How Submarine Cables Enhance Digital Collaboration | IGF 2023 Town Hall #80

Hendrik Ike

Submarine cables play a critical role in facilitating international cooperation in internet governance and diplomacy. The agreements between various entities, such as NRENs/Rens, are built on trust and reciprocity. These agreements enable public entities to share and disseminate public research and educational data, fostering collaboration and knowledge exchange.

The evolving landscape of internet ownership and utilization underscores the significance of an open, resilient, and distributed internet structure to support research and education. The demand for investments in submarine systems is driven by the growth of research and educational activities, particularly in remote and traditional routes.

Submarine cables also serve as physical geopolitical solutions to the increasingly politicized internet. By providing reliable connectivity across borders, submarine cables promote international collaboration in research and education. This aligns with the goals of SDG 9: Industries, Innovation, and Infrastructure, and SDG 17: Partnership for the Goals in fostering global partnerships.

Strategic agreement provisions for submarine cables between the European Union and Japan have significant implications for scientific, political, and economic aspects. These agreements demonstrate the recognition of the importance of submarine cables in facilitating international cooperation and advancing research and educational initiatives.

However, the construction and operation of submarine cable systems present complex challenges. Paul Rouse describes them as intricate engineering projects that require careful design and construction. The complexity arises from the various components involved and the need to navigate through different territories and environments.

Successful submarine cable projects often involve multi-stakeholder collaborations. The involvement of multiple member states or nations enhances project outcomes and strengthens partnerships. Hendrik Ike highlights the importance of multi-stakeholder collaboration in achieving project success, enabling different interests and expertise to contribute to the project’s objectives.

To summarize, submarine cables are crucial for international cooperation in internet governance, diplomacy, research, and education. Trust-based agreements facilitate the exchange of public research and educational data. The evolving internet landscape necessitates an open and resilient structure. Submarine cables also provide geopolitical solutions and are strategically recognized by the European Union and Japan. However, the complexity of designing and implementing submarine cable systems requires careful planning and coordination, often through multi-stakeholder collaborations.

Jun Murai

The discussions revolve around various topics related to infrastructure, technology, and funding in the Asia-Pacific region. The WIDE project, which has been operational for 35 years, focuses on improving infrastructure and technology research for the internet in the Asia-Pacific region. It involves more than 100 companies, including Starbucks, and encompasses professionals, engineers, and scientists. This project has a positive sentiment and aims to enhance internet infrastructure and technology research.

The need for a large funding body in the Asia-Pacific region similar to the EU and US is highlighted. The EU and US have significant funding bodies promoting research that ultimately results in the installation of submarine cables. However, the Asia-Pacific region lacks such a body, leading to the argument that there is a need for one to facilitate the installation of new submarine cables. This argument is expressed with a neutral sentiment.

The WIDE project started ARINAPAC, an arterial research and educational network, to create a supportive infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific region and link it to Europe and America. This initiative receives positive sentiment and supports the SDG goals of industry, innovation, and infrastructure and partnerships for the goals.

There is also support for the development of Wet ROADM (reconfigurable optical add and drop multiplexer) technology for submarine cables. Wet ROADM allows for the reconfiguration of spectrum splitting for future adjustments and enables adding or dropping traffic without reinstalling the fiber. This positive sentiment stance supports SDG goal 9.

The importance of effective collaborative projects between multiple stakeholders is emphasized by Jun Murai, with in-kind contributions being a significant aspect. Past collaborations mentioned include satellite transponder companies working together and high-speed switches and equipment developers participating in interoperability testing. Additionally, a wide project exploring new technology is mentioned, highlighting the mutual benefits of collaboration from an investment perspective. This argument has a positive sentiment and emphasizes the importance of collaboration and in-kind contributions for future networking progress.

Connectivity in Southeast Asia is seen as crucial, with Jun Murai supporting collaboration between the EU and JAN. The initiation of IHPI and satellite utilization, as well as the reference to 10 efforts to connect as the next generation of terrestrial connectivity, are mentioned. A three-phase plan is also outlined, involving satellite connection as phase 1, TEN connectivity as phase 2, and the redesigning of southern connectivity utilizing the Arctic Ocean as phase 3. This argument has a positive sentiment and highlights the importance of collaboration for enhancing connectivity in Southeast Asia.

Tain, the giant version and regional network of Southeast Asia, is mentioned to have started in the 80s, while the cable CAE-1 began in the middle 90s. These historical facts are mentioned neutrally.

Research and educational networks contribute a small percentage, around 5-10%, of the total installation costs of cables like NordNet. It is mentioned that it is possible, though not easy, to raise funds for research and education to cover 5% of the entire cable installation costs. This argument has a neutral sentiment and highlights the contribution of research and educational networks.

Once installed, the research and educational community will occupy about 5% of the capacity on the fiber pair. This positive sentiment argument emphasizes the usage of fiber capacity by the research and educational community.

The EU-Japan Digital Partnership Agreement endorses the project and extends the scope of people involved. It also promotes the benefits of investing in optical fiber to various industries. This argument has a positive sentiment and supports the importance of partnerships and endorsements for the project’s success.

Jun Murai believes that the special approach taken by the research and education community in actively initiating the project and inviting other stakeholders to get involved is unique and has not been done in the past. This positive sentiment argument emphasizes the importance of the research and education community’s active involvement.

Japan’s high frequency of earthquakes is mentioned in discussions related to the smart cable concept, which involves piggybacking sensors on commercial communication cables. It is argued that this concept is not enough for Japan due to the frequency of earthquakes, resulting in a negative sentiment.

Investment for the specific installation of sensor cables at the bottom of the ocean, identified as a dangerous area due to earthquakes, is seen as necessary for earthquake preparedness. It is argued that this investment can help in preparing for future catastrophes. This argument has a positive sentiment and supports the importance of investing in sensor cables for earthquake preparedness.

Japan has different funding sources for commercial companies, research, education, and seismic operations due to the frequency of earthquakes. This positive sentiment argument highlights the unique funding decision-making in Japan influenced by the frequency of earthquakes.

In conclusion, the discussions highlight the importance of infrastructure, technology, and funding in the Asia-Pacific region. Projects like WIDE and ARINAPAC aim to improve internet infrastructure and create supportive networks. There is a need for a large funding body to support submarine cable installation, similar to the EU and US. Collaboration and in-kind contributions are seen as important for future networking progress. Jun Murai emphasizes the importance of connectivity in Southeast Asia and the significance of collaboration between the EU and JAN. Additionally, the importance of investment in sensor cables for earthquake preparedness in Japan is emphasized. The discussions also highlight the different funding sources in Japan due to the frequency of earthquakes.

Audience

During a discussion, an audience member raised a question regarding the cost comparison between transferring energy and transferring data. This query sparked interest and highlighted the importance of understanding the financial implications of such processes.

In another point of discussion, the topic of installing cables in icy regions was explored. It was revealed that this project would be costly and resource-intensive, potentially requiring the commissioning of a new icebreaker. The task was considered a significant challenge, particularly when attempting to accomplish it without the assistance of immigrants alone. It became evident that substantial resources and funding would be required to successfully carry out the installation.

The need for government endorsements and funding emerged as a key aspect of the project. Participants agreed that financial support from the government would help alleviate the cost burden associated with the installation of cables. Furthermore, the issue of financial viability and return on investment was raised, reinforcing the importance of government involvement in this initiative.

Collaboration between various regions, namely Nordic, European, and Asian countries, was identified as a potential solution to facilitate the project’s progress. It was suggested that a common understanding and agreement on funding the project among these regions could lead to more efficient and effective implementation.

Switching gears, the discussion turned to the business case for the ability to predict natural disasters such as tsunamis and earthquakes. The potential benefits of accurate predictions were highlighted, including the reduction of costs associated with disaster recovery. In addition, it was pointed out that companies like Google and British Telecom were already testing predictive technologies, which could open up new revenue streams. This observation emphasized the need for companies to explore and capitalize on the opportunities presented by disaster prediction services.

In conclusion, the discussion covered various aspects related to the costs, resources, and collaborative efforts required for projects involving transferring energy and data, installing cables in icy regions, securing government endorsements and funding, and exploring the potential of disaster prediction services. The importance of government support, collaboration between different regions, and seizing new revenue streams were emphasized as crucial factors for the success of these initiatives.

