Telecom regulator suggests norms for undersea cables

Subject :Science and technology

Section : Awareness in IT

Concept :

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has come up with recommendations on rules for undersea cables connecting Indian telecom networks to the global Internet.
Earlier, the Department of Telecommunications had sought TRAI’s recommendations on whether Indian companies without a major stake in undersea cables, usually developed by high-powered global consortia, be permitted to apply for clearances acting alone.
TRAI has recommended that all Indian telcos operating undersea cables be required to submit proof that they own at least part of the undersea cables that are in Indian waters.
TRAI also recommended introducing a distinction between a cable landing station and “points of presence” to which the station is connected.
TRAI further recommended that “dark fibre” should be permitted on existing cable landing stations, and “stubs”, which are short cables in Indian waters for potential future expansion, also be permitted.
Furthermore, TRAI suggested undersea cables be notified as critical information infrastructure so that they can be extended protection by the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre.

Dark fibre:

It is an unused optical fibre that has been laid but is not currently being used in fibre-optic communication
Since fibre-optic cable transmits information in the form of light pulses, a “dark” cable refers to one through which light pulses are not being transmitted.
Companies lay extra optical fibres in order to avoid cost repetition when more bandwidth is needed.
It is also known as unlit fibre.
These unused fibre optic cables later created a new market for unique private services that could not be accommodated on lit fibre cables (i.e cables used in traditional long-distance communication).
Unused strands of Fiber are leased to customers to create their own privately-operated optical fibre network. This is different from the leasing of bandwidth. In other words, It is in contrast to purchasing bandwidth or a leased line on an existing network. The Dark Fiber network is under total control of the client rather than the network provider.
The benefits which can be reaped from it are –
- High performance
- Secured network flow and separation from other traffic
- Superfast speeds
- Low and Fixed cost
- Reliable medium
- Full control of the fibre-optic network.

Applications include:

Fibre to the Antenna (FTTA)-Mobile network providers can use dark fibre to provide mobile backhaul, 5G backhaul and core network connections.
Data Centre Interconnect (DCI)-Dark fibre can be used to provide a high capacity, direct point to point connection between two data centres.
National Research and Educational Networks (NRENs)-Most National Research and Educational Networks (NRENs) that link together Universities and research establishments use dark fibre.
There are numerous licenses under which a vendor can lease dark fibre in India.
Co-location is a data centre within the exchange premises hosting a broker’s server that is connected by fibre network. Co-lo space is rented by exchanges to brokers for speed trading.
Some brokers are selectively allowed to install dark fibre without a clear policy. The NSE has no clearly-defined public policy as to when and how it permitted competing carriers into co-lo, which ensured advantages to a select few.