IR IS O C E A N C A B L E, IN C.

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1 IR IS O C E A N C A B L E, IN C. ANNUAL REPORT 2004 Rhett Butler Background IRIS Ocean Cable, Inc. (IOC) is a not-for-profit corporation created by The IRIS Consortium (IRIS) to own and operate undersea cable systems for the scientific community. IOC was established in 1990 to receive ownership of the Guam Japan section of Trans-Pacific Cable-1 (TPC-1) telephone cable from AT&T. IOC co-owns TPC-1 with the Earthquake Research Institute (ERI) of the University of Tokyo, which received Japan s KDD share of TPC-1. IOC holds a license from AT&T for use of space in the Guam Cable Station for the TPC-1 terminus equipment. In 1996, IOC was given the Hawaii-2 telephone cable by AT&T, and a license for space in the Makaha Cable Station on Oahu. This cable runs from Oahu, Hawaii, to the California continental shelf. In 2003 IOC was given 81 km of spare fiber optic, currently stored in Guam, by AT&T. IOC is a member of the International Cable Protection Committee, and in this forum has developed a number of interactions with the international undersea telecommunications community. Appendix A contains a summary of IOC cable systems, license agreements, and equipment. Director Rhett Butler stepped down as Director of IRIS Ocean Cable, Inc., at the end of Dr. Butler served as the IOC Director since its incorporation. As the Program Manager for the IRIS Global Seismographic Network, Dr. Butler will be focusing GSN interests in broad oceanic coverage of the Earth using a variety of ocean technologies, including cables. At The IRIS Consortium s request, Dr. Butler agreed to help IOC during this interim transition. First Generation Fiber Optic Telecommunications Cables AT&T approached IRIS in 2002 regarding the impending retirement of first generation fiber optic telecommunications systems. At the request in October 2002 and January 2003 of the IRIS Executive Committee and the Board of Directors of IOC, and with encouragement from the US National Science Foundation, the Director entered into discussions with AT&T regarding the transfer of these Cable Systems to IOC for use by the scientific community. With the strong interest expressed by the NSF Director of Oceans Sciences to the IOC membership (see

2 Appendix B) on May 7, during the IOC Annual Meeting in May 2003 the following resolution was adopted to enable IOC to work with NSF and AT&T (and their partners) for the re-use of the fiber optic systems for science: The President and Director will work with the National Science Foundation 1) to negotiate appropriate agreements to acquire for re-use by the scientific community retiring fiber optic telecommunications cable systems and their spares, 2) to conclude such agreements as cable systems become available, and 3) to arrange for the funding of the costs for these through the National Science Foundation. The cable systems under discussion are: Guam-Philippine-Taiwan (GPT), Trans-Pacific Cable-3 (TPC-3), TPC-4, Hawaii-4 (HAW-4), HAW-5, Pacific Rim East, Trans-Atlantic-8 (TAT-8), TAT-9, TAT-10, and TAT-11. AT&T has offered to donate the Cable Systems, surplus cable, and system spares, and to negotiate license space in the respective cable stations. AT&T has provided detailed cable routes and historical cable repair information for all these systems, as well as substantial informal advice and information. These Cable Systems have Gb/s telecommunications capacity and offer several kilowatts of power at the seafloor. Because the cable equipment maintenance and storage facilities were sold by AT&T several years ago to Tyco Telecommunications, discussions have also been initiated with Tyco to discuss continued storage of the surplus cable and repeaters now stored at Tyco facilities. These discussions have also led to the release to the scientific community of original system drawings and schematics of the cable repeaters and station plant. The National Science Foundation has given approval to the University of Hawaii to re-focus the MRI funded Aloha Observatory Project for connecting the Hawaii Ocean Time Series (HOTS) site to HAW-4 fiber cable instead of the previously proposed ANZCAN-D coaxial cable. This permits UH to use NSF funds in support of the Hawaii-4 cable re-use activities. With NSF s permission and encouragement, UH offered to fund the relocation to Honolulu for the Guambased GTP surplus cable and spares offered to IOC. In May 2003 IOC accepted ownership of 3 pans of GPT fiber optic cable (80 km of fishbite, 1 km of double armored) and 3 SL280 repeaters. With bridge funding from NSF Ocean Science to The IRIS Consortium for arranging the re-use of retiring fiber optic systems, IRIS has been paying the storage costs ($3,800/month) at the Tyco facility on Guam as UH makes shipping arrangements.

3 On behalf of IOC, The IRIS Consortium in June 2003 presented NSF with an initial proposal to accept all of the 7 cable systems then being offered by AT&T: GPT, HAW-4, TPC-3, TAT-8, TAT-9, TAT-10, and TAT-11. Given the short timing and large cost for this whole effort, NSF requested a Report and a smaller Proposal to provide bridge funding during interim discussions with AT&T and as plans within NSF and the scientific community developed within the context of the ORION initiative. The Report is available on the IRIS website along with substantial background material and documentation (see and was used as the basis for an IEEE paper submitted as part of the proceedings of the Scientific Submarine Cable Workshop at the University of Tokyo (see Appendix C) in June The IRIS Consortium submitted a proposal in June for $199,055 to NSF Oceans Sciences, which was accepted and funded, to serve as 6-months bridge funding toward the acquisition of these cables systems and their spares. Many former AT&T/Tyco engineers who designed these Cable Systems have been offering their assistance in the Cable re-use effort. These people, led by Mr. Mark Tremblay, bring both key expertise and have extensive good-will contacts throughout the AT&T and Tyco organizations. Mark Tremblay is serving as a consultant to the IRIS Consortium under the NSF bridge funding. A group of 15 current and former AT&T/Tyco cable system engineers met with people from IOC, University of Hawaii, and Rutgers in September 2003 to review technical issues regarding cable re-use. The executive summary of this Workshop Report is attached in Appendix D, with the first finding that There appears to be no significant technical roadblocks in re-use of the cable systems for ocean observatory arrays. In June 2003 NSF asked the Dynamics of Earth and Ocean Sciences (DEOS) Committee to independently review re-use of the fiber optic cable system. The DEOS Cable Re-use Committee was Chaired by Jack Sipress, retired vice-president of Tyco Telecommunications and formerly of AT&T Submarine Systems. IOC provided substantial material regarding its work and contact with AT&T and Tyco for the Committee. The executive summary of this Committee Report, released in September 2003, is attached in Appendix E with the first principle finding that, There are no fundamental engineering limitations that would prevent the effective re-use of retired cables either in-situ or located. The Report recommended saving key cable system components. Following this Report, the DEOS Committee offered their scientific prioritization of available cable systems, and recommended in October 2003 (see Appendix F) further study of the costs for cable re-use, the trade-off versus using buoys instead, and the acquisition of spare cable (the costs for moving/storage should not exceed $200K/yr), and also noted that, The use of