Ieva Muraskiene

Submarine cables across the Arctic have the potential to revolutionise connectivity between Europe and Asia by offering a faster, more reliable, and geopolitically stable connection. Currently, 90% of direct traffic between the two continents goes through the congested Suez Canal, but the Arctic route presents a shorter distance and can avoid geopolitical complications by passing through the exclusive economic zones of Norway, Denmark, Canada, the US, and Japan. This alternative route has the potential to alleviate congestion and improve data transfer efficiency.

Additionally, the analysis highlights the potential for submarine cables in the Arctic to support the green data centre industry. The abundant surplus of renewable energy in the far north is currently underutilised due to a lack of power infrastructure. By leveraging submarine cables, this excess energy can be effectively harnessed to power data centres. Data transfer is more efficient and cost-effective than moving energy, and the cool climate in the northern regions can assist in dissipating the heat generated by data centres, reducing energy consumption and environmental impact.

To realise the vision of Arctic connectivity by 2030, two potential projects are identified: PolarConnect and Far North Fiber. Expected to be operational by 2030, these projects would establish reliable submarine cable connections in the Arctic. PolarConnect spans a total distance of 11,000 kilometres, while Far North Fiber covers 14,500 kilometres. These projects hold the potential to unlock the vast benefits of Arctic connectivity and bridge the digital divide.

In addition to enhancing connectivity, submarine cables equipped with sensors can also serve as powerful scientific instruments. These cables can be utilised for distributed acoustic sensing or state of polarization technology, allowing them to collect valuable data for monitoring Earth’s conditions, marine life, and seismic research. The ability to measure temperature, pressure, velocity, and salinity provides valuable insights into climate change and oceanic processes. Furthermore, the sensors can aid in the protection and monitoring of the cables themselves.

The analysis also touches on the cost disparities between transferring energy and data. The report acknowledges that the lack of infrastructure largely contributes to the cost difference. However, it emphasises the need for further exploration of the value proposition of energy versus data transfer. This information would provide valuable insights for decision-makers and assist in the development of infrastructure to support both energy and data transfer.

Engagement with governments and the European Commission is considered essential to secure funding and support for these projects. The Nordic countries, in particular, are recommended to communicate with their respective governments to obtain the necessary endorsements and support. The European Commission can also play a crucial role in exploring funding opportunities for these projects, aligning with SDG 17, which emphasises partnerships for attaining goals.

It is worth noting that the potential of submarine cables in the Arctic extends beyond mere connectivity. The analysis highlights multiple use cases and benefits across various sectors, including research, education, and the commercial sector. The project can contribute to early warnings for natural disasters and seismic activity, providing valuable information for scientific research and supporting SDGs 9 and 13.

In conclusion, the analysis showcases the immense potential of submarine cables across the Arctic. These cables offer a faster, more reliable, and geopolitically stable connection between Europe and Asia, bypassing congested areas like the Suez Canal. They not only facilitate efficient data transfer but also support the green data centre industry by utilising excess renewable energy and managing the heat generated by data centres. The PolarConnect and Far North Fiber projects are anticipated to realise the vision of Arctic connectivity by 2030. Furthermore, submarine cables equipped with sensors have the potential to serve as scientific instruments, collecting valuable data for observing the Earth, marine life, and seismic research. Engagement with governments and the European Commission is crucial for securing funding and support for these projects. The potential of submarine cables in the Arctic extends beyond connectivity, offering multiple benefits and use cases across different sectors.

Dr. Masafumi Oe

The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAO-J) operates astronomical facilities globally that rely on large volumes of data for research and analysis. To support this need, high-bandwidth networks are essential. The Subaru Telescope, which was established in 1999, has recently undergone system upgrades, including the addition of the hyperspring cam. As a result, the telescope’s data can now be efficiently transferred to Tokyo for analysis through a 100 gigabit Ethernet network, improving data transfer capabilities.

In addition, the ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) project is currently upgrading its network infrastructure to a 1.2 terabit capacity. This upgrade will enable synchronous data transfer from all ALMA receivers, enhancing overall data transfer capabilities for the project. Dr. Masafumi Oe supports these network improvements for big science astronomy facilities, as it allows them to meet the demands of modern research effectively.

One significant outcome of these network upgrades is the reduction in data analysis time. With the upgraded network, the Subaru Telescope can now analyze data in under 10 minutes, demonstrating the positive impact of enhanced network capacities on research efficiency. Additionally, the 1.2 terabit network infrastructure upgrade for the ALMA project promises improved efficiency and reliability in astronomical research through enhanced data transfer capabilities.

The evidence strongly supports the argument that high-bandwidth networks are crucial for the advancement of modern astronomical research. The notable achievements of the Subaru Telescope and the ongoing network upgrade for the ALMA project highlight the benefits that improved network capacities bring to big science astronomy facilities. The positive sentiment surrounding these advancements, along with Dr. Masafumi Oe’s endorsement, further emphasizes the importance of upgrading network capacities for the progression of astronomical research.

Overall, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan operates astronomical facilities globally that heavily rely on large datasets, making high-bandwidth networks essential. The upgrades made to the Subaru Telescope’s data transfer capabilities and the ongoing network upgrade for the ALMA project underscore the significance of improving network capacities for modern astronomical research. The reduction in data analysis time and the endorsement of Dr. Masafumi Oe enhance the overall efficiency and progress of big science astronomy facilities. These advancements contribute to the overall efficiency and progress of astronomical research.

Paul Rouse

The analysis explores the role of submarine cables in supporting research and education, highlighting that 98-99% of global internet traffic is transmitted through these cables. They not only facilitate data transmission but also offer physical solutions to the increasingly politicized internet, benefiting research and education. The agreements between research and education networks at national and regional levels, based on trust and reciprocity, form the foundation for submarine cable usage in this context.

However, concerns arise regarding the changing ownership and utilization of submarine cable infrastructure. Content providers like Google, Microsoft, and Facebook are increasingly acquiring a larger share of the market, potentially reducing available capacity. This poses a risk in meeting the demands of research and education missions adequately.

To address these challenges and ensure critical infrastructure availability, proactive measures and investment in submarine systems are essential. Recent collaborations serve as examples, such as Géant partnering with the European Investment Bank and DG NIR from the European Commission to invest in the Medusa submarine cable system in the Mediterranean Sea, improving connectivity for North African countries. Additionally, Red Clara collaborated with Géant and received funding from the European Commission to invest in a new submarine cable connecting Europe to Latin America.

The analysis acknowledges the Bella project as a trailblazer amongst National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) worldwide. The project encountered various hurdles, including limited experience in submarine cable investments initially and economic difficulties, particularly in Brazil. Nonetheless, it emphasized the significance of stakeholder engagement, compliance, governance, and financial requirements in realizing successful submarine cable projects.

Collaboration and partnership emerge as recurring themes throughout the analysis. NRENs alone cannot deliver the necessary infrastructure and support; collaboration with commercial partners is crucial. The analysis suggests that NRENs are desirable partners due to their capacity to mitigate risks using public funds.

In conclusion, the analysis underscores the importance of submarine cables in supporting research and education. While concerns exist regarding changing ownership and utilization, proactive measures, investment, collaboration, and partnerships are crucial to secure critical infrastructure. The Bella and Medusa projects serve as successful collaboration examples, reflecting the value of government support, funding bodies, user communities, and the skills within NRENs. Moving forward, fostering collaboration and partnerships between NRENs and other entities will be instrumental in ensuring continuous growth and success in research and education pursuits.

Keiko Okawa

Two speakers in Asia highlight the crucial role of internet connectivity in promoting educational and research collaboration in the region. The first speaker stresses the necessity of internet access for internet engineers, as it not only supports sustainable development but also enhances collaboration among professionals in the field. They propose the implementation of an Asia-wide educational programme for internet engineers, which would ensure that they have the necessary education and connectivity to contribute effectively to the region’s progress.

The second speaker focuses on the long history of collaboration among universities in Asia, which has been facilitated by internet connectivity. They highlight the ‘Asia Internet Interconnection Initiative’, which was launched in 1996 with the aim of connecting universities across the region. This initiative has played a vital role in fostering knowledge sharing and learning among academic institutions. Furthermore, the establishment of the ‘School of the Internet’ in 2001 has further contributed to the exchange of ideas and information among universities in Asia.

