The backbone of the Internet, submarine and terrestrial fibre communications in South Africa
Alice Drozdov, Anneke Erasmus and Siann Bester
Event overview of an Optical Fibre Communication workshop
A large portion of people in South Africa rely on fibre optical communication for a fast and reliable internet connection. Yet few people understand how fibre communication works. Therefore, the Wits Optics Student Chapter and the Stellenbosch Laser Student Chapter, in collaboration with Google, the Optica Foundation, SPIE, the SubOptic Foundation, Infinera, and WIOCC, recently organised two workshops aimed at spreading awareness of Optical Fibre Communication within South Africa. The first workshop was held on 18 April 2023 in Johannesburg, while the second workshop was held on 20 - 21 April 2023 in Stellenbosch, with the latter being streamed online.
Alice Drozdov at the Equiano Cable Landing.
The main objective of the workshops was to educate attendees on how submarine and terrestrial fibre communication works, and how these networks make cloud computing possible. Talks from international and local presenters provided insight into different aspects of fibre communication and cloud computing. These speakers included Valey Kamalov, an expert in the subsea fibre industry and member of the Optica Foundation Board of Directors, Geoff Bennett, Director of Solutions and Technology at Infinera, Ronald Moorcroft, a network architect at WIOCC, and Jonathan Davidson, a customer engineer for Google Cloud Africa.
In addition to the presentations, there were professional development talks that introduced attendees to the opportunities available in the optics field. Justice Sompo, a Technical Program Manager at Google, provided an industry perspective at both workshops, while Dr Mitchell Cox, a senior lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand and Optica Ambassador, provided an academic perspective.
Attendees also had the opportunity to network with one another and with industry professionals as well as to observe demonstrations explaining refraction and optical communication during the breaks. The workshop in Johannesburg included open sessions where attendees could speak about their own work and included presentations ranging from the use of optical communication in mines to quantum optics. On the other hand, the workshop in Stellenbosch included an excursion to the Cable Landing Station in Melkbosstrand, where attendees saw where the SAT-3, SAFE subsea cables, and Google's new Equiano cable connect South Africa's internet to the rest of the world.
There was a total of 84 people from 11 different academic institutes and companies at the workshops, including undergraduate students, postgraduate students, professionals from industry, and professionals from academia. The attendees tremendously enjoyed learning about and exploring the different aspects of fibre communications. The highlight for the attendees at the Stellenbosch workshop was the trip to the Cable Landing Station.
Participants from the Optica Student Chapters at the University of Witwatersrand and Stellenbosch University
The success of the workshop highlights the need for more events that provide knowledge and network development opportunities in the field of optical fibre communication in South Africa. This workshop has shown that there is an interest in this field, and more efforts should be made to ensure that knowledge sharing opportunities are made available to those who wish to learn more about it.
In conclusion, the Wits Optics Student Chapter and the Stellenbosch Laser Student Chapter, in collaboration with their partners, successfully organised two workshops that provided valuable knowledge and network development opportunities for attendees interested in optical fibre communication. The feedback from attendees was positive, indicating that the workshops met their expectations and exceeded some. The organisers hope to continue organising similar events in the future to further increase knowledge sharing opportunities in this field.
