TAT 12/13 cable network-the need for the ring

A key customer requirement for prime quality communications systems is uninterrupted availability. The planning and engineering challenge is to ensure that this can be achieved on international networks where an increasing amount of capacity is concentrated in a few relatively vulnerable subsea cable connections. This challenge is exacerbated by the fact that a growing number of large business customers are specifying a preference for 'cable-on-cable' restoration to ensure that transmission quality standards are always maintained at the same high level. This paper gives an insight into the character of North Atlantic subsea cable routes, the associated commercial drivers and the technology which underpins construction of the TAT 12/13-the World's first self-healing subsea cable network. The completion of the TAT 12/13 cable network introduces a self-healing capability into part of the world's international subsea communications infrastructure for the first time. This new development offers greatly enhanced reliability of communication across the Atlantic Ocean and heralds a new era by securing traffic even in the event of a subsea cable break.