Both speakers emphasise the positive impact of internet connectivity on education and partnership building in Asia. They highlight the importance of enabling access to high-speed internet for educational institutions, as it plays a crucial role in connecting these institutions and facilitating research activities. The first speaker mentions that Asia university partners are excited about the new high-speed network, showing the enthusiasm and support for such initiatives.

Furthermore, evidence of internet connectivity’s impact is demonstrated by the fact that as of 2019, almost 60% of the population in Asia was connected. This wide access to the internet has undoubtedly contributed to the growth of educational and collaborative networks across the region.

In conclusion, internet connectivity in Asia is recognised as a fundamental force driving educational and research collaboration. By providing internet access to internet engineers and enabling universities to connect and share knowledge, sustainable development and partnership building in the region can be greatly enhanced. The examples of initiatives like the ‘Asia Internet Interconnection Initiative’ and the ‘School of the Internet’ demonstrate the long-standing commitment to collaboration and shared learning among universities in Asia. With the continued efforts to expand and improve internet connectivity, the potential for educational and research collaboration in Asia is immense.

Hendrik Ike:
you want to double check with number 2 as well? They are face to face. They are face to face. He’s going to speak in the first, and you’re going to do the second part. He’s going to speak in the first, and you’re going to do the second part. He’s going to speak in the first, and you’re going to do the second part. He’s going to speak in the first, and you’re going to do the second part. He’s going to speak in the first, and you’re going to do the second part. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hello. Good morning everybody. Thank you for making it here so early on the first slot of this being the second day officially of the IGF23. My name is Hendrik Eick, I’m a public affairs officer at Géant, which is the regional research and education network of Europe. And before I introduce the speakers, I’d like to just talk a little bit about why we’re here today. So global cooperation in the field of submarine cables is an essential element of both internet governance and diplomacy. Research and educational activity is fueling demands to support investments in submarine systems. in remote areas as well as in more traditional routes. The changing profile of the ownership slash utilisation of the internet is noted, and the public interest role of research and education can be seen to be significant enough to be a conduit to ensure a retention of an open, resilient and distributed internet structure. Submarine cable agreements between national, regional research and education networks, or NRENs slash RENs, are based on the common values of trust and reciprocity, and they allow public entities to not just share and disseminate public research, educational data, but innovate solutions and services to bolster scientific advancement. With this, of course, comes both economic growth and drivers of sustainability. Submarine cables can also provide physical geopolitical solutions to an increasingly politicised internet for the good of research and education. I’d like to now introduce the speakers we have today for you. The first, and this will be in order of appearance, so the first is my colleague Paul Rouse. He’s the Chief Community Relations Officer at J-ON, and he’s joining us online, and he’ll be presenting first. Following that, we have our friends and colleagues from wide, so starting with Jun Murai-san, founder of the Wide Project, professor at Keio University and father of the Japanese Internet. We then have Professor Kaiko Okawa-san, and she’s a professor at the Keio University Graduate School of Media Design. She’s a director of the School on the Internet Asia Project, launched by the Wide Project in 2001. And then we have Dr Masafumi Oe-san, who’s a Vice Director of the IT Security Office at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. And our final speaker will be Ieva Mureshkene. She’s a Strategy and Policy Officer at Noijinet. which is the regional network for the Scandinavian NRENs. The backdrop of this session is we wanted to view it a bit through the lens of the EU-Japan strategic partnership, and also within that agreement between the EU and Japan, there are provisions for agreements on submarine cables. In order to understand this and its scientific, economic and political impact, we’ll start with Jaon giving a brief overview of how we came to this space, and with that, I’d like to hand over to Paul for his first 20 minutes.

Paul Rouse:
Thank you, Hendrik, and good morning to everybody there and to all those online. Can you see and hear me okay? Good, thank you. Right, we’ll start then with the first slide, and really, I’d like to start off with an introduction here to talk about how we have the outcome of the combination of submarine cables, the internet, and research and education networks. So we’ll start today with a little lesson in history, first of all, and let’s look at the concept of the submarine cable. It was in the mid-19th century when the first transatlantic cable was put into service. It started off with another very successful beginning, but by 1988, the world saw the advent of fibre-optic cables in place across the North Atlantic as well, and this really became the start of the capabilities as we know today, to the point where 98, 99% of all the world’s internet traffic is actually carried by submarine cables. And there to the right, you can see an extract of all the submarine cables that are in service around the world, so really very much a critical infrastructure for modern society. Let’s overlay that next then with how the internet came about. So it was Vint Cerf back at Stanford University, and the importance here of the story here is you’ll see that a lot of the internet was born out of research, academia. So Stanford University, the internet protocol was devised. And then later on at CERN, Sir Tim Berners-Lee actually came up with the concept of the World Wide Web. Now many of you may have heard of the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, where at the lowest level humans recognize we have the need for simple things like food, warmth, shelter. Some bright individual has repurposed this Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need and suggested Wi-Fi is the most important characteristic in modern society. So it just goes to show from the concept of ideas in research that the internet now is ingrained in everything we do. And for any of you that have young children, you’ll know anywhere you go someone new, the first thing they want to do is find out the code for the Wi-Fi. Looking at the next slide then, what’s the significance of research and the use of the internet? Well, here in the image, you can see the ATLAS experiment at CERN in Geneva. The purpose of CERN is high energy physics, and it looks for new exciting research into how the world was created. So most recently you would have heard of a new particle that had been identified, the Higgs boson particle. When the scientists there work on these activities, the experiments are conducted there, but the data is disseminated around the world for scientists to collaborate globally to investigate those data sets. And what you can see on that bottom graph on this slide is actually the increase and the profile of traffic. These scientists generate huge amounts of data when they conduct these experiments. And what you’ll actually see on the right-hand side of that graph is where the traffic is now, or the data produced, flowing out of the network to researchers around the world is actually starting to peak at around a terabit of data that’s coming out there. So in terms of networking connectivity, that’s a pretty significant flow rate in the network. And we need certain kind of network capabilities and solutions to be able to convey and transmit that data accurately. As well as this, CERN produces other great impacts on all of our lives. A picture there of an x-ray, so the technologies that CERN are working with are actually then deployed and adopted in x-ray technology that many of us, hopefully, you won’t experience it, but if you go into hospital and have an x-ray taken, some of the technology from CERN may be incorporated into the x-ray machines that are used to improve the image definition. So that’s physical sciences, but that’s not the only place where network connectivity is important. In the subject of observing the Earth, Earth environmental sciences, the European Union has a space program called Copernicus. Copernicus has a number of satellites that have different sensors there, and all of these sensors take a range of measurements around the Earth and make this data set available for researchers around the world. So as an example here, one such center in Kenya, the Regional Center for Mapping of Resources for Development, receives this data that’s gathered from the satellites and is transmitted over research and education networks for researchers to help contribute towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, looking at land use, crop erosion, crop diseases. All of the sensing technologies are very important to help make effective use of land resources. Now if you recall back to what I told you about the creation of the Internet, roughly at the time the Internet was created was also the birth of the National Research and Education Networks. And I’d now like to introduce you to the GIANT organization. Hendrik mentioned it briefly in his introduction, and I’ll spend a little bit more time here. GIANT is based in the Netherlands, but we’re an association with 39 member NRENs behind us, and we provide services and activities that support over 10,000 institutions or 50 million academic users. So, we’re pretty significant in terms of research and education activity. And in our composition and our activities, the things that we cover and do, if we look at the next slide please Hendrik, is in running that organisation, we undertake a number of European funded projects. But in doing this, we have three dimensions, the network, services and people. The network I’ll talk about more in just a moment, but the services are also important to exploit that network technology layer. So identity services, allowing students to access their resources as they move around centres, or researchers to collaborate using shared facilities. And then finally, the people dimension, ensuring communities of interest can collaborate and work effectively. And the way the modern world works, this isn’t limited just to Europe, we often work on a global basis. Let’s have a little bit of a look at the network now. The network that you can see there isn’t built by Jeanne alone. A characteristic of our community, the National Research and Education Network, or that when it’s aggregated at a regional level, the Regional Education Network, we collaborate together. So Europe will collaborate with North America, with Asia-Pac, to ensure a network is in place to support those use cases that I’ve described already. And my colleagues and speakers here today will talk to you at greater length about some of the specific activities or initiatives that we see coming up in the future. But at present, we have a good infrastructure to ensure this collaboration and this research activity can happen. We not only support the physical sciences, and the earth sciences, but we support other user communities as well. Research often relies on technology, artificial intelligence, high-performance computing infrastructure. Access to those sorts of resources are important. Our network provides the connectivity pathways to those. But also the control that we have over our network infrastructure ensures that we can service arts and humanities community who are very sensitive to latency characteristics on a network, such that an artist performing a dance routine in Latin America can collaborate with someone in Central Europe who may be playing the accompanying music with a very much controlled latency over the music and image coordination. Health and food is another area, and also energy. We’re working on developing a new site in Cadarache in France, where there is a global collaboration to look at fusion energy sources. The data and control of those systems will produce a significant amount of connectivity requirements and research and education networks are underpinning that. So I’ve explained to you a little bit about how the internet came to be, how it has its source in research education, and also the significance of submarine cables in that domain. So what have we done about this? What have we done as research and education networks to make sure that the network and infrastructure exists there? Well, as an example, Red Clara, the regional network in Latin America, with Géant and funding from the European Commission, enabled an investment in a new submarine cable connecting Europe to Latin America, such that we have dedicated spectrum on this route for the use and benefit of research and education networks. So this was a real pathfinder example, how research and education networks can be an active player in the submarine cable marketplace. That’s a little bit about the now. What about the future? Well, why are we here talking today? What’s important to us? If we look to an external advice, that from telegeography, good expert organization and understand all things that are going on about connectivity in large. Their data shows that the ownership of these submarine cables is changing. It’s changing that what are called content providers, the likes of Google, Microsoft, Facebook, are taking a greater percentage ownership in this submarine cable infrastructure, which means the market is shrinking. So we perhaps have a risk around ensuring that we have adequate capacities that we can continue as NRENCH to deliver the research and education mission. So this is taking our attention and we’re seeing some action and response to this already. In Europe, on the next slide, there is an initiative called the Digital Data Gateways. Just recently, Xiao has worked with the European Investment Bank and DG NIR from the EC to invest in the new Medusa submarine cable system in the Mediterranean Sea. And this will improve the connectivity for a number of North African countries. There’s another example where, for the benefit of research and education and securing sovereignty over this infrastructure for the public good, we can have a good mix in the parties and actors to ensure continued outcomes and infrastructure access. But it’s not just the connectivity. As a community, the research element continues. And we’re using these same submarine cables in a new project called Submerse to investigate whether it’s possible to use submarine cables to be Earth-observing. And on the next slide, you’ll see an overview of the Submerse project. One slide appears to have missed out there, so I’ll just talk to that. The submarine cable has the ability to not only carry data, that research data that may be produced by CERN, but it has the ability to observe the Earth around it, and the oceans are the largest, greatest unexplored territory. So we can see what’s happening to the Earth from the view of the ocean, which is important for things like climate change and understanding undersea currents. So we’re looking at how these submarine cables can also be used for Earth observation. I mentioned earlier, when I was talking about the network, how we don’t ever do this just alone. We always ensure that we collaborate with partners around the world. And often at a political level, we see commitments being made, for example, between Europe and Japan, with a recently signed strategic partnership agreement. And I know Jun will talk to this more shortly, and explain how we can translate this political agreement into action in the form of things like digital connectivity, and the broader socio-economic benefits that that brings. So overall, there’s an introduction there. I hope you’ve understood how the internet has come to be, how the importance of submarine cables are relevant to the internet in carrying that majority of all traffic, and how for research and education, it is essential that we can continue to have access to submarine connectivity infrastructure to deliver the benefits for society at large. Thank you very much for listening. And I hope you enjoy the rest of the session. Thank you, Hendrik.

