March 22, 2010 at 13:00Cable laying in Egypt with Alcatel
I would like to tell the distinguished audience of Habr the story of laying one cable across the Mediterranean Sea in Egypt.
Perhaps I'll start with one of my work days. Below in the photo I (an employee of HP) and Mohamed (an employee of Egyptian telecommunications company MENA). Photographed by us Viktor Yatsenko - my colleague. The Mediterranean Sea is behind us, and we are standing on a concrete block, inside of which there is a connecting equipment. It is here that the cable connects: the part that is laid in the sea and its other part - from land, from the central office.
In Egypt, today there are 9 cable projects in the Mediterranean and the Red Seas, of which 5 are under construction (according to MENA engineers). All projects are led by an Egyptian telecommunications company (state owned, by the way). All key infrastructure facilities are guarded by the military (the construction site where I worked will also be guarded soon).
The cable, which I will talk about, connects Messina (Italy) and Alexandria (Egypt) directly through the sea. Its length is approximately 1,500 km. Approximate connection points can be viewed on Yandex maps. Alcatel was engaged in cable laying in October-November last year, now its employees are engaged in the configuration of trunk equipment and drive various tests. MENA's nodal office is located in the village of Abou Talat near Alexandria, almost on the seashore. Walk to the sea for about 5 minutes.
On November 11, work began on connecting the cables, the part on the sea and the one on the shore. First, a bunker was laid, the same one that is shown in the first photo in the post.
Then they began to pull the cable from the ship. It was located ~ 2 km from the coast (there is shallow water). In the sea, the cable simply lies at the bottom, but in the coastal zone it is buried to a depth of 1-2 meters. A cable is nothing more than a bundle of 4 (as I understand it) “wires” the thickness of a hand. The “wire” itself consists of fiber, which copper wraps around (needed to transfer electricity to repeaters) and an insulator. All 4 wires are entwined around a metal cable and it is the metal cable that pulls the cable from the sea in the video below:
In the video below, the cable itself is already visible, it is marked with balls:
Here it is already possible to consider the place of cable attachment from the ship and the chain by which it was pulled to the shore:
Then the cable is pulled to the concrete block, where it is later “welded” with the cable, which is on the shore:
The photos below show the cable from the office side. In the first photograph, he will be buried in a ditch.
This photo shows the cable under the building:
Here the cable is already connected
And so it looks on the equipment itself.
Actually that's all. By the way, the production of this cable system was photographed by the Alkatelevs themselves. Here is their official video. Very interesting, especially the size of the repeaters
I’ll try to talk about HP’s participation in this project in the next post.
Perhaps I'll start with one of my work days. Below in the photo I (an employee of HP) and Mohamed (an employee of Egyptian telecommunications company MENA). Photographed by us Viktor Yatsenko - my colleague. The Mediterranean Sea is behind us, and we are standing on a concrete block, inside of which there is a connecting equipment. It is here that the cable connects: the part that is laid in the sea and its other part - from land, from the central office.
In Egypt, today there are 9 cable projects in the Mediterranean and the Red Seas, of which 5 are under construction (according to MENA engineers). All projects are led by an Egyptian telecommunications company (state owned, by the way). All key infrastructure facilities are guarded by the military (the construction site where I worked will also be guarded soon).
The cable, which I will talk about, connects Messina (Italy) and Alexandria (Egypt) directly through the sea. Its length is approximately 1,500 km. Approximate connection points can be viewed on Yandex maps. Alcatel was engaged in cable laying in October-November last year, now its employees are engaged in the configuration of trunk equipment and drive various tests. MENA's nodal office is located in the village of Abou Talat near Alexandria, almost on the seashore. Walk to the sea for about 5 minutes.
On November 11, work began on connecting the cables, the part on the sea and the one on the shore. First, a bunker was laid, the same one that is shown in the first photo in the post.
Then they began to pull the cable from the ship. It was located ~ 2 km from the coast (there is shallow water). In the sea, the cable simply lies at the bottom, but in the coastal zone it is buried to a depth of 1-2 meters. A cable is nothing more than a bundle of 4 (as I understand it) “wires” the thickness of a hand. The “wire” itself consists of fiber, which copper wraps around (needed to transfer electricity to repeaters) and an insulator. All 4 wires are entwined around a metal cable and it is the metal cable that pulls the cable from the sea in the video below:
In the video below, the cable itself is already visible, it is marked with balls:
Here it is already possible to consider the place of cable attachment from the ship and the chain by which it was pulled to the shore:
Then the cable is pulled to the concrete block, where it is later “welded” with the cable, which is on the shore:
The photos below show the cable from the office side. In the first photograph, he will be buried in a ditch.
This photo shows the cable under the building:
Here the cable is already connected
And so it looks on the equipment itself.
Actually that's all. By the way, the production of this cable system was photographed by the Alkatelevs themselves. Here is their official video. Very interesting, especially the size of the repeaters
I’ll try to talk about HP’s participation in this project in the next post.