4 existing cables by other scientific interests may well have priorities quite distinct from those expressed in this report. AT&T offered a draft cable transfer agreement April 2003 based upon prior agreements for TPC-1 and Hawaii-2. The principal difference in the new agreement is the addition of an Insurance Clause to provide AT&T and the cable system owners more liability protection, since IOC is a not-for-profit corporation without substantial financial assets. Working with The IRIS Consortium s insurance agent and advisors, and in consultation with a marine insurance specialist recommended by NSF, IOC submitted a revised insurance clause to AT&T, which is being reviewed by their risk management team. There have been substantial changes in AT&T management during AT&T Submarine Systems Operations and Maintenance has been restructured and IOC s two primary contacts were moved elsewhere in the company. However, good working relationships with the next levels (above and below) of management, and the interest and commitment of the AT&T team have made this transition smooth. IOC has entered into broad discussions with the consortium of European owners (for the Trans- Atlantic Systems), and with KDDI Japan and New Zealand Telecom in the Pacific regarding scientific re-use of cable systems. KDDI and New Zealand Telecom have openly expressed their willingness to work with the scientific community for transfer of cable systems for scientific reuse. There have been some concerns regarding tax liability questions faced by KDDI in donating cable systems for science. IOC has been advised that these issues have been informally resolved within Japan, both by KDDI and from communications with JAMSTEC colleagues. The consortium of European owners of the Trans-Atlantic systems have expressed that they do not feel that IOC affords sufficient liability protection to permit them to transfer cable systems to IOC for science. AT&T has spoken directly to the their partners on behalf of the US scientific community, without success. IOC has worked with the European scientific community, but again without effect on the European owners position. Nonetheless, the European owners are amenable to scientific re-use of the Trans-Atlantic systems, but a different transfer model must be found which affords more liability protection. Possible ideas may be NSF itself, another US government agency, or a State University. As part of the retirement of the TAT-9 and TAT-11 cable systems, AT&T plans to close the Cable Station in Manahawkin, New Jersey, which is situated close to Rutgers University in a

5 wildlife sanctuary. Following introduction by IOC, Rutgers is now reviewing with AT&T the possible transfer of the Cable Station to Rutgers. With the strong interest of NSF and members of the scientific community, but with limited resources afforded by The IRIS Consortium s NSF bridge funding, IOC has approached cable re-use in saving key systems and spare equipment that keeps the scientific community s options open in the future. IOC has worked with AT&T to obtain costs for license space in the Cable Stations and has sought to extend as much as possible the time frame when license space costs would begin to be incurred. IOC has also arranged for storage of key station equipment in the Cable Station for a limited time, without license space fees. The effort is to avoid where possible up front costs prior to and during the development of scientific re-use capability for these systems. These efforts are based upon good-faith discussions by the scientific community with AT&T, and result in implied commitments by the scientific community. IOC has worked closely with NSF to bring awareness of these implied commitments, so that long term relations between AT&T and the scientific community may be maintained for years into the future (and for the retirement of future cable systems). The principal implied commitment has to do with the storage of key equipment in the cable station. When this occurs, the scientific community is obligated to clean up after itself, should it not need the equipment at a later date. AT&T and their partners typically close their books on a cable system 6-12 months after retirement. If the equipment is not removed by then, the onus falls to the Cable Station owner (AT&T) for costs. For example, the cost of removing a cable system is about $50K (AT&T estimate). Hence, although IOC may be able to arrange to store the Hawaii-4 equipment at the Makaha Cable station for free for some time, if the project cannot for some reason be completed, there is an implied cost of about $50K to be covered for clean up. IOC has worked closely with NSF in decisions regarding which systems and key equipment to save. Scientific focus on Hawaii-4 (Aloha Observatory) is a top priority. Saving key spares from Trans-Atlantic systems preserves the possibility for future re-use (perhaps for coastal or deep sea observatories), as well as providing essential systems for developing Hawaii-4 re-use capability. These Atlantic efforts are coordinated with Rutgers University, which is providing free storage space for spares and key equipment. Mark Tremblay (The IRIS Consortium s consultant) is working with AT&T to make arrangements for moving the equipment to Rutgers following ownership transfer to IOC. The University of Hawaii is working with Rutgers and local New Jersey AT&T/Tyco engineers toward an NSF proposal for the technical development of the Hawaii-4 system re-use.

6 IOC was offered all the spare TAT-9, TAT-9, TAT-10, and TAT-11 cable and repeaters stored in the Tyco Baltimore depot in October. After careful review with and the concurrence of NSF, the decision was to decline this offer, except for saving 5 repeaters for future observatory development of use. The transfer agreements are ready to be signed by IOC, after which the repeaters will be moved to Rutgers for storage. The TAT systems (and Pacific systems) routinely log in-situ temperature data. IOC has been working with AT&T and Rutgers to have this data set saved for science. The prime focus on Hawaii-4 has led to discussions of storing key equipment in the Makaha Cable Station, where IOC currently has license space for the Hawaii-2 analog cable system (H2O). TPC-3 has identical hardware, and the intention is to save key equipment from TPC-3, stored at University of Hawaii. For the Hawaii-4 system at the Point Arena Cable Station in California, discussions at the recent International Ocean Network Meeting in Berkeley in December 2003 indicates interest by scientists at UC Berkeley and Oregon State University in re-use of the California end of the Hawaii-4 system. If interest is strong and the case can be made to NSF, then perhaps the key Hawaii-4 equipment in the Point Arena Cable Station may be saved or stored in place (in any case, key laser components would be salvaged for Hawaii-4). The status of negotiations, discussions, and activities for the Pacific and Atlantic Cable Systems (in coordination with NSF) are briefly summarized: Pacific Cables The Cable Owners have agreed in principle to transfer the cables for science, subject to an acceptable Transfer Agreement. GPT The system is now retired from service. There is no NSF funded project for the GPT cable system and no action is being taken to save this system for re-use at this time. Three pans of fiber cable (81 km) and three repeaters have been transferred to IOC, and are currently stored on Guam ($3,830/month). TPC-3 The system is now retired from service. There is no NSF funded project for the TPC-3 system at this time. There is no Japanese interest in the KDDI section of the TCP-3 system. Key