Hendrik Ike:
Thank you very much, Paul. And thank you very much for that clear introduction as to why these cables matter, essentially, for research and education in our community at large. Before I move on, does anybody have any questions for Paul from the audience? Or in the chat, which I see no questions. We can also, we also have a segment at the end where we have time for more audience questions. But now, I would now like to move on to WIDE, our colleagues in Japan, and I see Jun has a microphone already, so I will let him start.

Jun Murai:
All right, thank you very much, good morning everybody, and welcome to Kyoto, Japan. And I’m Jun Murai, Keio University WIDE, well, founder of WIDE project, and I’m going to talk about WIDE much later, but Professor Hiroshi Yasaki sitting in there is a director, representative of WIDE project, but anyway, today I’m going to talk about what the Japan team basically, not only the WIDE project, is talking about, and can I see my slide? Can you control the slide, please? Okay, so WIDE project is a research consortium working for the infrastructure, researches on the internet technology and protocols and other things for a long time. It’s been 35 years of history, and it’s more than 100 companies, more Starbucks companies supporting us from Japan, but also they are from the other part of the world as well. And then the universities and the engineers from the ISPs and the vendors, engineers, so it’s a very nice mixture of professional experts on the network and the computation background, including the science and other researchers. So the WIDE project decided to work on the submarine cable, and we’ve been kind of are doing a lot of work. But if you heard GEANT and other European activities, and this is very nice that the EU is funding the research activities. And then the research activity is endorsing the installing of a new submarine cable around. OK, so then the US, National Science Foundation, United States, is doing a very similar thing and connecting the international cable, including the connectivity to Japan and Europe, but also to South America and the other thing. So see, the US got a pretty big funding body. And then the EU got a pretty big funding body based on the research and then endorsing the installing of a submarine cable. So the point is that we don’t have that in the Asia-Pacific region. So that has been the issue. So various entities started to work together to work as Europe and America, and then the Asia-Pacific Submarine Infrastructure for the research and educational activities. That has been discussed. But finally, now it’s got into the form. Go ahead. And so the wide project started the things called the ARINAPAC, Arterial Research and Educational Network in the Asia-Pacific, and also working together with the other funding agency of Japan and the other partners around the Pacific to work together. Then it’s creating the great collaboration to connect the various partners, and then onto the very strong, try to establish a strong network infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific, and then connecting to both Europe and America. So if you, the next slide’s going to be this one. OK, good. OK, so we have a booth, actually, and then asking all the people visiting the booth to connect to their own research and educational network link by themselves. And creating this globe with a pin and a string. And so if you look at this carefully, then we do have a very important partners. And the blue one is, by the way, the dream, dream line. So it’s not there. So the Arctic fiber is one of the blue line. And from the Chile to this side. Yeah, Chile to, we don’t have that one yet. Yeah, we have one here. So after this session, then please visit our booth. And you can add your dream link for the, anyway. But anyway, so that’s kind of a symbolic effort we’ve been working together. So this part of the Asia-Pacific is not just by Arena Park, which is a wide project operation, but also the Sinet and other things. So going to the, oh, let me share one of the challenges we started to work. We are the researchers of networking technology as well. So we have a new technology called reconfigurable optical add and drop multiplexer, which is well known for the data center technology as well. But so instead of dropping the fiber. And then the going forward type of a thing. Then we can split the spectrum and the dynamically reconfigurable spectrum thing. That’s a ROADM technology, which is now getting pretty much standard for the data center technology. But that’s called a dry ROADM. So there’s going to be a wet ROADM, which is used for undersea cable. So that’s going to change our configured and the design of the submarine cable for the dropping in the city from the middle of the ocean and then reconfigurable for the future. So remember, the lifetime of the optical fiber is like 25 years. And therefore, during that 25 years, probably the split to the dropping in a certain city, traffic might be changed. And then instead of reinstalling the fiber, we can do the reconfigurable, utilizing the existing fiber and then the control. So this might be, it’s not there for the research long-term, long-haul network on the submarine cable yet. But we are now very eager to explore this technology for the new cable, especially between Europe and Japan. So go ahead with the new one. So if the Arctic fiber coming to Japan from north, which is a red line, and then going to south, which is reaching to a southeast Asia. And then the important thing is that this connectivity for the northern cable and the southern cable should be benefit for the European community to reach. the Southeast Asia research entity as well. Therefore, the question is how can we dropping and from, I mean, connecting Tokyo and then dropping in the Philippines and other cities, which is also a requirement of a EU research community as well. Okay, so next slide, please. And then those places could be a candidate of installing the wet ROADM and then reconfigurable for the dropping in Hokkaido, dropping in Tokyo, dropping in, terminating in Tokyo and then connecting in the Tokyo and then reaching to Philippines and other Southeast Asia. This is what we are trying to achieve for the future. So, next slide, please. So this is a yellow part, basically they’re working with the Japanese government that which part’s gonna be a more missing ocean of the cable and then, so that’s gonna be beneficial because most of the traffic is on the internet. Internet traffic can be getting a benefit from alternative and the complicated route and the topology, right? So route topology should be complicated and the redundant for the internet traffic anyway. So from here on, then the application like a research and education, not only the scientific big researches and the starting with Keiko for explaining about this way here and that. Oh, okay, all right, okay, I’m sorry. I’m gonna talk a little bit more. This slide is talking about the research collaboration between Asia and Europe, each of the specific subject. and including fusion and astronomy, high-performance computing. There is a lot of requirements for the research community between Asia and Europe. And this is from one entity, agency, NIA, and the next one is NICT, to work with various entities and the research. And then the third slide is basically asking their requirements for the, how much bandwidth do you want? And then they said 100 gig, 500 gig. Oh, by the way, I forgot to say that most of this string is 100 gig today, and they’re going up to 400 gig for the future, so which is gonna be a lot of traffic. So then switching to educational thing, there’s Keiko, and then more the consuming a lot of bandwidth from astronomy research from OSR. Okay.

