The British Empire's Resilient Subsea Telegraph Network

Source: Hacker News

Overview

The British Empire had largely completed its Red Line cable network by 1902. This network allowed news and messages to be delivered in a few minutes or several hours at most, depending on the message queue’s length. It spanned the globe and formed a network ring so traffic could be routed in the opposite direction in case of disruption. As Dr. Michael Delaunay has argued, it was a highly resilient network.

Besides the ring configuration, the network relied on multiple cables between any pair of given endpoints to ensure uptime. The British military believed it would be impossible for an enemy to cut enough cables on any route to sever all communications between any given pair of endpoints. The Committee of Imperial Defense concluded that 57 cables must be shut down to isolate the British Isles from the Red Line network, 15 for Canada, and 7 for South Africa. The Empire was self‑sufficient in manufacturing the components for a subsea telegraph cable and repairing it, and its navy had no peers.