Amid mounting geopolitical tensions, the +400 submarine cables that form the backbone of the global internet capacity are matters of national security as primary enablers of the global economy and communications. Recent news events have revealed that undersea cables are being intentionally targeted and attacked for political and economic reasons. Additionally, undersea cable systems inherently are exposed to vulnerabilities posed by marine activities and natural forces, including major seismic activity.
While earthquakes and other undersea volcanic events can trigger destructive landslides and turbidity currents, breaking submarine cables, the normal tides and currents can cause damage over time where a cable is exposed. Also exposed or shallow buried cables are more vulnerable to fishing and anchoring events. Understanding the exposure and range of potential impacts to varying seabed conditions is step one in a successful cable risk planning and management program.
SITUATION AWARENESS & ANALYSIS
The conventional approach taken by system operators has historically been primarily reactive—that is, “We will purchase a quantity of spare equipment – when the system fails, we will fix it”. This is an operational philosophy which is outdated and exposes both the system owner and customers to significant repair costs, system downtime, and lost revenue.
OSI’s Cable Protection Advisory Service ensures that the system operator is situationally aware of the risk environment specific to their cable system and will provide the quality information necessary to make informed decisions to manage the risks.
Comprehensive cable protection starts with precise and detailed knowledge of the system , which includes having a detailed understanding of the specific risk profile and cost/benefit trade-off for a particular cable system, and the cable protection options that are now available, including the option to do nothing.
OSI provides analysis for existing cable systems and new builds, including:
Risk Analysis & Mitigation
- Cable history and record of similar cables in region.
- Location risk specific to the cable route and landings.
- System monitoring plans, procedures and process upgrades.
- Permits required for various repair scenarios.
- Repair scenario timelines.
- Risk from fishing, anchor drag, dredging, etc.
- Evaluation of system design/inspection/maintenance documentation and plans.
- Design analysis for long-term cable protection.
Cost Benefit Analysis
- Direct repair cost.
- Repair delay costs:
- Permitting delay costs.
- Repair vessel delay costs.
- Sparing costs.
- Lost revenue and Service Level Agreement outage costs.
- Re-routing costs.
- Cable Protection and risk mitigation options cost/benefit.
Event Response Plan
- Terrestrial event.
- Shallow water event.
- Deep water event.
- CLS event.
- Storm, environmental event.
- Security/threat event.
- Precision outage identification.
- Legal, data gathering.
Stakeholder Identification & Engagement
- Adjacent/nearby cable systems.
- Municipal/regulatory authorities.
- Commercial fishing.
- Oil & Gas.
- Other seabed users.
Cable Protection Options
- No action taken.
- Hardening of the cable system with specialty products and techniques.
- Enhanced monitoring and system surveillance using existing NOC test and analysis capabilities.
- Seaway monitoring of suspicious vessel activity around the cable —AIS services.
- Cable monitoring to detect movement of or interference with the cable —DAS or alternate.
Next Step Planning
- In-house or outsourced services.
- Budget.
- Timeline.
- Contracting.
- Construction, Installation, Commissioning and Handover.
- Operations Planning.
- O&M.
Contact OSI
Reach out to OSI to discuss your system and let us design a cable protection program for you.