Keiko Okawa:
Thank you, Jun, introducing me. So I’ve been working in Southeast Asia and Japan education and research collaboration for more than 20 years. So we have right now a lot of partners. You can see a red dot. Maybe it’s not a little bit blur, but red dots are our current partners. And we do have a Nepal, this is the list from west to east, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippine, Timor-Leste, Japan, and the most east, I believe, Australia. And those are the partners, not only a pinpoint university, but those are the gateways to their own RANs, like an NRAN, BDRAN, MRAN, so all the countries and regions have their own universities and institutions connecting. So we are kind of gatewaying to all the areas. The red dots, as you can see, they are connected to each other by international collaboration. So, Huawei, the wide project, launched two significant projects in 1996 and 2001. 1996 is the Asia Internet Interconnection Initiative. Remember when we lived with a little connectivity in 1996? We had a big hope to connect all the universities. How can we connect the Internet among universities in Asia? It was 1995, only .4% of the population of the world was using the Internet, and even smaller in Asia. And they connected many universities in Southeast Asia utilizing satellite technology. And five years later, from the IEEE, as we call it, the right-hand side is the School of the Internet. How can we share knowledge among universities in Asia over the Internet that the IEEE created? That was 2001. Still, only 8.6% of the population was using the Internet. So this is the beginning of our collaboration. And at that time, all the universities set up the satellites to connect each other, and so on, so on. So connectivity is essential for research and education, even from a very early stage. In 2007, we had a whole set of partners start to work together. That was 20% of the population era. So at that time, learning and research together in Asia has been a norm since the beginning. So, yeah, we got together. We know we can do better with peers than doing ourselves. So we learned each other. You can see many countries are connecting there and very, very simple technology at that time, multicast and satellite and many countries connected by themselves because of the education. And many, many things happened and then 2019, we had almost 60% of population connected and the university are ready to go farther in 2019. And then COVID came and yes, this is the way we’ve been working together for several years now. But now we got a cable connectivity and we have a good harmonization with satellite and cables right now. And ArenaPAC that Jun just talked about started to strengthen our collaboration beyond Asia. So you can see Tokyo is connecting to many places and Singapore is connecting to many places and Guam has a new topology added by ArenaPAC. But Asia university partners are excited about new high speed network, which is Indonesia’s signing ceremony, 100 giga BPS coming to Indonesia. And that is not only to Indonesia, but beyond that. And Indonesia is connecting to Guam, Tokyo, but not only to Tokyo, beyond Tokyo, go into other places, Europe and the United States as well. So it’s already connected, ready to do many more things. And we are looking forward to more collaboration and that is on the research and education. And in order to keep this environment sustainable, we really believe education for the internet engineers are key essence for the future. So we have our education program and now all Asian partners, Asia-wide educational program are ongoing and we are ready for research and education collaboration beyond Asia. So I would like to pass this microphone to Oe-san.

Dr. Masafumi Oe:
Thank you very much. So I’m Masahumi Oe from Astronomical Observatory of Japan. So today I would like to talk to you about how submarine cables enhance the big astronomy science. So the first three, so why we, our network undersea, the submarine cables are relevant to astronomy. So this presentation will be explain about our big science facilities. So this is a very big consuming the data to analyze the astronomy data. And also I would like to introduce to impact the network have bandwidth on the science. So why we NAO-J? NAO-J is National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. So we have a lot of the astronomical facilities in the world. So our main facility is locating in the top of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. And also we make a collaborate with the ESA and the NARO in US in the Chile. So it’s called the ALMA, Atacama Submarine Array Antenna. So that is two of the current facilities are consuming a lot of data to analyze, to observing the astronomy. So that is one of the example. So the Subaru Telescope, that has a one. 8.2 primary single meter is facility. So this telescope facility is a multipurpose use. So this Subaru Telescope has the three point of the mounting point for the attaching to some observation system. So the Subaru Telescope established in 1999, the system has been upgraded year by year. So currently, the hyperspring cam is our flagship observation facility, one of the facilities. So this is a lot of the huge amount of the data to the short start. So this is a lot of the high sensitive CCD is connected to the computing facility and the storage facilities. So right at 870 million pixels digital camera in the top of the monocular. So all of our facility is located in the world. So one of the Subaru facilities I talked. So another one is the Aruma project. That’s first right is 1921. So this site also, there are a lot of consuming data to transfer to the Tokyo and other European countries and the US mainland. So currently, this figure is showing to the submarine cable. But that facility is not quite different. Actually, the data network from the Aruma Subaru to the Tokyo. So the submarine cable planning is not relationship to the location of the observation site. The current location site is the best location for observing the stars. So the next fact is science is not possible without network technologies. So the ARMA is the one of big facilities. So you show this figure showing the Yamanote line. That is a major JR line in the Tokyo area. So each parabola antenna is connected around the size of the Yamanote line. So the fiber cable over the 16 kilometers away from the central data center. So each data from their telescope has been transferred to the correlation office. So all of the correlation office has a supercomputer system. So this system facility, the engineering that analyze the data from each telescope. So then they’re creating the images. So currently, this network has based on the 10 gigabit Ethernet. However, so this facility, it’s depending on the technology of the commodity technology, like Ethernet or some ATM or something. So this program will be updated year by year. So firstly, I’m talking about the current the astronomy facilities with the bulk data networks. So in last year, we have collaborated with the Arena Park, the 100 gigabit Ethernet network reached to the Subaru Telescope in the top of Mauna Kea. So we are upgrading all of the network facility from Mauna Kea to Tokyo. So before the upgrading, so we need to do one more week to analyze the data. However, so after the upgrading the 100 gigabit Ethernet network deployed, so all of the data analyzed to the computing facility in Japan. So I mean, basically, the Subaru Telescope in 1999, we just only have the 100 ATM-based network. So all of the computing, analyzing, storage facility should be located in the Subaru. However, currently, the high bandwidth network has been deployed from the Mauna Kea to Tokyo. So it means that all of the data transferred to Tokyo and analyze the computing facility in Tokyo. So that means a lot of accelerates to analyze the data, just only currently under 10 minutes. So that’s a very good impact for the astronomy science. And also, the ARMA has currently a data transfer system. DTS system is upgrading. So the ARMA is currently using a 10-gigabit Ethernet. However, that will be upgrading to the 1.2-terabit network, which is based on the 400-gigabit Ethernet. So I mean, currently, the ARMA Telescope has the multiple band receiver is existing the one single antenna. However, if bandwidth upgrading to the 1.2-terabit, means that all receivers are sending data synchronous to the data centers in Santiago. So it means the fiber is also deployed to the over 6 kilometers away from the main site to the data center facilities. So this network improvement is improve the network functionality, open the way to the new scientific frontier. That is a very good impact for the bandwidth. So that’s all from me. So thank you.

