internet-enabled commerce. How does this affect the
subsea telecommunications industry?
 Over 200 operating fiber optic undersea cables carry 95% of the transoceanic voice and data AN UNEXPLOITED COMMERCIALIZATION OPPORTUNITY
traffic. Urgent societal need for real-time environmental data can be met by developing and
 Demand has been for additional cables, improved multiplexing, and faster communication. marketing SMART (“green”, “dual-purpose”) cables (SMART = Science Monitoring And Resilient
 Underwater cables carried 51 billion gigabytes/month in 2013 – projected to be 132 billion Telecommunications).
gigabytes by 2017.  Subsea telecommunications industry can exploit a new era of opportunity and
commercialization by progressively building a subsea cable network, equipped with sensors
3 Movable and deployable ICT resource
delivering key real-time environmental data (climate and sea level change, and warnings for
tsunamis and submarine slope failures).
units (MDRU) for disaster relief
 This SMART cable concept is advocated by Joint Task Force (JTF) of the UN’s International
Telecommunication Union (ITU), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and
SMART SUBSEA CABLE SYSTEMS Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO.
The concept is to add three key environmental sensors to repeaters along new or refurbished
trans-ocean or regional cable systems (temperature, pressure and three-axis acceleration).
 These are already marketed, proven and deployed on scientific cabled ocean observatories:
NEPTUNE (British Columbia to 2700m), DONET (eastern Honshu, Japan to 4000m); OOI’s Cabled
Array (Washington/Oregon to 2900m); and ALOHA Observatory (Hawaii, to 4800m).
 Sensors are small, reliable, operate down to 7000m; can operate fault-free for more than a
decade; no maintenance or replacement after deployment.
 Real-time data return is key in using pressure sensor data for tsunami hazard warnings.
4
 Data return is only about 30kb/s per sensor location and can be via supervisory channel or
dedicated wavelength/fiber to avoid interference with primary data transmission.

NEW ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIETAL IMPERATIVES
Ocean climate change, sea level rise, and tsunami/slope failure hazards represent major threats,
with profound global and regional socio-economic impacts.
 Advances in sensor technologies, cabled ocean observatories, and partnerships with the subsea
telecommunications industry, combine to favour new SMART Cable Systems in providing critical
environmental data on regional and global scales.
5 save vast resources from destruction.
 These developments address global issues affecting societies and future generations, and can

SMART INTERNATIONAL LEADERSHIP BY THE SUBSEA A. CLIMATE CHANGE
TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY Climate change is the most serious issue facing humankind during this century.
 Progressive increase in atmospheric CO2 (now exceeding 400ppm), methane, and mean global
Successful industries respond to changing societal needs and commercial opportunities, with temperatures has prompted serious warnings of natural and societal consequences.
smart companies investing ahead of the curve.  Failure to mitigate and adapt to climate change is the greatest threat facing the world’s
 Profound societal and economic implications of future climate/sea level change and the scale of economy (World Economic Forum, 2016).
tsunami hazards, demand an urgent need to understand and quantify these threats.  UNFCCC COP21 climate summit (2015) achieved the Paris Agreement. 195 members agreed to
 For the industry, this means adoption and rapid implementation of SMART cable systems. reduce carbon output to keep global warming to below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels.
Oceans are the main controlling factor in climate change, holding much of the heat and
A. NEW MARKET OPPORTUNITIES greenhouse gases, with a complex circulation system.
 However, key data are unavailable or sparse for the deep oceans.
SMART cable systems with sensor components will generate value-added, real-time, critically
needed, environmental data (T, P, Accel.).  Real-time bottom temperatures via SMART cable sensors are urgently needed to understand
the complex conveyer belt systems operating through all oceans.
 Incremental cost is estimated at 5-8% of a trans-ocean cable system, with no change in
deployment methods, and no ongoing maintenance.
 Possible NRE expenses may depend on the R&D status for any particular company.
 The JTF Wet Demonstrator project will develop a generic system, deliver proof-of-concept, and
reduce or eliminate such expenses.

