2 - Historical overview of submarine communication systems

Abstract

The history of undersea communication can be divided into three eras, based on the technology used in the communication. The first era is characterized as era of telegraphy and ranges from 1800-1920. Samuel Morse's invention demonstrated the reliability of the electric telegraph between Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. The United States and Russia immediately understood the great interest in the telegraph, as did the United Kingdom. Russia came to an agreement with U.S. engineers to link Vancouver to Alaska. In the 1876 Graham Bell patented the telephone and thus marked the beginning of second era. The second era saw the emergence of coaxial submarine cable communication. The key invention, polyethylene, was discovered by ICI in 1933, and the first coaxial cable insulated with polyethylene was manufactured in the United Kingdom that facilated an efficient submarine communication cable. The third era is dedicated to fiber optic communications. The roots of optical fiber can found in 1966 in England when two British scientists of Standard Telecommunications Laboratories reported that "a fiber glass material constructed in a cladded structure represents a practical optical wave guide Nowadays, with fiber optics, a submarine cable can transport 100 times bigger traffic per fiber than a satellite channel. Submarine cables are thus constituting the backbone of the voice, data, and Internet international network.