Beneath London, Data Flows Through the City’s Sewers
They should be.
"That bundle behind you," says a Thames Water representative, pointing at four non-descript cables on the wall, as he leads a troop of journalists through a section of the system near Hackney Wick, in East London. "That's the Isle of Dogs."
For those unfamiliar with the geography of the UK's capital, the Isle of Dogs contains Canary Wharf, the second financial heart of the city, next to the City itself. Those few cables contain all of the information on the area's network—essentially, all of the major banks' trading operations, media broadcasts and wire updates, regulatory activities and more, that are based in the E14 postal code area and connected to the wires in front of us.
Fifty Feet Under
The fiber optic network is operated by Geo Networks, in partnership with Thames Water. The firm services a number of industries, including financial services, and says that its network provides a unique proposition for prospective clients that require high levels of security and reliability in their connectivity infrastructures.
"There's a massive advantage to our network through using the Victorian sewer system," says Rob Williams, sales director for the finance sector at Geo Networks. "It runs, at the shallowest end, at around four meters beneath the roadway, through to 12 to 15 meters. It gives you an incredible element of security to the network."
"The strangest thing I've ever found," says the Thames Water representative, considering a question from one of the group. "One of my colleagues found a hand grenade once."
Despite the levels of protection placed around computer systems at banks and exchanges, both physical and virtual, huge problems with communications infrastructure are often encountered through relatively mundane situations, such as a cable being cut accidentally during civil works, or through metal theft. In contrast to the depth of Geo's Metro network, much of the cabling for fiber optics in the capital is directly beneath the road, and above water mains, requiring road workers to either work around it or cut through to reach critical systems.
"At the last count that we did, for 2011 and 2012, there were over 406,000 road works that happened within the capital that year. If you relate that back to the amount of streets in that area, it's the equivalent of each street being worked on six times. Now, a lot of those are residential, which won't feel the effect of that as much. The load-bearing streets, for want of a better word, get dug up a lot,” Williams says.
Point A to Point B, via C
While the sewer provides what Williams describes as 100 percent security for the cabling, there are restrictions. The network has to follow the sewer system, and Geo is forced to dig up to connect clients. As well as that, Thames Water is obliged to provide a response time, 24/7, within four hours, for any disruption, so the routes must be accessible for engineers. This, however, doesn't enormously limit the network, given its broad coverage from Stratford in the East End, through to the far west of London, and similar on the north–south axis. Clients in the financial services sector include banks, hedge funds, exchanges and others.
"We're a high-bandwidth provider," says Williams. "Generally speaking, that predicates headquarters connectivity back to a datacenter. So if you're looking at a retail network for branch connectivity, it doesn't fit that well, as it's a low-bandwidth activity. But if you're looking for connectivity to a datacenter or an exchange, that works well."
The low-latency aspect of connection, Williams says, depends on the location and its approximate A-to-B route through the sewer network. Laying the cables themselves, though, is not the easiest job. The group, including Waters, spent approximately half an hour underground, and the heat was palpable, even on a cool, rainy autumn day. Engineers will typically spend shifts of two to three hours before being rotated out, and sewer flow may have to be diverted to allow them to work. That doesn't even cover the alarming items sometimes encountered in the water itself.
"The strangest thing I've ever found?" says the Thames Water representative, considering a question from one of the group. "One of my colleagues found a hand grenade once."
Only users who have a paid subscription or are part of a corporate subscription are able to print or copy content.
To access these options, along with all other subscription benefits, please contact info@waterstechnology.com or view our subscription options here: http://subscriptions.waterstechnology.com/subscribe
You are currently unable to print this content. Please contact info@waterstechnology.com to find out more.
You are currently unable to copy this content. Please contact info@waterstechnology.com to find out more.
Copyright Infopro Digital Limited. All rights reserved.
As outlined in our terms and conditions, https://www.infopro-digital.com/terms-and-conditions/subscriptions/ (point 2.4), printing is limited to a single copy.
If you would like to purchase additional rights please email info@waterstechnology.com
Copyright Infopro Digital Limited. All rights reserved.
You may share this content using our article tools. As outlined in our terms and conditions, https://www.infopro-digital.com/terms-and-conditions/subscriptions/ (clause 2.4), an Authorised User may only make one copy of the materials for their own personal use. You must also comply with the restrictions in clause 2.5.
If you would like to purchase additional rights please email info@waterstechnology.com
More on Trading Tech
JP Morgan’s goal of STP in loans materializes on Versana’s platform
The accomplishment highlights the budding digitization of private credit, though it’s still a long road ahead.
As data volumes explode, expect more outages
Waters Wrap: At least for those unprepared—though preparation is no easy task—says Anthony.
This Week: ICE Bonds and MarketAxess plan to connect liquidity networks, TS Imagine, Bloomberg, and more
A summary of the latest financial technology news.
Industry associations say ECB cloud guidelines clash with EU’s Dora
Responses from industry participants on the European Central Bank’s guidelines are expected in the coming weeks.
CrowdStrike outage spurs rethink on ‘critical’ vendors
Some want US regulators to designate tech firms that pose risks to financial stability
This Week: ISI buys EPFR; Bloomberg, Warsaw Exchange, Fenergo and more
A summary of the latest financial technology news
US Supreme Court clips SEC’s wings with recent rulings
The Supreme Court made a host of decisions at the start of July that spell trouble for regulators—including the SEC.
TMX’s indexing pivot bears first fruit
The acquisition of index provider VettaFi has boosted revenues in the exchange’s analytics division, but further growth could mean taking on the heavyweight data providers like S&P, FTSE Russell, and MSCI.