Milestone-Proposal:Trans-Atlantic Telephone Fiber-optic Submarine Cable (TAT-8) - 1988
To see comments, or add a comment to this discussion, click here.
Docket #:2014-03
This Proposal has been approved, and is now a Milestone
To the proposer’s knowledge, is this achievement subject to litigation? No
Is the achievement you are proposing more than 25 years old? Yes
Is the achievement you are proposing within IEEE’s designated fields as defined by IEEE Bylaw I-104.11, namely: Engineering, Computer Sciences and Information Technology, Physical Sciences, Biological and Medical Sciences, Mathematics, Technical Communications, Education, Management, and Law and Policy. Yes
Did the achievement provide a meaningful benefit for humanity? Yes
Was it of at least regional importance? Yes
Has an IEEE Organizational Unit agreed to pay for the milestone plaque(s)? Yes
Has the IEEE Section(s) in which the plaque(s) will be located agreed to arrange the dedication ceremony? Yes
Has the IEEE Section in which the milestone is located agreed to take responsibility for the plaque after it is dedicated? Yes
Has the owner of the site agreed to have it designated as an IEEE Milestone? Yes
Year or range of years in which the achievement occurred:
1988
Title of the proposed milestone:
Trans-Atlantic Telephone Fiber-Optic Submarine Cable (TAT-8), 1988
Plaque citation summarizing the achievement and its significance; if personal name(s) are included, such name(s) must follow the achievement itself in the citation wording: Text absolutely limited by plaque dimensions to 70 words; 60 is preferable for aesthetic reasons.
TAT-8, the first fiber-optic cable to cross an ocean, entered service 14 December 1988. AT&T, British Telecom, and France Telecom led the consortium that built TAT-8, which spanned a seabed distance of 5,846 km between North America and Europe. AT&T Bell Laboratories developed the foundational technologies: 1.3 micron fiber, cable, splicing, laser detector, and 280 Mbps repeater for 40,000 telephone-call capacity. Bell Labs led the integration at Freehold, New Jersey.
200-250 word abstract describing the significance of the technical achievement being proposed, the person(s) involved, historical context, humanitarian and social impact, as well as any possible controversies the advocate might need to review.
IEEE technical societies and technical councils within whose fields of interest the Milestone proposal resides.
In what IEEE section(s) does it reside?
IEEE NJ Coast Section
IEEE Organizational Unit(s) which have agreed to sponsor the Milestone:
IEEE Organizational Unit(s) paying for milestone plaque(s):
Unit: IEEE NJ Coast Section
Senior Officer Name: Rulei Ting
IEEE Organizational Unit(s) arranging the dedication ceremony:
Unit: IEEE NJ Coast Section
Senior Officer Name: Newman Wilson
IEEE section(s) monitoring the plaque(s):
IEEE Section: IEEE NJ Coast Section
IEEE Section Chair name: Ralph Wyndrum
Milestone proposer(s):
Proposer name: Newman Wilson
Proposer email: Proposer's email masked to public
Proposer name: Ralph Wyndrum
Proposer email: Proposer's email masked to public
Proposer name: Krishna Raghunandan
Proposer email: Proposer's email masked to public
Please note: your email address and contact information will be masked on the website for privacy reasons. Only IEEE History Center Staff will be able to view the email address.
Street address(es) and GPS coordinates in decimal form of the intended milestone plaque site(s):
AT&T Labs, 200 S Laurel Ave., Middletown, NJ 07748
Describe briefly the intended site(s) of the milestone plaque(s). The intended site(s) must have a direct connection with the achievement (e.g. where developed, invented, tested, demonstrated, installed, or operated, etc.). A museum where a device or example of the technology is displayed, or the university where the inventor studied, are not, in themselves, sufficient connection for a milestone plaque.
Please give the address(es) of the plaque site(s) (GPS coordinates if you have them). Also please give the details of the mounting, i.e. on the outside of the building, in the ground floor entrance hall, on a plinth on the grounds, etc. If visitors to the plaque site will need to go through security, or make an appointment, please give the contact information visitors will need. This is the main AT&T Labs Building in New Jersey, in the vicinity of Tuckerton, NJ (cable landing site) and Freehold, NJ (technology integration site). There is a mounted bust of Alexander Graham Bell in the vicinity of where the plaque will be installed.