Hendrik Ike:
Thank you very much from all three representatives from wide. I would like to open the floor if I have any questions for our three colleagues here. And I don’t see anything in the chat, but as I said before, we’ll have time at the end for more questions and I have one or two up my sleeve too. But before then, it’s my pleasure to introduce my colleague Ieva from Nordinet, who’s going to talk to us about the Nordinet view of subsea cables.

Ieva Muraskiene:
Thank you. Thank you. Sorry. Thank you, Henrik, for the introduction. So my name is Ieva Mureskene. I’m sorry for the voice. I come from Nordinet and if someone introduced me, then I have to introduce Nordinet as well. Nordinet is a collaboration of the research and education networks of the five Nordic countries, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland. Nordinet was established in 1985 when the five Nordic countries joined forces. And since then, Nordinet has been known to pioneer innovative solutions and push the boundaries of the technology from the beginning of history of Internet itself. The first connection between Stockholm and Princeton was set up in 1988 with a capacity of 56 kilobits per second. And in 1989, Nordinet established the first open available Internet outside of the U.S. In 1991, Nordinet was selected to operate the first root name server and then after that a lot of other innovative solutions. Currently, Nordnet operates a global network that interconnects the research and education networks in the five Nordic countries and connects these countries to the rest of the world. The high level of redundancy on the Nordics networks is ensured by using the shared infrastructure as each end run in the Nordics provides spectrum for the Nordnet network itself. On global scale, Nordnet has presence both in the United States and Asia. Going further, today I will talk more about the global communication problems and how we foresee to improve the routes and what value we can bring to the green data centers up in the north and how we can make an impact on the climate science and by presenting the smart cables. Fast and reliable internet is now vital for all parts of our modern society. Being it private use, businesses, governments, research and education institutions and going forward with the digital transformations, we will need the connectivity to be more resilient, more robust, bringing even more capacity to our everyday life. If we take a look at the statistics and we break down the distribution of internet traffic for the last five years, we can clearly see that the real-time traffic has grown the most. It’s more than three times growth. We cannot afford to have delays in real-time traffic. It’s not acceptable anymore by any user. But if we take a look at the example of research and education world, in the north of Europe, Nordnet provides connectivity, high-speed connectivity to iSCAD 3D, which is the next generation international atmosphere and geospace research radar. With this high-speed connectivity, we enable real-time steering and data integration between three sites of the iSCAD 3D, each consisting of the 10,000 antenna beam-forming phased array systems. In Europe, we also have connectivity to Large Hadron Collider and CERN, and throughout other research and education networks, we have connections also to ALMA Observatory in Chile. Before many years, scientists had to wait for the dedicated time slots or several years to get access to the equipment on the network. But now, the connection needs to be up and running with 100% availability. You can imagine the pressure of delivering that through the research and education networks. I don’t know if many of you in the audience know what this picture is showing. If not, the answer is a methane plume from the Nord Stream gas pipeline explosion in the Baltic Sea. My point here is, you cannot protect the cable on its whole stretch, but what you can do is build more redundancies. Network cables can ensure redundancy and resilience for our networks, and that’s why we need to look at geographical redundancy, meaning we need to look at alternative routes. And while doing that, we must keep geopolitical situation in mind, especially if we consider the Nord Stream case or similar cases which disrupted the submarine cables. Now if we take a look again at the statistics and the connectivity today, we take a projection to very near future. We would see that we would have doubling of the traffic between Europe and Asia to be expected and almost tripling to the traffic between Europe and North America Depending on the perspective we take it can be a big challenge But it also can present us as an opportunity to take action and do something about it Now if we look at the connectivity from the perspective of Europe, we can divide it into four major parts, four major areas For example Europe to North America connections. There are a lot of cables connecting Europe to North America through the Atlantic Ocean But a lot of systems are aging and we do not know yet if there will be other systems built in time to serve the future needs and demands Then we go to Europe, Africa and Europe, South America. The cables go outside of the coast of Africa with very limited redundancy Connecting Asia We have a terrestrial route going across Russia and due to a lot of geopolitical implications This route is already more or less getting closed. A lot of Contracts are being terminated and Then it leaves us with a Suez route to the Middle East and Asia Now if we take a really closer look at the Suez We’re currently 90% of the direct traffic between Europe and Asia traverses. It’s a very narrow area It’s only 200 meters wide at the most narrow place and you can imagine the congestion of the submarine cables there It’s basically a cable every 20 meters and over this area 1,500 trips pass every month. You can imagine there’s danger And to the challenges that I just mentioned We can offer one solution if we take the earth from the North Pole perspective and look at the route opportunities from the Arctic. We can see that we can build the additional redundancy or create complementary routes to the existing Suez Canal area connections by adding submarine cables over the Arctic Ocean. It would be a fast track between Europe and Asia as it is the shortest possible route. It would strengthen the digital sovereignty of the involved regions. The route also avoids geopolitical considerations as it would go through exclusive economic zones of Norway, Denmark, Canada, US and then traverse to Japan. But then you might ask, why are the Nordics involved? The Arctic connectivity would also increase the accessibility of the green data centre industry in the far north. There we have a lot of local excess energy from renewable energy sources but due to lack of power infrastructure there are limitations of how much energy you can transfer from north to south. Additionally, there is a relatively high cost of transferring energy in large distances. Therefore, moving data is much more efficient and cheaper than moving energy. In addition to this, where we have a really cooler climate in the north we can utilise the free cooling, we don’t need air conditioning to cool the data centres and we can reuse the excessive heat from them to the nearby communities. Also, if we land high-speed connectivity in the northern areas we can create work opportunities and prevent young talents from leaving northern communities from coastal areas of the Nordic countries. And all of these things combined, we create the PolarConnect Vision 2030, where PolarConnect is an initiative led by Nordnet to obtain secure and resilient connectivity through the Arctic to Asia and North America. Where we see submarine cables over the Arctic, adding digital routes from Europe, they improve the digital resilience and autonomy in the global network. They can create a ring structure of two or more cables traversing the Arctic Ocean. Here in this vision, we see PolarConnect, a more direct route passing under the ice cap of North Pole in the Arctic Ocean, just north of Greenland by exclusive economic zones and then traversing to Asia. The other one, the yellow one, is Far North Viber, a route passing through northwest passage of Greenland and then to North America through Bering Strait and then to Japan. Far North Viber project is more advanced. It’s way ahead of us. It’s scheduled to be in service in 2027, with the total distance of the submarine cable being 14,500 kilometers. Where PolarConnect project aims to be in service around 2030, with a total distance of 11,000 kilometers. A lot of questions can be raised from this vision. And one of them, is it doable? And we are working really hard to answer these questions. We’re working together with the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat to find a way if this is viable to cross the Arctic Ocean with the submarine cable. And the answer is yes. Their knowledge, they shared the knowledge from their previous Arctic expedition. It was the Arctic Coring Expedition in 2004. With a drill ship, Vidar Viking, and the two icebreakers, Odin and Sovetsky Soyuz, they were able to cross the Arctic Ocean and do the expedition. So in essence, to be able to build the submarine cable over the Arctic, we need two icebreaker ships and one cable-laying vessel. With this approach, we can cross the Arctic Ocean and put a submarine cable there. So while Sweden has one icebreaker, the government is already in the discussions about building a second icebreaker of the highest polar class, comparable to the Russian one you see here. And with the preparations, we see it being ready by 2030. Additionally, for the submarine cable, we need to have information about the seabed of the ocean. Where Arctic Ocean is largely unexplored territory, especially for intercontinental subsea cables, but it offers dramatic advantages for us all. So we must investigate the seabed. So we are working together with Professor Martin Jakobsson from Stockholm University and his project, International Bathymetric Chart of the Arctic Ocean, where the project is helping us to gather the information on what’s openly available about the seabed of the Arctic Oceans. So the initiative of this project is to develop a digital database that contains all available bathymetric data north of 64 degrees north to be used by map makers, researchers, institutions, and others who work requires a detailed and accurate knowledge of the depth and shape of the Arctic seabed, including our submarine cable. So what we see in this image is about 24% of the Arctic seafloor that is already mapped. And we will continue to work with this project to improve this map and fill out the gaps. We aim that the seabed data will be available. used to identify the potential route of the Arctic connectivity and it will contribute further for us to de-risk the project and contribute to the cable survey. So as you can see Arctic connectivity can bring broader economic benefits for the productivity trade and our all consumer welfare. It will be the shortest route from Europe to East Asia, safeguarding the minimal delay time, but also submarine cables can serve as scientific instruments for Earth observation, marine and seismic research. Traditionally we have scientists making measurements in the Arctic Ocean by dropping various instruments from icebreakers into the Arctic Ocean. They either take instant measurements or they are left to float and take measurements over time, but there are a lot of challenges. A lot of things can go wrong in the Arctic. Sometimes the instruments are lost and recovered, sometimes never recovered. This is where fiber sensing comes into play. We can enable submarine fiber cables be used as sensors by equipping them with distributed acoustic sensing or state of polarization technology. Apart from that we also are familiar with the smart cable concept where fiber cables can be equipped with various sensors and can act like monitors under the sea. They can measure temperature, pressure, velocity, salinity and together with the vibrations and acoustic sensors can provide a very wide scope of observations around the cable. They can also present near real-time data to be used by scientists and this data can be used to improve Forecasting models, it can be used to monitor climate change, ocean heat circulation, it can support us while monitoring from natural disaster warning systems like earthquakes or tsunamis. It can also help us understand marine mammal ecosystems better. The measurements will be continuous and over a long time, and scientists will have access to this data. Also, fiber sensing can help us protect and monitor the cables themselves. So a lot of benefits on the scientific angles, which are really important, as this was not possible before. In addition to that, there’s currently a lot of political momentum for the Arctic connectivity, as expressed by Margrethe Wester, the Executive Vice President of Europe Fit for the Digital Age. In addition to that, in July there was a memorandum of cooperation signed between the European Union and Japan and MOC on submarine cables for secure, resilient and sustainable global development. And this mock states that the Arctic route presents the potential to be expanded to wider European and Asian regions, and to the Atlantic and the Pacific areas. And to realize this advantage, MOC expresses a shared intention to explore and facilitate joint and respective support action as appropriate on trans-oceanic submarine cables, such as awareness raising, financial supports, demand aggregation, and as appropriate facilitating relevant administrative processes. This was a joint statement by the President of European Council Charles Michel, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, and Prime Minister Kishida Fumio from Japan. And they met in Brussels and communicated this jointly. And with this positive note on multinational collaboration on submarine cables, I end my presentation. If you would like to know more, we have a value proposition of submarine cables report done by Copenhagen Economics. And also you can find a lot more information about the Polar Connect initiative under this QR code. Thank you so much.

