Under The Sea Cable Dance [CL76]

Episode: 76 Published: 10/03/2023

Last week we touched briefly on the OSI model of understanding the different layers of networking infrastructure. Ned, being right for once, pointed out that the model is a little, shall we say, fuzzy, on the difference (and the importance of separating) some of the layers.

One thing he didn���t mention is that the OSI model is not the only model that describes networking, and that some, like the TCP model actually only has 4 layers, combining the 7 in OSI (Ed.- I did mention this, but apparently someone wasn’t paying attention). In any case, it got me to thinking; considering the cloud-first world that we live in now��� how many people really know how the lowest layers of any model work. How the hell does my computer connect to your computer, like, physically?

The answer? Mostly, long-ass cables in the ocean.

• Long Ass Cables
• Sadly no-longer-updated summary blog post about undersea cables
• Paul Barford put together a comprehensive map of just the overland and underground cables in the United States
• Well there are actually a healthy amount of discrete cables going the 4,000-odd miles from basically NYC to Europe
• The incidents in 2008 ended up knocking several countries completely offline until traffic was able to be rerouted
• During WWI, Britain cut all but one of Germany���s undersea telegraph lines, and tapped the last remaining one
• Suspicions of Russian submarines cutting undersea cables as recently as last yea
• Microsoft/Facebook-owned MAREA cable

Intro and outro music by James Bellavance copyright 2022