The steps of how the submarine robot repairs the submarine cable

The steps of how the submarine robot repairs the submarine cable

The importance of submarine cables

The reason why people can communicate and surf the Internet across the mountains and the sea is due to the role of submarine optical cables. Submarine optical cable, also known as submarine communication cable, is a wire wrapped with insulating material and laid on the seabed to establish telecommunication transmission between countries. The submarine optical cable undertakes 90% of the current international communication business in the world and is the main carrier of information communication in the world today. At present, there are about 450 submarine optical cables in the world, with a total length of about 1.2 million kilometers.

The service life of submarine optical cables is generally about 25 years. Compared with terrestrial optical cables, submarine optical cables have many advantages. For example, they do not need to dig trenches or support them with brackets, so the investment is low and the construction speed is fast.

However, submarine optical cables are also easily damaged by anchors or even bitten by sharks. Once damaged, it may lead to the interruption of regional Internet and long-distance telephone services, resulting in incalculable losses.

After the cable is damaged

In January 2022, the Tonga cable operator said on the 19th that the tsunami triggered by the eruption of the submarine volcano caused the only submarine communication optical fiber cable in Tonga to break.

How to repair the submarine cable

The steps of the submarine robot to repair the submarine cable

1. After the robot dives into the water, it scans and detects the exact location of the damaged submarine cable.
2. The robot digs out the submarine cable buried in the mud and cuts it with cable scissors. The rope is lowered from the boat, tied to one end of the fiber optic cable by the robot, and pulled out of the sea. At the same time, the robot places a wireless transponder at the cut.
3. Pull the other cable out of the sea in the same way. Just like the maintenance of the telephone line, the instruments on the ship are connected to both ends of the optical cable respectively, and through the submarine cable landing stations in both directions, it can detect which end of the optical cable is blocked. After that, retract the longer part of the submarine cable with the blocking part, and cut it off. The other section is equipped with buoys and temporarily left to float at sea.
4. Next, manually connect the spare submarine cable to the two breakpoints of the Sino-US submarine cable. Connecting optical cable joints is a very "technical" job, and non-normal people can do it. Only those who have undergone special and strict training and obtained the license of the relevant international organization can work on the job. There are only three or four such "connectors" in Shanghai Telecom.
5. After the spare submarine cable is connected, after repeated tests, after the communication is normal, it is thrown into the sea water. At this time, the underwater robot is about to "go into battle" again: "buying" the repaired submarine cable, that is, using a high-pressure water gun to flush the mud on the seabed out of a ditch, and "place" the repaired submarine cable in it.