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Home / Inductees in the News / 113,000 Miles of Cable Power the U.S. Internet
27 April 2016

113,000 Miles of Cable Power the U.S. Internet

A map created by University of Wisconsin computer science professor Paul Barford, in conjunction with colleagues from the University of Wisconsin, Colgate University and network security firm Niksun, is the first of its kind to show all the long-distance fiber-optic cables that carry Internet data across the continental U.S

Though they comprise critical public infrastructure, a comprehensive map of these cables has not previously been available.

A cable network map in US.

According to an article about the map in MIT Technology Review: “Although the Internet is publicly accessible, it is woven together from many privately-owned networks that interoperate. Telecommunications companies sometimes show schematics of their core networks, but without much geographic detail. Barford says some government agencies likely have maps of their own, but they aren’t public.” 

The map, which took four years to compile, was laboriously created by piecing together public records created by the municipal permitting process for laying cables.

Barford hopes the map can help efforts to understand the possible effects of natural disasters or intentional attacks on the Internet. Indeed, the Department of Homeland Security is making the map and supporting data available through a project called Predict, which offers data relevant to Internet security to government, private, and public researchers.

Barford told MIT Technology Review: “Our intention is to help improve security by improving knowledge. I think the map highlights that there are probably many opportunities to make the network more robust.”

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