7 components of the transmission system from Makaha will be saved and moved to the University of Hawaii. Significant spare cables and repeaters are located in Honolulu, and the decision on these will depend upon costs and schedules to be coordinated with NSF. HAW-4 The system is now retired from service. NSF has a funded project, Aloha Observatory, with an interest in using this Cable System. Efforts are in progress to store the Hawaii-4 equipment in place at the Makaha Cable Station. AT&T has quoted license space for Makaha at about $76/sq.ft. (About $27K/yr for space comparable for Hawaii-2). The storage of Hawaii-4 equipment at the Point Arena Cable Station will depend upon the interest of NSF and west coast scientists. Licence space in Point Arena is quoted at $50/sq.ft. ($17K/yr for space comparable for Hawaii-2). Significant spare cables and repeaters are located in Honolulu and Portland, and the decision on these will depend upon costs and schedules to be coordinated with NSF. HAW-5 This system will probably retire in 1-3 years. TPC-4 This system is currently planned for retirement in mid-to-late There is strong, vocal scientific interest in this system. PacRim East This system will probably retire in 2-3 years. There is strong, vocal scientific interest in this system. Atlantic Cables All of these systems are now retired from service. Although AT&T has been willing to transfer these systems to scientific re-use, the European Owners have not agreed to transfer the systems to a not-for-profit entity such as IOC. The Owners are currently in the process of removing all cable from the European continental shelf. The US end will remain intact into the respective Cable Stations, opening the possibility for future scientific re-use if an appropriate and acceptable new ownership model is found (possibly a US or State government agency). The donation of spare cable from AT&T has been declined. Five system repeaters are in the process of being transferred to IOC, and moved to Rutgers. Plans are in progress to move spare key equipment stored from the AT&T warehouse in Randolf NJ to Rutgers.

8 TAT-8 Transmission equipment stored in place at the Tuckerton Cable Station will be moved to Rutgers. TAT-9 and TAT-11 One set of transmission equipment from either TAT-9 or TAT-11 will be moved to Rutgers. AT&T and Rutgers are discussing the possible transfer of the Manhawkin Cable Station to Rutgers. TAT-10 All equipment has been disposed by AT&T. Compatible TAT-9 or TAT-11 equipment will be saved at Rutgers. Existing IOC Coaxial Cable Systems Hawaii-2 The Hawaii-2 Observatory (H2O) near 28 N & 142 W continued to operate and provide realtime scientific data from the seafloor up to the system maintenance and upgrade cruise in May The GSN station H2O provided greater than 99% data availability. A new power system was installed at the Makaha Cable Station in January 2003, replacing the old, original HAW-2 power plant. Space requirements within the Cable Station have been reduced, as requested by AT&T. In May the Junction Box was retrieved for upgrade and refurbishment by WHOI and University of Hawaii. In October 2003 shortly following the redeployment cruise, the H2O seafloor system ceased operation, and no scientific data now are available from H2O. NSF has requested a review of the situation and this review is currently in progress. There appears to be no problem with the IOC owned cable system or shore-based power system components. IOC currently has license space in Makaha costing $13,880/yr. TPC-1 The Earthquake Research Institute of the University of Tokyo deployed its GEO-TOC instrumentation into the TPC-1 Cable System in 1997 at a site near 30 N, 140 E, using the cable

9 ship KDD Ocean Link to install and splice the sensors package into the cable. IRIS coordinated with the Guam Cable Station. Data have been recorded at the ERI Data Center via a telemetry link from the Ninomiya Cable Station, and are accessible through anonymous ftp from geotoc1.eri.u-tokyo.ac.jp/win. Data converted to SEED format have been distributed to the IRIS. In late 2002 a shunt fault occurred in the cable in Tokyo Bay near the Ninomiya Cable Station due to a turbidity flow caused by a typhoon. The Japanese have decided not to repair the system. ERI continues passive monitoring of the cable voltage in Guam as a part of its geomagnetic program. IOC and ERI remain the legal owners of the TPC-1 equipment at Guam and IOC holds the license for space in the Guam Cable Station. The license for Guam was renewed in 1997 for a 10- year period at a cost of $3,300 per year, which is reimbursed by the University of Tokyo under a Memorandum between ERI and The IRIS Consortium. Since TPC-1 is no longer being actively powered, IOC asked AT&T for a quote to remove and dispose all original TPC-1 equipment from Guam. The costing is being done in the context of other AT&T equipment removal as part of the decommissioning of GPT and TPC-3. If the work can be accomplished and invoiced prior to April 1, 2004 ERI has indicated that it will cost share. After this date, further discussions must be made under new University of Tokyo administrative rules. IOC will request funds from NSF for its share of the TPC-1 decommissioning effort. International Cable Protection Committee In August 2003, Rhett Butler became the IOC Representative to the International Cable Protection Committee. In writing to the ICPC, IOC acknowledged Dr. Chave s contributions: It has been a pleasure to have Alan Chave serve as our representative since the early 1990's. I know that Alan has been very active in the ICPC in bringing an awareness of the scientific use of undersea cable systems, and the activities of scientific programs which may potentially affect undersea cables. His efforts have been appreciated. I look forward to his continuing participation at an informal level.

10 Appendix A. IOC systems, license agreements, and equipment. TPC-1 (Guam-Ninomiya Segment) Transferred on November 1, 1990 from AT&T and KDD to IOC and Earthquake Research Institute of the University of Tokyo. The system is jointly owned by IOC and ERI. IOC has a license agreement for space in the Tanguisson Guam Cable station since January 17, This agreement was extended on January 17, 1997 for another term of ten years. The yearly cost is $3,300. Hawaii-2 Transferred on October 15, 1996 from AT&T to IOC. IOC has a license agreement for space in the Makaha Cable station since November 4, This agreement was extended on November 4, 2001 for another term of ten years. The yearly cost is $13,880/yr for the first five years through 2006, and $15,880/yr for the next five years through In 1995 IOC obtained in independent valuation of $7,321,500 for the Hawaii-2 Cable System from Margus Co. Inc. The IRIS Consortium used this asset for $2,195,000 in institutional cost sharing as part of the NSF funding for the Hawaii-2 Observatory system. GPT system spares Transferred on June 1, 2003 from AT&T to IOC: 1 Cable Pan (21 ft diameter) with km SL-DA Cable 1 Cable Pan (21 ft diameter) with km SL-FBP Cable 1 Cable Pan (21 ft diameter) with km SL-FBP Cable 3 SL-280 Cable System Repeaters Equipment is currently stored on Guam at the Tyco Depot at of cost of $3830/month.