Hendrik Ike:
Thank you very much, Ieva. I had no idea that 90% of European traffic to Asia was at its narrowest 0.200 meters wide. That was quite an eye-opener for me. Does anyone in the audience have any questions for Ieva? Or any in the chat? I have some questions of my own, but I should also expand it to all of the speakers here, including Paul online, if anybody had any further questions. Please, I think that microphone should be working.

Audience:
Thanks, I need it because I’m losing my voice. Nothing to do with karaoke. I did actually have a question for Ieva about the cost of transferring energy versus data that you mentioned. Is there any reports or research you could point to for that?

Ieva Muraskiene:
There is a lot of research done in that value proposition in the report. We did investigate that. But it’s due to lack of infrastructure or the cost for actually transferring the power. So I can share the report with you and we can discuss it. Great, thank you.

Hendrik Ike:
Thank you. Any further questions? Well, then I’ll rattle off a few of my own. I’d actually like to start online with Paul. He’s staying up very late in the UK to be with us here. So I’m very, very happy that he is. Paul, you mentioned in your presentation the Bella project. were a big part in making that happen between Géant, Red Klar and the EC. I’d just like to know or see your perspective on what would you say was the highest challenge in actually bringing together those stakeholders in an R&D context in order to make Bella happen? I think

Paul Rouse:
First you had the challenge of it being a pathfinder. In our global community NRENs haven’t had a lot of experience in investing in submarine cables at their inception, at the build date. They tend to procure from a more established market. So there was working in a new space with different ways of working and then being a publicly funded body comes with certain requirements for compliance, governance and how the money was spent. And that was sometimes at odds with the way the telecommunications industry works. So trying to find a common way of working that satisfies everybody’s obligations was a challenge. We were carrying out the project as well during some difficult times in the world’s economy, with Latin America particularly as well in Brazil. So ensuring funding was available. There were challenges throughout the project. So I don’t think I have one particular one that rises above all the others. But these submarine cable systems are big pieces of heavy engineering taking lots of resources, complexity to design, construct and build. So there are many moving parts. It’s not a simple project.

Hendrik Ike:
Thank you, Paul. No, it doesn’t. I remember at the time it of course wasn’t an easy one to get over the line as such, but it did work and it was a success. Jun, I liked your slides and a part which struck me especially because I’m more from a public affairs policy point of view, was you showed the different political agreements on the different projects between Europe, other countries, and you were showing the multi-stakeholders of these different areas, and I was wondering, with your experience, what has been, in your view, the more successful projects that have had multiple member states or nations collaborating together, and what do you think were the reasons that made them a success?

Jun Murai:
That’s a great question. You know, 30 years is a long time, so it’s always different funding could be available for creating the future of the kind of fibre networking and other things. So one time it was very much kind of a satellite transponder company was exploring the way for allocating the spectrum, so they wanted to work together, and therefore kind of their transponder is, I hardly say that in kind, to work together with, right? And then also the submarine cable itself is not that particular thing, but all the high-speed switches and the equipment is going to be, you know, so the vendor started to create the new. Right, great. Thank you. Thank you. switch from, you know, kind of, say, whatever, the 10 gig to 100 gig, they really wanted to test that with interoperability and other things. So multiple companies working together with us for the exploring the interoperability testing and the other thing. So these are the research network mission that they’re working together. So that’s one of the reason I intentionally introducing today about the RODEM type of challenges, so that probably the new generation of the optical submarine cable control might be achieved working together with those people. And then they want to test that, and we want to test that. And therefore, probably, it’s a kind of mutual benefit to work together from the point of view of investment to the new technology, it could be very expensive. But then for the testing purpose and the other thing, then it’s a kind of a mutual benefit without, you know, actually paying. So I said the in-kind, right? So this is a testing, therefore, they bring the equipment and they’re working together. So it’s varied for the time by time that how that research type of funding could be benefit for the real operation of creating the network. That’s a wide project, probably characteristic in the world, right? So we are always exploring the new technology so that probably the fundraising is not that high, but we can challenge the new things. So that’s a model of the wide project. But it reminds me, if you’re working with these actors and you’re talking about in-kind contributions, that’s very similar to reciprocity between NRENs. when we make agreements in such a sense. OK. Oh, by the way, I forgot a very important thing during our presentation to all of the European side of the people. So talking about Southeast Asia connectivity for the researchers, that was initiated by what Keiko mentioned, like IHPI and utilizing a satellite. But we should note that the 10 efforts to connect them is very much the next generation of a terrestrial connectivity to Southeast Asia, collaboration with the EU and the JAN. And then now, we are working together for the new generation, utilizing the Arctic Ocean or the redesigning the southern connectivity as well. So that’s basically the phase one. It’s going to be by satellite. Phase two is going to be by TEN. And the phase three, we are talking about those historical things should be mentioned clearly

Keiko Okawa:
by me or Keiko, but I apologize. Yeah, let me add one. TEN, T-E-I-N, and Trans-Eurasia Information Network, the initiative supported by EU to connect the ICT infrastructure between Asia and Europe a long time ago, but now TEN is phase four. And that strongly supported not only EU to Asia, but Pan-Asia connectivity, basically Singapore-centered connectivity, right? So a long time ago, it’s still there. Of course, it was still there, of course. Since a long time ago. OK, thank you.

Hendrik Ike:
If I ask just a simple question, when was the first iteration of Tain? Do you remember when it began? Because Tain is like the giant version, it’s the regional network of Southeast Asia. That’s a question to you, actually. Yes.

Jun Murai:
Or Paul. Paul knows about the exact year when it started. In the 80s. Yes. The project was? Yes, but the cable CAE-1 started later. Probably middle 90s, I believe. Okay. Thank you very much.

