Fiber Optic Cables and the AT&T GNOC

What better way to look at how things work than to dive right into the internet and what makes it run smoothly. The internet is a massive collection of networks from all around the world. Even though these networks are separated by extremely large distances of land and ocean, information and data can still be transmitted extremely quickly and efficiently. This is because of fiber optic cables that are able to span very great lengths in order to connect continents. Light is able to travel very quickly through the pieces of thin 

The glass (the colored strips) allows
light to travel at extremely high speeds,
 and is protected by durable layers.

 glass that are at the core of fiber optic cables. Unfortunately, even though it is efficient, the small strips of glass are still small strips of glass, so they are  fragile. These strips of glass carry a lot of data between major countries and continents, so they can not afford to break. The glass is protected by materials durable enough to withstand the natural stress that is put on it by the ocean. However, if one of these fiber optic cables were to encounter a problem, people using the internet would probably not notice any major change in the speed at which they are sending and receiving data. One of the strong points of how the internet works is that there is always another way for information to travel. No single cable (or group of cables) can be considered the sole reason for everything working properly.There are so many different connections between places that even if the most direct connection is, for whatever reason, not working, there is always another path for information to take. While it is very helpful that all of the internet cannot be affected by one failure, it is still up to large companies such as AT&T to keep everything running as smoothly as possible.

The AT&T Global Network Operations Center in Bedminster, New Jersey keeps the flow of data and information running quickly and cleanly every day. Because the internet, calling, and texting are used by so many people, everything must work properly all of the time. Many precautions are taken in order to insure

Dozens of monitors display graphs that show what is
working properly and what might fail

that there are as few failures as possible. Everything is monitored. Information and numbers gathered from one day is compared to averages and days like it to spot patterns that are unusual during a normal day. Global, national, and regional maps indicate when a component of the network is not working as well as it should. News channels and weather channels are monitored in order to prepare for and respond to natural disasters such as storms, hurricanes, and earthquakes. Data is monitored so that hackers and overflows of information can be dealt with. Even very small problems are spotted and fixed immediately, before they can grow and and become major problems, doing a lot of damage to connections and networks. Keeping such a large system running requires a large amount of people in different fields. Thousands of people hold the connections throughout the world together, whether it is someone monitoring data for signs of a failure, or someone sent to fix a cell tower. People spend large amounts of time and resources ensuring that the thing that connects everyone does not fall apart.