Are the original buildings extant?
YES, this building is operational and used as labs facility housing nearly 5000 employees.
Details of the plaque mounting:
Ground Floor Entrance Hall Lobby
How is the site protected/secured, and in what ways is it accessible to the public?
The site is within the security perimeter of AT&T.
Who is the present owner of the site(s)?
AT&T
What is the historical significance of the work (its technological, scientific, or social importance)? If personal names are included in citation, include detailed support at the end of this section preceded by "Justification for Inclusion of Name(s)". (see section 6 of Milestone Guidelines)
See URL - http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Oral-History:Jack_Sipress TAT-8 was the first transatlantic cable to use optical fibers, a revolution in telecommunications. It had a capacity equivalent to 40,000 telephone circuits which was ten times the capacity of the last copper cable. Several new technologies had to be developed which were beyond those for land applications: (a) strong enough fiber strand and undersea cable that required ten times the strength available with typical fibers of that time; (b) strong splicing to withstand the rigors of the ocean as well as the laying of cable or pull up and repair of the cable at the fault location; (c) 1.3 micron wavelength single mode fiber and matching lasers and detector technology; (d) silicon for repeaters running at 280 Mbps and with very low failure rates. These resulted in far fewer repeaters and thinner cable than the copper submarine cable.
What obstacles (technical, political, geographic) needed to be overcome?
See URL - http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Oral-History:Jack_Sipress The regulatory agency, Federal Communications Commission, was promoting satellite technologies for across the ocean applications and would not let Bell System to put in new cables. The new fiber-optic submarine systems had to be developed rapidly, and implemented in a span of seven years.
What features set this work apart from similar achievements?
This was the first submarine fiber-optic cable system and several new technologies were developed rapidly for this purpose. The lessons learned were incorporated in later systems such as submarine cable systems across the pacific and around the world. Later terabit fiber-optic submarine systems that make the internet of today possible build on this strong foundation.
Why was the achievement successful and impactful?
Supporting texts and citations to establish the dates, location, and importance of the achievement: Minimum of five (5), but as many as needed to support the milestone, such as patents, contemporary newspaper articles, journal articles, or chapters in scholarly books. 'Scholarly' is defined as peer-reviewed, with references, and published. You must supply the texts or excerpts themselves, not just the references. At least one of the references must be from a scholarly book or journal article. All supporting materials must be in English, or accompanied by an English translation.
[1] An easy to read article is available on Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAT-8 [2] Jack Sipress, an oral history conducted in 1999 by David Hochfelder, IEEE History Center, New Brunswick, NJ, USA, http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Oral-History:Jack_Sipress [3] First laser phone call zips across the Atlantic! Isaac Asimov dedicates TAT-8 http://massis.lcs.mit.edu/archives/history/tat-8.fiber.optic. Also appears in Telecom Digest V8 issue 202 12/16/88. [4] Milestones in AT&T History, http://www.corp.att.com/history/milestones.html [5] The Voyage That Changed The World, International Cable Protection Committee, Dec. 1, 2008, http://www.iscpc.org/publications/ICPC_Press_Release_01-Dec-08.pdf
Supporting materials (supported formats: GIF, JPEG, PNG, PDF, DOC): All supporting materials must be in English, or if not in English, accompanied by an English translation. You must supply the texts or excerpts themselves, not just the references. For documents that are copyright-encumbered, or which you do not have rights to post, email the documents themselves to ieee-history@ieee.org. Please see the Milestone Program Guidelines for more information.
Please email a jpeg or PDF a letter in English, or with English translation, from the site owner(s) giving permission to place IEEE milestone plaque on the property, and a letter (or forwarded email) from the appropriate Section Chair supporting the Milestone application to ieee-history@ieee.org with the subject line "Attention: Milestone Administrator." Note that there are multiple texts of the letter depending on whether an IEEE organizational unit other than the section will be paying for the plaque(s).
Please recommend reviewers by emailing their names and email addresses to ieee-history@ieee.org. Please include the docket number and brief title of your proposal in the subject line of all emails.