Hendrik Ike:
I mean, it just also goes to show that NRENs and regional networks were really pioneers at the beginning of the boom of the Internet. And I, for one, am honoured to have so many colleagues who were there at that point. I would like… I saw a few people come in. I’d just like to open the floor for any final questions to our guests. Yes. Microphone here, or… Okay, thank you so much.

Audience:
Good morning, everybody. My name is Bjørn Rønning. I’m representing the Norwegian data centre community, i.e. the commercial part of a potential project. So, my first question is endorsements by governments. But I think the reason for asking is… I guess this is going to be an extremely costly project. So, already it’s been mentioned that you have to commission a new icebreaker just to get this over there. But that can probably be repurposed to other tasks and cable deployment and cable maintenance. So, obviously, I think… I consider this project to be too much of a heavy lift for only for the immigrants, no offense, by no means, but I think that there should be, we should probably expect that you have some governmental funding or you need to have a common Nordic or even European and also on the Asian side and a Japanese common understanding and agreement on how to fund this project because there also has to be done some financial viability on the return of investments. So how much is one willing to sacrifice for returns on investment, worst case? I don’t know if I made myself clear or if I should probably dive into details.

Hendrik Ike:
I have my own thoughts on it, but it’s for Jun or Ieva or Paul to answer.

Jun Murai:
Yeah, I think you are right. I mean, so, you know, yeah, I was going to explain a little bit more on that part, but, you know, the research and educational network contribution for the, you know, kind of investment is just, you know, probably, you know, the 10% or 5% of the actual installation cost, I believe. But the important thing is that for the NordNet and ourselves from the both sides that, you know, the cable company had a plan, and then, you know, we kind of generated a little interest from both sides that once it’s installed, then we’re going to occupy, like, you know, kind of 5% of the capacity on fiber pair and tire for the research and educational community. So that might be possible. It’s not that easy. But the fundraising for the research and educational for 5% of the entire cable installation, right? And the other part, of course, need to be, you know, kind of investment has to come in from the commercial or the public entity other than research and educational purposes. So this is not that easy. So in the past, a number of projects failed because of the lack of the, you know, construction building was not successfully done to raise enough funding. But so for this one, we kind of did very special approaches different than the past on the other part of the cable, which is, which when the poll explained about the EU-Japan digital partnership agreement, which is very much in public entity endorsing that this is gonna be needed for, not only for the research and educational scientific one, but all the economy of the both end. So that is a way that, I don’t think a government can raise, support the commercial activities. I don’t believe that, but they can endorse. That means, you know, the Japanese government, frankly, already started to communicate with the economy industries that, and the financial industry, that you’re gonna get the benefit of this cable if that is the case, then you have opportunity to invest for the optical fiber because this is special. So that kind of a promotion already are supported by the government in Japan already. So this is an additional endorsement type of efforts from the public, I mean, government side. So I think this is good, and I don’t remember this has been done in the past on the history. So the EU-Japan Digital Partnership Agreement. is now extending the kind of industry and the scope of the people and the stakeholders to be involved for the supporting the industry. So the research and education are actually initiated that kind of thing. So Nordnet and ourselves said, we want this cable, and that this might be, so we kind of started the efforts and then inviting the other stakeholders to be involved. So this is a very special way, I believe, but what do you think, Ami?

Ieva Muraskiene:
Yeah, I agree everything you said. And from the Nordics perspective, of course, we need to engage with the Nordic ministries and governments to get their support and endorsement equally like in Japan. But apart from the governments, we’re also engaged with the European Commission to ensure that there’s relevant support from their side to ensure also the funding opportunities that we can explore to have the conversation with them as well, because they also made some promises. We also contribute to the goals they are expecting us to deliver on. And we benefit from the unique position we have from the research and education point. We can talk to them all and also engage with the commercial side. And that partnership with Japan and having connections to Japan also helps to communicate our message even further and for them to communicate it back so that both ends of the connectivity are engaged. And we create this multiple use cases to have the arguments that we really need such infrastructure on our end. It’s not just the connectivity that we talk about. We talk about much more benefits added on top of simple submarine cable. So I think there’s good progress. And we’re also working on de-risking the project for the commercial side. So to make them a little bit more attracted to the idea, we’re working on building the business cases, exploring the opportunities there. So it’s not just that we talk, but we also do the work, the CBET survey, the resources we need for actually building the cable, but to know when they will be available, so we can make use of them. So I think there’s good progress. Thank you.

Hendrik Ike:
Thanks, Siobhan. Paul, did you still want to answer before I move on to the next question?

Paul Rouse:
I think a lot of the good points have been made there. I’ll just reinforce the point. We’ve got some experience of doing this now. In the Bella case study, I gave us an example. So in the Mediterranean with the Medusa system recently, and in both of those instances, as Yeva and Jun have said, it’s about a collaboration and partnership. So the question from the floor there is absolutely right that NRENs alone can’t deliver this, whether it’s the financial investment, the skills, the expertise, the resources, there’s government, there’s funding bodies, there’s the user communities, the skills that we have within NRENs. As we explained, the history of the internet comes from our community, so we’re pretty good at building networks. But the heavy lifting of actually implementing a submarine cable, we work closely with commercial partners. And I’d like to say that I think we’re quite desirable partners there. Yeva used the term there around de-risking with public funds and our use case, supporting research and education. We’re a good partner to have on board to enable a project to progress. Thanks, Andrew.

Hendrik Ike:
Thank you very much, Paul. I think we have another question from the audience.

Audience:
I was actually just going to build on that. I’m wondering if part of the story then is also a security and resilience one, if we’re looking at it from a government perspective. So from one side, you’ve got the ability to pump time down this, so you’ve got a GPS type of solution there. But then what is the cost of disaster recovery after an event so if you can predict tsunamis for example if you can predict earthquakes Surely that has a very strong business case So we’re working with the likes of Google and British Telecom at the moment to test some of these and of course all of these Companies are looking for new revenue streams and new services and products So I think that is part of the story as well

Hendrik Ike:
Thank you anyone want to take that Yeah

Jun Murai:
Yeah, probably that is a little bit different from the Maybe you know following me probably smart cable concept should be explained from an alternate side but then in Japan, we’ve been in a suffered with the earthquake very much and Then they know so the smart cable concept is like, you know Piggybacking the sensors on a commercial communication cable, right? but that is not enough for Japan and therefore the National Laboratory of Earthquake Seismic Study had its own collaboration with a cable company for the specific type of sensors to be installed so historically we started from the well expired communication cable and the putting the sensor and for the you know kind of detecting the earthquake or the Mitigation for the earthquake type of a thing, but now it’s a kind of a very much The we we now identify that this area of oceans gonna be a very thing I mean bottom of the ocean is gonna be very dangerous. Therefore. We have a very specific installation of the sensor cable So that it’s its own purposes as well, so It’s a very serious in this country. So and so the meaning that separate funding for the, you know, kind of a commercial company’s funding and the research and the educational traffic funding and the seismic funding, a little bit different funding possible in Japan because of the frequency of the earthquake.

Hendrik Ike:
Anyone like to add?

Ieva Muraskiene:
Just a little comment. So last week we, as NORDONET, had a science engagement workshop. We engage with the scientists and look what kind of opportunities they want to see on the submarine cables. And there’s a lot of good conversations, but there’s also an understanding of how different the commercial companies want to use the cable and how different it is for the scientists what they want. They want accuracy. They want a lot of information. So alone, the submarine cable cannot replace other research instruments, but it can contribute highly to early warning or just, hey, look, something is happening at that end. Maybe you want to look more closely, that kind type of information, but not be the main source of seismicity or other types of natural disasters. But we can contribute to the scientific research. We can bring the information to the table, but not be the main source of it. So we need to kind of distribute the expectations a little bit, but it’s really insightful to talk to the scientists. They have really good comments. Thank you.

Hendrik Ike:
Thank you, Eva. Are there any further questions? No, I don’t see any in the chat. Well, I think with that, I will close the session. I’d really like to thank everybody who presented today and who attended from remotely across the world. And for those of you who turned up for this session this morning, it’s been an eye-opener for me, and I very much appreciate everyone’s input. So thank you so much. and enjoy your coffees, goodbye. Thank you very much. Have a good day all, thank you. Thank you Paul, and the audience please visit our booth after that, then you can touch and you can install your dream to theirs. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. . . . . .