11 Appendix B. Letter from NSF Ocean Sciences

12

13 Appendix C. IOC Report to Scientific Submarine Cable 2003 Workshop, University of Tokyo Scientific Use of Fiber Optic Submarine Telecommunications Cable Systems

14 Scientific Submarine Cable 2003 Workshop Report, University of Tokyo Scientific Use of Fiber-Optic Submarine Telecommunications Cable Systems Rhett Butler Director, IRIS Ocean Cable 1200 New York Avenue NW, Suite 800 Washington, DC Introduction. The first generation of fiber optic submarine cables began a revolution for telecommunication. The bandwidth available in these systems truly created the information superhighway across the oceans between North America, Europe, Japan, and other centers of digital culture. The development and installation cost of these systems exceeded $2,000,000,000. These electro-optical systems, though state-of-the-art in their time, have now been surpassed by purely optical systems with vastly greater capabilities. Because the second-generation systems are purely optical, using in-line lasers to amplify the signals rather than electro-optical regenerators, they may be upgraded in place by changing only the terminal equipment the bandwidth may be increased by 1-2 orders of magnitude. This versatility coupled with the current underutilization of existing fiber capacity (estimated at less than a 10%), has led to the decision of telecommunications companies to retire their first generation fiber optic systems more than decade earlier than originally planned. This presents an extraordinary opportunity for science. Cabled Seafloor Observatories are essential to the Ocean Sciences (NRC, 2000), and the intellectual merit and broader impacts of these observatories have been discussed in a succession of NSF workshops and NRC reports. These fiber optic telecommunications cables being retired by the telecommunication industry are now being offered for scientific reuse by AT&T, and are in discussions with the overseas owners. These Cable Systems include three Pacific systems Hawaii-4, Trans-Pacific Cable-3 (TPC-3), Guam-Philippine-Taiwan (GPT) and four Atlantic Systems Trans-Atlantic-8 (TAT-8), TAT-9, TAT-10, and TAT-11 (Figure 1). The transfer of these systems to science is currently in negotiations (July, 2003). A facility for ownership transfer is IRIS Ocean Cable, Inc. (IOC), a not-for-profit corporation formed by The IRIS Consortium in consultation with the National Science Foundation to acquire ownership of retired telephone cables for science. IOC currently owns two retired coaxial telephone cables: TPC-1 (Guam-Japan) with the University of Tokyo (Kasahara et al., 1998) and Hawaii-2, which serves the NSFfunded Hawaii-2 Observatory (H2O) (Butler et al., 2000). Figure 1. The TPC-1 and Hawaii-2 coaxial submarine telephone cables were transferred for scientific use in the 1990 s. Seven first generation fiber optic Cable Systems are now being retired, and are being considered for scientific use. Additional information may be found at 1

15 Scientific Submarine Cable 2003 Workshop Report, University of Tokyo Figure 2. First generation fiber optic telecommunications cables in the Pacific are shown, with their installation dates and nominal bandwidth (per fiber pair). 2 Four of these fiber systems TAT-8, TAT-10, TAT-11, and GPT have already retired, and the other three aforementioned systems will be retired by the end of the year. There are three additional first generation systems in the Pacific (TPC-4, Hawaii-5, and PacRimEast, see Figure 2.) that will likely be retired in the coming years. Because the telecommunications companies move quickly (typically with a sixmonth time frame) after a system s retirement to dispose of the equipment and spares (and in Europe and Japan to remove cable from the coast) it is essential to act now if the scientific community wishes to retain any options for using these cables for science in the future. As the scientific community and NSF develops consensus for use of these systems for science, focus must be directed to establish a framework for the basic infrastructure and management necessary toward acquiring these systems for scientific use. The Director of IRIS Ocean Cable in consultation with the National Science Foundation and with approval of the IRIS Executive Committee and Board of IRIS Ocean Cable, Inc. has been actively working with AT&T and their Cable System partners since July 2002 to make arrangements for the scientific re-use of these first generation fiber systems. There are no fundamental impediments for the Pacific Cable Systems transfer of systems and spares has been agreed to, in principle, by the respective System Owners (a draft system transfer agreement has been submitted for consideration, a transfer agreement for GPT spares has already been signed), license space in cable stations (a draft license agreement has been submitted for consideration) and storage space for spares is being negotiated. The donation of equipment schematics encompassing both Pacific and Atlantic Systems has been accomplished. For the Atlantic Systems, discussions are underway with AT&T and their 50 European partners. Scientific Opportunities. The scientific importance of cabled seafloor observatories has been fully documented in a series of National Research Council reports, NSF sponsored workshops, and National Ocean Partnership Program reports. The Executive Summary of Illuminating the Hidden Planet, the Future of Seafloor Observatory Science (NRC, 2000) begins Earth's oceans are essential to society as a source of food and minerals, a place of recreation, an economic means of transporting goods, and a keystone of our national security. Despite our reliance on the ocean and its resources, it remains a frontier for scientific exploration and discovery. Scientists have been using ships to explore the ocean with great success over the past 50 years and this mode of expeditionary science has led to remarkable increases in oceanographic knowledge. A ship-based expeditionary approach, however, is poorly suited for investigating changes in the ocean environment over extended intervals of time. To advance oceanographic science further, long time-series measurements of critical ocean parameters, such as those collected using seafloor observatories, are needed (NRC, 1998). Additional information may be found at

16 Scientific Submarine Cable 2003 Workshop Report, University of Tokyo Figure 3. Maps of TransAtlantic Cables highlighting TAT-8, TAT-9, TAT-10, and TAT-11 with respect to other cable systems. Note locations (green squares) of last AT&T repeaters for TAT-8, TAT-9, and TAT-11. TAT-10 has all AT&T repeaters (complete TAT-10 map shown in Figure 4). Additional information may be found at 3

