Systems and Construction Technologies

Route Design/Cable Laying Technologies for Optical

Submarine Cables
OHTA Tsutomu, NISHIYAMA Tomohisa

Abstract
Submarine cable systems will carry traffic for long-term over 25 years after entered into service. In order to con-
struct a submarine cable system that can withstand for such a long period of time, it is required to conduct a marine
route survey to identify the condition of the seabed in which the system is to be installed and to design the cable route
based on the survey results. The assembled cable system is installed by a cable ship between the terminal stations
to configure a communication system. This paper introduces how a submarine cable system installation is imple-
mented by following the project flow step by step.

Keywords
marine route survey, route design, cable laying, burial, cable laying ship

1. Introduction

A submarine communication cable with a large-capacity

communication capability is an essential infrastructure com-
ponent for communication between two countries or areas. To
construct a communication system, the seabed conditions be-
tween the two landing points of the cable route are surveyed
and then a submarine cable to suit the seabed conditions is
manufactured and assembled. Next, the assembled cables and
submersible components are loaded onto a special purpose
vessel (cable ship) that is used to physically connect the two
landing points via submarine cables. This paper describes the
workflow of the marine works until complete the construc-
tion of a submarine cable system.

2. Marine Route Survey

In order to construct a fault free submarine cable system it

is important to carry out a marine route survey to understand Fig. 1 Sea floor condition.
the conditions of the seabed where the cable is to be laid and
to design a cable route based on the achieved information by seabed conditions and exposes the presence of any slopes that
the survey. The marine route survey consists of geophysical are not suitable for cable laying.
survey by means of acoustic sounding methods and a geotech- The geotechnical survey indicates the presence of rocks or
nical survey using sub-bottom profiling. The survey will be rock beds below the seabed that may hinder the burial work
carried out by a purpose built survey vessel equipped with a described in the later section. The characteristics of the sedi-
multi-beam echo sounder running along the planned cable ment layers can be identified using a sub-bottom profiler by
route and develops a survey chart that describes the birds-eye analyzing the time lag of the acoustic signal reflections. A
view of the seabed ( Fig. 1 ). Survey charts will visualize the strong reflection represents that hard sediment exists, thus the

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 Special Issue on Optical Submarine Cable System

cable route should be designed to avoid such area. Since the longitudes. It will then be used as an important reference to
seabed condition may not be accurately identified by sub-bot- support the cable laying work. Each event indicates us where
tom profiling, the actual seabed samples may be retrieved from (the latitude and longitude of each submarine position), what
the seabed using a core penetrating sampler which serves to (cable type and submarine equipment), how (surface laying or
improve the accuracy of judgments. The results obtained will burial) the submarine cable system will be placed and the ex-
be described as a route survey chart. This will be used as the act location where the cable ship should alter its course (AC
basis for determining the cable types and protecting methods points) in order to lay the cables along the designated cable
of the cable system. route on the seabed.

3. Route Design 4. System Assembly and Loading to Cable Ship

Based on the results of marine route surveys and informa- The Straight Line Diagram ( Fig. 3 ) is a graphic represen-
tion regarding existing structures (such as fish nets etc.), the tation of the route position list in order to instruct the factory
cable route is designed by taking into consideration the ease of to produce the submersible plants. The straight line diagram
the proposed laying work and the security of the system. As the
number of laid submarine cables has increased recently, the
cable routes in those congested areas that should be designed
to reserve a safe distance from adjacent systems so that the
routes are also acceptable from future maintenance point of
view. The route survey report describes the optimum cable
route, the cable type selected based on the survey results and
the reasons for selections as well as the conditions of the sur-
rounding sea area (climate change, fisheries, ocean floor de-
velopments, shipping traffic, etc.).
After the cable route has been determined, the result is com-
piled into the route position list ( Fig. 2 ).
The route position list shows the locations of the submar-
ine cables and components by indicating their latitudes and Fig. 3 Straight Line Diagram (SLD).

Type

Fig. 2 Route Position List (RPL). Photo 1 Cable loading (View inside a cable tank).

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 Systems and Construction Technologies
Route Design/Cable Laying Technologies for Optical Submarine Cables