B. SEA LEVEL RISE
One consequence of warming oceans is global sea level rise, varying regionally.
 This rise is generated by melting polar ice-caps and glaciers, and ocean thermal expansion.
 IPCC (2013) estimated a rise of c. 90cm by 2100, but this may be conservative.
B. ENGAGING NON-TRADITIONAL USERS  Sea level rise is critically significant to low-lying countries (e.g. Maldives, Bangladesh,
Netherlands), causing large population migrations and massive costs infrastructure costs.
Marketing SMART cable systems will engage a wide range of potential new non-traditional users.
 Monitoring by SMART cable sensors will capture real-time changes throughout ocean basins
 Increasing environmental and economic threats facing the planet require more precise, real- over decades for long-term monitoring and help to calibrate satellite gravity data.
time, ocean environmental and hazard data for evidence-based decisions, advice and policies
- by government agencies, insurance and re-insurance companies, port authorities, cruise ship
companies, city planners, emergency/disaster organizations, ENGOs, etc..
 Government agencies (e.g. NOAA and USGS) are responsible for generating, analyzing, and
distributing climate, earthquake, and tsunami data. Recently, US House and Senate gave
unanimous support for the Tsunami Warning, and Education, and Research Act of 2015, which
encourages the use of sensors on Federal and commercial submarine telecommunication cables.
 How will the subsea telecommunications industry seize this opportunity?
C. HAZARD MITIGATION (TSUNAMIS AND SLOPE FAILURES)
6 A dozen major tsunamis in just the last decade (Indonesia (2004), American Samoa and Tonga
(2009), Chile (2010, 2015), Haiti (2010), Japan (2011) and Solomon Islands (2013)) have caused
hundreds of thousands of deaths and destroyed infrastructure in the billions of dollars.
SUMMARY  SMART cable systems will generate real-time data across ocean basins and coastal areas,
dramatically improving early warning systems, mitigating loss of life, damage, and costs.
Climate change (including sea level change) is recognized as the most serious issue for the economy and  Scientific observatories with SMART sensor networks are now established in tsunami and slope
societies well-being in the 21st century (World Economic Forum; IPCC; COP21). failure hazard areas in NE and NW Pacific, and in European/Mediterranean seas.
 The cost and loss of life and infrastructure from major earthquakes, tsunamis, and submarine slope failures
have devastated many regions.
 Many sectors (government/UN agencies, insurance industry, coastal and port authorities, etc.) are
desperate for real-time scientific data for their decision and policy making.
The subsea telecommunications industry provides cable systems for high-speed data transmission and
worldwide communications. With the Digital Age and a host of new digital devices, the industry plays a vital
role in installing and maintaining innovative subsea cable networks.
 Industry can forge a new era by developing SMART (Science Monitoring And Resilient
Telecommunications) cable systems with sensors (T, P, three-axis Accel) on repeaters, with no special
deployment and no maintenance.
 Real-time data can be transmitted over decades via supervisory or equivalent channels, to address key
climate issues of deep ocean circulation (conveyor belt changes, tipping points, warming, impact of polar
ice-cap melting). 7
 Progressive installation of SMART cables would dramatically enhance the current tsunami warning
capability, augmenting the vandal-prone DART buoys and coastal tide gauges with a global real-time,
reliable, high-precision network. REFERENCES
Marketing the new SMART cable systems is essential by industry, with advocacy by ICPC and ITU, WMO, IOC- Details of 35 supporting references are given for this paper in Proceedings of
UNESCO, and their Joint Task Force (JTF). BLUE SubOptic2016.
 Industry should increase its marketing reach to non-traditional users: agencies and sectors that desperately
need these key environmental data for decision and policy making to address severe environmental
threats facing the society and the planet in the 21st century.
How and when will the subsea telecommunications industry fully recognize, reinvent, and respond to this
challenge?

Joint Task Force
on green cables systems
Poster_2016-396375_160x80.indd 1 12/04/2016 15:54:41