Finnish telecommunications company Elisa, the Finnish Border Guard and the Finnish Navy successfully tested the securing of submarine cables.
Detection equipment installed by Elisa enables the acoustic monitoring of submarine cables in the Gulf of Finland. The project is based on Distributed Acoustic Sensing, i.e. DAS technology, in which Elisa's submarine cable acts as a sensor that measures exceptional vibrations on the seabed. The DAS device analyses the changes caused by vibrations in the reflections of light passing through the optical fibre, which can be used to detect, for example, the approach of a ship dragging its anchor.
After successfully completed field testing, the system is being built into an automated service that automatically alerts both authorities and critical infrastructure owners of exceptional situations. Undersea cables carry about 99% of global internet traffic, but there have been multiple incidents in recent years, mostly near geopolitical hotspots like the Baltic Sea. Russian vessels are also frequently seen near transatlantic data cables and are suspected of mapping the sea floor near them.
Early warning
"The protection of undersea infrastructure is a nationally important task. The recent cable breaks in mind, we have built a solution that provides an early warning of an approaching threat. We are very pleased with the tests that have now been carried out and the good cooperation with the Finnish Border Guard and the Finnish Navy. Our quick response to the incident at the turn of the year prevented damage to other cables. Our goal is to use the early warning system to alert the authorities even before the first damage occurs," says Jouni Petrow, Elisa's Director, New Business.
"The Finnish Border Guard is leading the work in Finland based the EU action plan on submarine cables to protect critical maritime infrastructure in the Baltic Sea. By enabling these tests, we are promoting new ways of protecting the critical maritime infrastructure of the EU's Baltic Sea coastal states. It is important that in addition to the authorities, companies that own critical infrastructure are involved," says Ilja Iljin, Specialist at the Border Guard Headquarters, who is preparing the implementation of the cable action plan.
Below the surface observations
The Finnish Navy is responsible for forming the national maritime common operational picture. Recent events highlight the need for capacity of the infrastructure owners to control their own critical infrastructure on the sea floor. The new technologies will enable more comprehensive observation from below the surface, which is a very challenging operating environment in general and in the Baltic Sea in particular. Cooperation between the authorities and the owners of critical infrastructure is very important, enhancing our common situational awareness.
The Finnish Naval Academy, Fingrid, Gasgrid, the Geological Survey of Finland and the Institute of Seismology at the University of Helsinki are also involved in the project. The tests carried out at the beginning of June included vessels of the Finnish Border Guard and the Navy, divers, a remote-controlled underwater robot and test equipment from other participants. The tests simulated the detection and location of faults in the undersea infrastructure, and how well the DAS system detects them.