is a system configuration diagram represented in a line for-

mat which displays the connectivity of the submersible sys-
tem components such as submarine cables and repeaters.
Based on the straight line diagram, submarine cables and
repeaters are manufactured at their respective factories. The
repeaters are then transported to the cable factory and assem-
bled to the cables according the straight line diagram to form
a continuous cable system.
The assembled system will be ready for loading/shipment
after its performance has been confirmed in the presence of the
customer.
The assembled cables and repeaters will be loaded from the
cable factory to the cable ship to enable the cable laying work to
proceed. The cable is loaded from the factory by cable haul-
ing machine and coiled by port labors into the cable tank of the
cable ship ( Photo 1 ). The loading work is continued night and Photo 2 Cable landing.
day and loading of a 1,000-kilometer cable system takes about a
week. After completion of loading, the cable ship then starts The cable is floated from the cable ship stationed offshore at
its transit towards the designated installation site. its water depth approach limit. This work connects one end of
the communication system with the landing site terminal sta-
tion.
5. Cable Laying Work
5.3 Cable Laying Ship
Since submarine cables must coexist with other seabed user
such as fisheries industries, etc. mutual understanding and co- A cable ship is a purpose designed/rigged vessel dedicated
operation is necessary among the related entities. In order to to be used for laying submarine cables and submarine equip-
deal with the fishing activity which is one of the main causes ment (repeaters and branching units). There are three cable
of submarine cable failures, the cables are often buried below ships in Japan for industrial use. The most significant fea-
the seabed instead of being laid on its surface. This arrange- tures of these vessels are the large capacity cable tank and the
ment is intended to ensure both the fishing activity and the cable stack for accommodating the submarine equipment. In addi-
system can share the limited seabed and exist in long term to- tion, the ship is equipped with a sheave with a larger diame-
wards the future. ter than the cable’s minimum bending radius that facilitates the
laying of the cable by feeding it out from the stern. As the work
5.1 Route Clearance is conducted 24 hours a day, most of the crew onboard is re-
quired to operate at 2 or 3 shifts during the cable laying
Route clearance will be performed prior to cable installa- operation. The number of persons on board for staffing the day
tion in the burial section. Regretted but various items of waste and night shifts is between 40 and 50, although this number
(fishing gear, ropes, sunken ships, anchors, etc.) exists on sea- varies depending on the duration of the operation and the ca-
bed hence these must be removed as not to hinder the cable pacity of the ship. NEC will also dispatch its representatives as
burying work. Such obstacles are removed by towing a spe- cable laying supervisors and as cable testers to continuously
cial clearance gear called ‘Grapnel’ along the planned cable monitor the transmission characteristics of the laid cable. The
burial section of the cable route. cable ship is equipped with the power feeding equipment to
energize the cable system during the lay as well as test equip-
5.2 Landing ment for the use of electrical and optical testing. All of these
personnel work on board for the period from the start to the end
The first work to be conducted by the cable ship on arrival of the work, which may sometimes be for as long as three to
at the cable landing site is the landing of the cable ( Photo 2 ). four months.

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 Special Issue on Optical Submarine Cable System

adjusts the laying speed, tension and length to be laid along the
seabed surface.
On the other hand, in order to provide protection against
faults caused by external aggression, the cables and repeaters
are sometimes required to be buried below the seabed using
towed-type cable burying equipment ( Photo 4 ).
The cables are buried below the seabed in a method that re-
minds us of agricultural plowing. When the penetrating share
is towed along the seabed surface, a ditch will be formed which
the depth will depend on the height of the penetrating share.
This means that the cable passing through the penetrating share
of the cable burying equipment makes it possible to bury the
cable in the ditch. In general, cable burial is applied until a
water depth of about 1,000 meters is reached. 1,000 meters
Photo 3 Cable and repeater laid in the Pacific Ocean. water depth is in general the maximum water depth at which
fishery activity is conducted. The depth of the burial pro-
duced by the cable burying equipment is variable and can be 3
meters at maximum.
Cables are usually buried from the shallow area towards the
deeper area. In other words, after the landing work is comple-
ted, the cable burying work is started and then it changes to the
surface laying work as the deep-sea areas are reached. The ca-
ble installation work completes when the submarine cables and
submarine equipment loaded in the cable ship has been instal-
led. Depending on the size/complexity of the cable system,
there may be cases in which several cable ships are used and
installation work proceeds in parallel. The period from cable
loading to the completion of the laying can be between one to
six months. After the cable laying work has completed, an
overall system performance test is conducted before the cable
system is commissioned and delivered to the customer.

6. Conclusion
Photo 4 Cable burying equipment.
During 2008 and 2009, NEC implemented three large-scale
5.4 Cable Laying/Burial projects for over 5,000 kilometers. The workflow of submar-
ine cable construction is basically identical regardless of the
Cables and submersible plants are usually either laid on the project. The marine work begins with route survey and then
seabed surface or buried below the seabed. The surface lay- proceeds to the route design, submersible plant manufactur-
ing process consists simply as the name implies of placing the ing and assembly, loading and laying. However, as the de-
submarine cables and the submersible plants on the seabed gree of difficulty varies significantly depending on the location
surface. The submarine cables and repeaters are designed to of the cable system and operating season, a flexible approach
withstand a maximum depth of 8,000 meters in consideration is required that corresponds to the topography and conditions
of the possibility of crossing the Japan Trench ( Photo 3 ). to suit the unique characteristics of each projects. We will con-
The submarine cable loaded on the cable ship is fed from the tinue to contribute our highly reliable methodology to con-
cable tank, hauled by equipment called the cable engine that struct a submarine cable system.

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 Systems and Construction Technologies
Route Design/Cable Laying Technologies for Optical Submarine Cables

References
1) Kokusai Cable Ship Co., Ltd.
http://www.k-kcs.co.jp/
2) NTT WORLD ENGINEERING MARINE CORPORATION
http://www.nttwem.co.jp/

Authors' Profiles
OHTA Tsutomu
Installation Manager
Ocean Engineering Department
Mobile & Global Network System Division
NEC Networks & System Integration Corporation

NISHIYAMA Tomohisa
Assistant Manager
Ocean Engineering Department
Mobile & Global Network System Division
NEC Networks & System Integration Corporation

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