17 Scientific Submarine Cable 2003 Workshop Report, University of Tokyo 4 For the purpose of this report the term seafloor observatories is used to describe an unmanned system of instruments, sensors, and command modules connected either acoustically or via a seafloor junction box to a surface buoy or a fiber optic cable to land. These observatories will have power and communication capabilities and will provide support for spatially distributed sensing systems and mobile platforms. Instruments and sensors will have the potential to make measurements from above the air-sea interface to below the seafloor and will provide support for in situ manipulative experiments. NRC (2000) further discusses the Cabled Systems envisioned, and highlights the re-use of retired commercial cable systems: Cabled seafloor observatories will use undersea telecommunications cables to supply power, communications, and command and control capabilities to scientific monitoring equipment at nodes along the cabled system. Each node can support a range of devices that might include items such as an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) docking station. Cabled systems will be the preferred approach when power and data telemetry requirements of an observatory node are high. Early generation commercial optical undersea cable systems that are soon to be retired will have the communications capacity to satisfy most anticipated observatory research needs, but will possibly have insufficient power capability. [note: see discussion of power in Table 2.] If these cables are suitably located for observatory research studies, their use could be explored to reduce the need for expensive new cable systems. As it is likely that cabled observatories would be installed at a site for a decade or more, substantial engineering development will be required in the design and packaging of the power conditioning, network management, and science experiment equipment. In order to meet the requirements for high system-operational time (versus downtime), low repair costs, and overall equipment lifetime, significant trade-offs will have to be considered between the use of commercially available and custom-built equipment. Two specific recommendations in NRC (2000) are particularly relevant: (2) A comprehensive seafloor observatory program should include both cabled and moored-buoy systems, and (5) A seafloor observatory program should include funding for three essential elements: basic observatory infrastructure, development of new sensor and AUV technology, and scientific research using seafloor observatory data. The NOPP ( ) report An Integrated Ocean Observing System: A Strategy for Implementing the First Steps of a U.S. Plan points to cables as one of the key platforms, including satellites, drifting and fixed buoys, autonomous vehicles and state-of-the-art ships, for collecting a variety of oceanographic data. Clark (2001) notes that, The primary infrastructure of the OOI [Ocean Observatory Initiative] is a set of seafloor junction boxes connected to a series of cables running along the seafloor to individual instruments or instrument clusters. The Scientific Cabled Observatories for Time Series (SCOTS) Committee was initiated by the National Science Foundation in April 2002 through the Dynamics of Earth and Ocean Systems (DEOS) Steering Committee to provide advice regarding the planning and implementation of the NSF Ocean Observation Initiative (OOI). The SCOTS Steering Committee s primary focus was to elucidate the scientific questions that require, or would most effectively be addressed by, regional networks of multidisciplinary cabled observatories in three generic domains the open ocean, geologic plates, and coastal. Among the general observations of the SCOTS report (Glenn and Dickey, 2003), two points are directly relate to the use of cables: 1. Cabled Observatory Science: Scientists attending the workshop identified important scientific questions within six science themes that could be addressed because of several attributes of cabled observatories. In particular, the capability of cabled observatories to: (1) supply power sufficient for energy demanding sensors and systems, (2) sample at high data rates for long periods, (3) collect a large number of virtually continuous and diverse measurements over different spatial scales for Additional information may be found at

18 Scientific Submarine Cable 2003 Workshop Report, University of Tokyo 5 unprecedented interdisciplinary coherence analyses, and (4) communicate the full datasets to shore in real-time time enables new classes of scientific questions to be addressed. 4. Both New and Used Cables: It was determined that cabled observatories could be developed through initiation of completely new cabled systems and by taking advantage of abandoned cables that would be donated by the commercial sector. Both models have already proven successful and could be pursued for specific scientific problems and applications. Among the recommendations of the SCOTS report: 2. Retired Telecommunications Cables: There was widespread support for relocating retired telecommunications cables to remote areas to complete the deep Earth imaging array. While this may be one of the primary considerations for determining the new locations, once in place, the cable could support a much wider variety of sensors and systems to facilitate ocean studies also desired by the fluids and life and the ecosystem working groups. It is recommended that current and future funding mechanisms be used to ensure that retired cables deemed to be scientifically useful are adopted for community use in a timely manner. The National Science Foundation has already given approval to the University of Hawaii to re-focus the MRI funded Aloha Observatory Project for connecting the Hawaii Ocean Time Series (HOTS) site to HAW-4 fiber cable instead of the previously proposed ANZCAN-D coaxial cable. New Zealand has expressed interest to NSF regarding possible re-use of a section of TPC-3 re-deployed between the South Island of New Zealand and the Pacific- Antarctic Ridge. IRIS is working closely with the DEOS Cable Re-Use Committee in order to advise the scientific community regarding these cable opportunities, and to seek guidance for the decisions that will need to be made regarding which Cable Systems and spares the scientific community should acquire. Cable System Characteristics. All of the first generation fiber systems are electro-optical systems that regenerate the optical signals electronically in the repeaters. The systems are powered from the shore Cable Station, and operate in a constant current mode at 1.6 Amps. The Power Feed Equipment (PFE) is standardized for these systems, and typically operates at about 5 kilovolts (kv). Systems may be powered from one or both ends, depending upon the length of cable. Each repeater draws power and there are losses in transmission due to resistance in the copper. Table 1 shows the power characteristics of the systems (derived with Mr. David Gunderson). TABLE 1. Cable Cable Station & Section with AT&T Repeaters Section Length, km Average Repeater Spacing, km Number of Repeaters Amps Repeater Voltage Drop Copper loss, Ohms per km Voltage Drop per Span Voltage Drop per 1000 km HAW-4 Makaha, HI - Point Arena, CA TPC-3 Makaha, HI TPC-3 Tanguisson, Guam GPT Tanguisson, Guam TAT-8 Tuckerton, NJ TAT-9 Manahawkin, NJ TAT-10 Green Hill, RI TAT-11 Manahawkin, NJ The power available for a seafloor observatory depends upon the length of cable being powered, as the voltage losses average about 1.5 V/km for all systems. Margin must be included for voltage variations due to the Earth s magnetic field, which are typically 0.1 V/km (at high latitudes, 2-3 times greater). The PFE may be operated safely with an additional load of 2.5 kv up to about 7.5 kvolt total permitting margin for additional power if required. Therefore, several kilowatts (kw) of power are potentially available for seafloor observatories connected to sections of these cable systems, with substantial margin, as noted in Table 2 for various cable lengths. Additional information may be found at

19 Scientific Submarine Cable 2003 Workshop Report, University of Tokyo 6 TABLE 2. Cable Length, km Transmission + Repeater Voltage Drop (average), kv PFE Voltage, kv Available Voltage for Observatories Amps Power Available for Observatories, kw PFE Voltage Margin, over 5 kv Additional Power Available in Margin, kw Total Power Available for Observatories, kw 1, , , The Terminal Transmission Equipment (TTE) in the Cable Stations contains the optical transmit/receive equipment that provides the physical layer of the transmission. The SL260 and SL580 system TTE are of AT&T and Alcatel design, respectively. The TTE works in conjunction with the Home Supervisory Unit (HSU) for fault location, for switching spare lasers within repeaters and switching fiber spans between repeaters. Repeaters occur at km intervals along the systems, and electronically regenerate the optical signal. Because the repeaters already contain an electronic interface with the systems, the repeater itself presents the one possible means to connect an ocean observatory. The transmission protocol carries Plesiosynchronous Digital Hierarchy (PDH, plesio means near). The transmission speed is Mb/s per fiber pair for SL280 systems and Mb/s per fiber pair for SL560 systems, the transmission protocol being a simple multiple of the SL280. Table 3 shows the bandwidth for the systems. TABLE 3. Cable System Type Bandwidth per Fiber Pair, Mb/s Fiber Pairs + (spare) System Bandwidth, Gb/s HAW-4 SL (1) 0.6 TPC-3 SL (1) 0.6 GPT SL (1) 0.6 TAT-8 SL (1) 0.6 TAT-9 SL (1) 1.2 TAT-10 SL (1) 1.2 TAT-11 SL (1) 1.2 The systems were conservatively designed for an operational lifetime of 25 years. Given the extremely rigorous standards imposed by AT&T, the equipment will probably be operational for additional decades. Earlier generation retired SD coaxial systems (Hawaii-2 and TPC-1) donated to IRIS Ocean Cable, Inc., after 25 years of telephone service have operated without problems for an additional decade. The nominal retirement date for these fiber systems installed is These systems are being retired early only because newer generation fiber systems using purely optical repeaters have up to 1,000 times the bandwidth, and therefore the older systems are no longer commercially viable. The SL equipment is very robust, with internal redundant back-up systems. A review of component failures with AT&T indicates only about a half-dozen, random individual laser failures over the hundreds of repeaters over the lifetime of all 7 of these systems, and only two instances (TAT-8 and GPT) of span changes requiring use of the spare fiber link between two repeaters. Because the cable equipment maintenance and storage facilities were sold by AT&T several years ago to Tyco Telecommunications, the original system drawings and schematics of the cable repeaters and station plant are Tyco property. The Director of IRIS Ocean Cable met with Tyco on April 15 requesting the donation of these schematics to IOC on behalf of the scientific community. Tyco has graciously agreed to provide all of the information that they have for the aforementioned systems. Working with Mr. Mark Tremblay, the schematics necessary for scientific reuse have already been transferred to IOC. Ownership. A consortium of owners owns each of the cable systems, with AT&T being a large stakeholder. Some of the TAT cables have more than 40 European owners. The owners coordinate through a General Committee. Approval in principle for the scientific re-use of Hawaii-4/TPC-3 by AT&T and KDDI Japan has been given, and Additional information may be found at

20 Scientific Submarine Cable 2003 Workshop Report, University of Tokyo 7 Transfer/License Agreements have been have been drafted and submitted to IRIS Ocean Cable, Inc., by AT&T on behalf of the GPT Owners. When the GPT Agreements are concluded, they will serve as a template for the transfer of the other systems. For the Trans-Atlantic Systems, IOC is discussing ownership for the scientific community only of those Cables Systems (and sub-sections thereof) connected to AT&T Cable Stations. This decision is based upon 1) Cable Station space availability, 2) equipment standards, 3) fishing/trawling problems at the European coast, and 4) avoidance of foreign liability and environmental clean-up obligations. Discussions with the European Owners for transfer of the TAT systems have not yet led to an agreement-in-principle, and there is expressed reluctance on their part due to concerns about future liability. Cable Stations. There is available space in each of the AT&T Cable Stations. AT&T has no presence outside of the US for these systems, and any arrangements with a foreign cable station must be with the respective oversees telecommunications company that operates the station. AT&T has offered to provide for license space for scientific use, in much the same fashion as done for TPC-1 at the Guam Tanguisson Station and for Hawaii-2 at the Hawaii Makaha Station. This space is valuable. The current commercial rates for the fiber Cable Systems are of the order of $ K/yr. Current yearly cable station license costs for the scientific use of TPC-1 and Hawaii-2 are about $15K/yr/each, which are more than an order of magnitude lower than standard commercial rates. Space needs (and hence License costs) for the scientific equipment should in principle be less than commercial needs, as much of the multiplexing equipment is not required for scientific use. Scientific use of any of these Systems will likely take several years. It may be possible to defer Cable Station costs, either by removal of equipment from the Stations, and by other arrangements with AT&T; these are being actively explored. However, it will be important to preserve the option for use of the Cable Station. The Manahawkin Cable station in New Jersey, which services only TAT-9 and TAT-11, is a unique case in that it may be closed upon retirement. The station itself is located in a Fish and Wildlife Preserve, and the disposition of the land and station is still under discussion at AT&T. Upon introduction by IOC to AT&T during a visit to Manahawkin in May, Rutgers University, which operates the nearby LEO-15 scientific cable, has entered discussions with AT&T about the possibility for donating this facility to them. Unless ownership issues regarding the Manahawkin Cable Station can be successfully resolved within the context of the retirement of these Cable Systems, the scientific use of the TAT-9 and TAT-11 systems remains unlikely. Equipment Standardization. There is a high degree of standardization in the AT&T equipment, both for the terminal and repeaters, and within the two types of the first generation SL280 and SL560 equipment. There is universal joining equipment for splices. However, the actual hardware installed by AT&T and their partners is not the same. The terminal equipment oversees is different from AT&T. More importantly, sections of repeaters change depending upon who was responsibility for a section of the system. For instance, the TPC-3 system uses Japanese KDDI repeaters west of the Branch, and AT&T repeaters eastward. Similarly, TAT-8 has AT&T repeaters from New Jersey to the Branch near UK and France, after which British and French repeaters respectively are used. TAT9 and TAT-11 have AT&T repeaters only part way across the ocean. Significantly, AT&T repeaters cannot be simply controlled and monitored by an overseas cable station, and vice versa (although the repeater will blindly retransmit the signal if it is the correct format). HAW-4, GPT, and TAT-10 have only AT&T repeaters. In order to work within the AT&T standard, this discussion focuses only on the Cable Systems and sections of Cable Systems, which have AT&T repeaters. In general, these include all cable sections connected to AT&T Cable Stations. Figure 4. Map of TAT-10 from Green Hill, Rhode Island to Germany. Cable Burial and Fishing. AT&T buries its cable to protect against fishing and trawling activities. This is not a problem in the Pacific, where Additional information may be found at

21 Scientific Submarine Cable 2003 Workshop Report, University of Tokyo 8 the water gets deep very quickly, but has been a significant problem in the Atlantic. Nearly all of the cable fault problems in the Atlantic occur on the European side, where sufficient measures were not taken by the European partners to bury the cable in the shallow, near continental margin. This has created a continual problem in Europe from fishing trawlers and cable chafing by currents at the seafloor. For AT&T the problem rate on the US side of the Atlantic has been only 1 fault per 5 years per 6 cable systems (1 fault per 30 cable-system-years). Even though the fault history is very good for AT&T systems, careful review of the actual history indicates that the only system with such problem is TAT-8 on the New Jersey shelf beyond the first repeater. Liability and Environmental Clean-up Obligations. The IRIS Consortium formed IRIS Ocean Cable, Inc. (IOC) as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation for cable ownership and license agreements for the acquisition of TPC-1 and Hawaii-2 for science, and can provide a vehicle for the transfer of the fiber optic Cable Systems. The License Agreements dictate operational requirements for having equipment in the Cable Station, which includes its removal upon termination of the License Agreement. There are liability issues in owning something on the seafloor (the cable itself). If a fishing trawler snags the cable and looses his net, traditionally AT&T paid them to replace the net. However, IOC has no assets but the Cables. Marine insurance will be obtained, but as noted the stronger step of avoiding Cable Systems with a history of fishing related problems is a more conservative course. The US has no law that requires AT&T to remove the cable from the shallow coastal region upon retirement. Recently New Jersey passed a law requiring removal of new cable systems from their coast, which does not affect the older TAT systems. In accepting TPC-1 and Hawaii-2, IOC will not have to remove the cables once the systems are retired from scientific use. However, IOC will have to remove equipment from its license space at the cable stations upon project completion. Similarly, a US scientific entity such as IOC would not have to remove a fiber optic cable from the seafloor of the US coast after scientific retirement. This is not the case for the European systems. When the four TAT Systems (8, 9, 10, and 11) are retired, the Owners will hire a cable ship to remove the cables from the European coast. If these sections of cables are donated to science, then the scientific entity would in principle have to remove the cable after retirement from scientific use. This is a substantial obligation (perhaps prohibitive with typical scientific funding). Since the re-use of commercial cable systems or any new scientific cables on the coast of Europe faces similar restrictions, the European community will need to carefully evaluate the future implied costs for cable systems. Similar asymmetry of law exists for cables landing in Japan versus the US. For TPC-1, IRIS entered into a memorandum with the University of Tokyo obligating the Japanese side to be responsible for Japanese coastal clean up. A similar arrangement may be possible with TPC-3, if the Japanese scientific community decides to re-use the western portion of the system. As NSF looks to laying its own coastal and regional cable systems (e.g., NEPTUNE) the fishing and liability issues are part of the opportunity that must be considered. Spares. AT&T is making available all of its spare cable and equipment for these systems. There are 23 SL560 system repeaters and 15 SL280 system repeaters. There is nearly 700 km of fiber optic cable (5 cable types from lightweight to double-armored), in 41 sections of 1 to 40 km length. There are also spare TTE, PFE, and repeater electronics at AT&T s New Jersey warehouses. This can be an extraordinarily valuable resource for science. New lightweight SL cable costs about $10/m or $10K/km. Lightweight cable can be used to link remote sites kilometers from a central hub. The sections of armored cable are essential for both shore access and exposed basalt seafloor. Each of the repeaters may be a potential node for ocean observatories. The first three pans of cable (82 km) and three repeaters have already been transferred from AT&T to IOC from the retired GPT system. The principal challenge presented in the donation of this spare cable and equipment is where to store it. Both University of Hawaii (at Sand Island) and Rutgers University have offered some storage space for the spares. Because the AT&T storage facilities were sold several years ago to Tyco Telecommunications, the spare pans (21 ft. diameter) of cable and repeaters are currently stored at Tyco facilities at Guam, Honolulu, Portland, and Baltimore. Commercial storage rates for the spare cable available for single systems reach $20-150K/yr, depending upon storage location and cable volume. As the Guam storage facility is planned to be closed by Tyco in September, shipping costs to move the GPT spares now owned by IOC to Honolulu is being coordinated with the University of Hawaii Project Aloha. Negotiations with Tyco are currently underway in consultation with NSF to arrange for the Additional information may be found at

22 Scientific Submarine Cable 2003 Workshop Report, University of Tokyo 9 storage of these spares at rates substantially below commercial storage rates. If funds are not available for storage, then the donation of much of the spare cable will have to be declined. Acquisition Timeline. The approximate timeline for action in acquiring these Cable Systems for science is noted in Table 4. Upon retirement, there is about six-month period to clear all matters before the books are closed. During this time the disposition of all cable station equipment, surplus cables and spare are concluded. Transfer of spare cable and repeaters must be arranged early. As there is no immediate need for space in the relevant cable stations, the actual transfer and licensing agreement can take place in six months or longer following the conclusion of an Agreement-in-Principle. Because the European coastal portion of the TAT cables will be recovered and disposed (assuming no scientific reuse by the European science community), the final disposition of these systems will await retirement of TAT-9, when a cable ship will be hired the dispose of all systems at the same time. IRIS is endeavoring to extend the timeframe for acquiring the Cable Systems in order to keep options open for the scientific community and NSF. However, commercial interests of the telecommunications companies will dictate the schedule. Table 4. Cable Retirement Date Decision on Spares Transfer Agreement-in-Principle TAT-8 May 2002 Spares lost November 2003 Station Equipment temporarily saved at IOC request 11/2002 GPT April 10, 2003 June 1, 2003 October 1, 2003 TAT-10 June 30, 2003 August 31, 2003 December 31, 2003 TAT-11 June 30, 2003 August 31, 2003 December 31, 2003 HAW-4 September 30, 2003 December 31, 2003 March 31, 2004 TPC-3 September 30, 2003 December 31, 2003 March 31, 2004 TAT-9 December 2003 February 2004 June 2004 Cable System Summary. The status of negotiations and discussions for these 3 Pacific and 4 Atlantic Cable Systems under discussion are briefly summarized. AT&T has submitted draft Transfer and License Agreements for consideration. Pacific Cables The Cable Owners have agreed in principle to transfer the cables for science, subject to an acceptable Transfer Agreement. There has been no fishing/trawling cable damage to any of these systems. IOC currently holds an AT&T license for space in the Guam Tanguisson Cable Station for TPC-1 and the Oahu Makaha Cable Station for Hawaii-2. These Cable Stations also serve GPT, TPC-3, and HAW-4. The University of Hawaii, which currently stores a pan of Hawaii-2 cable at its Sand Island facility, has expressed interest in helping with cable storage and is approaching Tyco regarding their local storage depot. GPT. The entire system has AT&T repeaters. The American scientific interest in GPT is from Guam to the branch unit at about 2400 km west. IOC has signed a Transfer Agreement for 3 pans of surplus fiber cable (82 km) and 3 repeaters. TPC-3. The US interest is the section west of Oahu to the Branch that uses AT&T repeaters. The Japanese scientific community is considering the western portion of the system. Significant spare cables and repeaters are located in Honolulu and Yokohama. HAW-4. The entire system has AT&T repeaters. NSF has a funded proposal, Aloha Observatory, with an interest in using this Cable System. Significant spare cables and repeaters are located in Honolulu and Portland. Additional information may be found at

23 Scientific Submarine Cable 2003 Workshop Report, University of Tokyo 10 Atlantic Cables Although AT&T has agreed in principle to transfer the cables for science, subject to an acceptable Transfer Agreement, the European Owners have expressed reservations in transferring the cable systems to a not-forprofit scientific organization such as IOC due to liability concerns. Rutgers University, which operates the LEO-15 cable near the AT&T Tuckerton Cable Station has expressed an interest in the Atlantic Cables. Rutgers has offered to help coordinate with the Atlantic Cable Stations and provide some storage space for spare cable system equipment. The European terminations of all of the Atlantic Cable Systems have had significant trawling/fishing problems and possess environmental requirements to remove cable from their coastal waters after use. TAT-8. The system has AT&T repeaters from the US to the branch, and reaches the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. There have been two fishing/trawling problems beyond the first repeater at about 50 km out. If only the short coastal section of TAT-8 were used, the standard Cable Station Terminal equipment may not be needed (with perhaps significant savings of space and concomitant License space cost). There is license space available in the Tuckerton Cable Station. TAT-9. The system has AT&T repeaters from the US to near the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. There is a record of fishing/trawling problems on the Canadian coast. Only the section of the TAT-9 system from the US Cable Station to the first branch and then to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is being considered for scientific use by the US. The Manahawkin Cable Station in New Jersey may be closed after TAT-9 and TAT-11 retirement. Rutgers is exploring the possible re-use of the building, which could make possible the re-use of TAT-9. Significant spare cables and repeaters are located in Baltimore. TAT-10. This Trans-Atlantic Cable could be used for a Mid-Atlantic Ridge observatory. The entire system has AT&T repeaters. There is a record of fishing/trawling problems from the European coast to northwest of Ireland, but none on the US side. Only the section of the TAT-10 system from the US coast into deep water beyond the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is being considered for scientific use by the US. There is license space available in the Green Hill, Rhode Island, Cable Station. However, there is a question whether this station may remain open in the future when TAT-12 and TAT-13 retire. Significant spare cables and repeaters are located in Baltimore. TAT-11. The system has AT&T repeaters from the US to the section southeast of Newfoundland. There has been no record of fishing/trawling problems on the US side. The Manahawkin Cable Station in New Jersey may be closed after TAT-9 and TAT-11 retirement. Rutgers is exploring the possible re-use of the building, which could make possible the re-use of TAT-11. Significant spare cables and repeaters are located in Baltimore. Future Implementation for Science. This section looks beyond the acquisition of the Cable Systems toward using the Systems for science. Many of these concepts have been outlined and discussed in the various reports referenced in Scientific Opportunities, and are mentioned here to provide context for these fiber optic Systems. Scientific re-use of a fiber optic cable system changes its original use from a telephone system between two coasts to a system to provide telecommunications and power to the seafloor. There are a number of ways in which the systems may be modified, depending upon the complexity of re-use. Detailed discussions have taken place with the AT&T/Tyco engineers who designed these Cable Systems and have been offering their assistance in the Cable reuse effort. These people, led by Mr. Mark Tremblay, bring both key expertise and extensive good-will contacts throughout the AT&T and Tyco organizations. A group of 30 cable system engineers have been canvassed and have expressed interest in helping with engineering work in using the Cable Systems for science. Scientific re-use of these first generation systems is both technologically feasible and may be straightforward. Re-engineered spare repeaters or other in-line nodes may used for an observatory system, and the kilometers of spare cable being offered by AT&T may be used as branches off the trunk to remote instrumentation. Two models have been followed in re-using coaxial submarine telephone cable systems. For TPC-1, an instrumentation package was spliced into the cable, which remained connected to the cable stations on either end. For Hawaii-2, the original cable was cut in the middle and the Hawaii-2 Observatory (H2O) junction box was attached to the section going to the Hawaii terminus. This approach permits easy repair, replacement, and additions of sensors. The other section of the Hawaii-2 cable is effectively retired on the seafloor, unused. Furthermore, since Additional information may be found at

24 Scientific Submarine Cable 2003 Workshop Report, University of Tokyo 11 the repeaters on the unused section of cable are not powered, this power is available for scientific sensors. For Hawaii-2 this amounts to about 400 watts. Both of these models used space in the AT&T cable station for the terminal equipment. The sections of cable near the cable stations, which were originally buried by AT&T, were left undisturbed. The Hawaii-2 re-use model may be applied for the fiber optic systems. Cutting a cable system in the middle will yield about 4-9 kw power on the seafloor. Using loopback telemetry, the system bandwidth may be used from either cable station. In this model a junction box installed at one end becomes a server to other junction boxes in a star topology (spokes from the center). These remote boxes would be connected by electro-optical cable to the server. Sensors would be added and modified at the junction boxes in the manner of the Hawaii-2 Observatory. The cable system is powered from the Cable Station, and the basic telemetry would be modified to carry IP traffic. With the large amount of available power on the seafloor, the junction boxes can also serve at docking stations for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), which can get power and upload/download data after service runs to remote instrumentation or other autonomous scientific surveys. Following the example from TPC-1, nodes may be spliced into multiple points along the cable. This requires cutting, lifting, and splicing into the system. An installed node may serve both local instrumentation and additional junction boxes connected by cable. There are margins built into the repeaters for maintaining signal characteristics. One must be careful in splicing additional cable or sensors that these margins are strictly adhered to. The earlier SL280-series cable systems have closer repeater spacing, and effectively greater margins. Splicing into the middle of a cable system is inherently risky. However, if one designs to minimize risk to the whole system, then one can potentially install many scientific nodes along the re-used cable system. Installation of such nodes will require a cable ship with splicing equipment. H2O re-used the RF spectrum available in the coaxial cable, subdividing the bandwidth into channels connected to standard modems. Care was taken to maintain the frequency and power standards that the repeaters were designed for. Similar care is required for the fiber systems. The electro-optical repeaters operate at 1.6 Amps and communicate only at SL280 or SL50 data rates. Although the systems carry PDH traffic, appropriate terminal modifications, complimented with corresponding node hardware, can enable the system to carry Ethernet traffic and still permit control of the repeaters when necessary. Test circuitry built into the TTE and repeater loopback capabilities permit system testing on land within the Cable Station. The Seafloor Observatory nodes would then distribute the signal via IP protocols. Using standard IP hardware minimizes development for the seafloor system mirrored at the TTE in the Cable Station, while utilizing the highly reliable SL280/560 regenerators. There is a wealth of available talent in the former AT&T/Tyco engineers who designed and built these Cable Systems, many of whom are actively interested (and some already actively participating) in helping use these Cable Systems for science. A recommended approach is to fund a workshop inviting broad participation to recommend a design concept. The Hawaii-2 system was used in place. One of the major new ideas for re-using these retired fiber optic systems is to relocate them. One possibility, extending the prior example, is to cut the cable, then recover and re-lay the section at the end of one or both of the two pieces. One end of the cable remains connected to the cable station. For example, the Hawaii-4 Figure 5. Possible ideas for re-locating Pacific cables. Additional information may be found at