Cabling Infrastructure
Fiber keeps scientists connected
South Pole environment provides stern
test for research site’s cabling
infrastructure.
by Betsy Ziobron
The South Pole is a valuable research site, and the new Amundsen-Scott Station is uniquely designed to accommodate scientific experiments and ensure communication. Source: National Science Foundation
For harsh environments, nothing compares to the
South Pole–a mean annual temperature of
minus 56° F, constant winds creating
snowdrifts high enough to bury a building,
accumulating snow that never melts, and an
almost two-mile deep glacier that slides 33
feet toward the sea each year.
Despite this environment, the South Pole
is the site of the new $153 million
Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, designed
to support an array of scientific
investigations. This 65,000-square-foot
facility delivers a level of comfort and
safety that would have been inconceivable to
the explorers who reached the Pole nearly a
century ago–for whom the new station is
named.
To withstand the harsh Antarctic conditions, the new Amundsen-Scott Station is elevated on 36 hydraulic jack columns that can be raised in 10-inch increments. Its airfoil shape forces the wind to travel faster beneath the facility and scour out built-up snow. Source: National Science Foundation
The station is home to 150 people during
Antarctica’s three-month austral summer and
50 people (known as "winter-overs") during
the remaining nine months when travel is
prohibited. Maintaining a connection to the
outside world is critical for sending vital
scientific data, enabling communication, and
easing the daily life of those who live and
work on "The Ice." The advanced network
cabling infrastructure that delivers fiber
to the desk plays a primary role in that
effort.
Under the Antarctic Treaty, no nation
owns the continent, and it is reserved as a
zone for the peaceful conduct of research.
The United States Antarctic Program (USAP),
funded and managed by the National Science
Foundation (NSF), oversees U.S. scientific
interest in the area.
Bob Croke of Raytheon Polar Services led the engineering team responsible for designing and implementing the network cabling infrastructure for the new Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.
The original 1956 South Pole station long
vanished under 30 feet of ice and was
replaced in 1975 with a 50-meter geodesic
dome. The dome was covered with snow each
winter, causing it to show signs of fatigue
and no longer be adequate for the growing
population of scientists and personnel.
The new station took many years of
planning and design to meet the long-range
requirements, withstand the harsh conditions
and gain government approval and funding.
The completed station is the main facility
on a campus that also includes a new power
plant, supply areas, storage, research
observatories, telescopes, satellite
communications facility, airplane skiway and
a summer camp to house an additional 80
people.
To withstand the harsh Antarctic
conditions, the station is elevated on 36
hydraulic jack columns that can be raised in
10-inch increments. Its airfoil shape forces
the wind to travel faster beneath the
facility and scour out built-up snow. The
station was built with flexible connecting
walkways to accommodate the sliding of the
glacier, which also requires the marker for
the true geographic South Pole to be moved
annually.
The two-story facility is shaped with four “fingers” that house berthing quarters, a gym, dining areas, a medical center, computer room, science laboratories, activity rooms, and space for operations and administration. Source: National Science Foundation
Click here for full view of diagram.
Unlike the dome, the station is designed
to provide lighting, heating, ventilation
and fire protection in accordance with the
latest U.S. building and safety codes. The
structure is insulated five times the
average U.S. residence and was designed so
that all components could be shipped via
ski-equipped aircraft. The 12-year
construction effort required 925 flights
carrying a total of 24 million pounds of
cargo.
"The early cabling design for the station
was set up to deliver as high of bandwidth
as possible to the workstation, which is
typical for an advanced scientific lab
environment," says Bob Croke,
telecommunications engineer at Raytheon
Polar Services, which handled the cabling
installation. "The scientists are sending
multiple gigabytes of data every day off the
station. All of the core switches are
connected by a redundant singlemode fiber
backbone, which connects to a satellite
earth station for transmitting data back to
the U.S."
One core switch is located in the new
main station, along with access switches in
each of the four telecommunications rooms
located on the first floor. A second core
switch is located in the new power plant,
which is connected to the station by an
underground pathway.
The new Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station replaced the 50-meter geodesic dome, which was covered with snow each winter and no longer adequate for the growing population of scientists and personnel. Source: National Science Foundation
The horizontal cabling throughout the
station includes copper for data, a
voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) phone
system and some analog phones. The
horizontal cabling also includes both
multimode and singlemode fiber for various
workstation outlets. A standard workstation
outlet in each of the 154 berthing rooms
includes two copper cables and two multimode
fiber pairs, while standard science
workstations include three copper cables,
two multimode fiber pairs and one singlemode
fiber pair.
The 551 multimode horizontal fiber
connections and 155 singlemode horizontal
fiber connections are terminated using AMP
NETCONNECT MT-RJ fiber-optic connectors. The
no-epoxy, no-polish, and no-crimp MT-RJ
connectors are half the size of SC duplex
and ST-style connectors, feature two fibers
in one ferrule, and can be reterminated.
The station was designed so that all components could be shipped via ski-equipped aircraft, requiring 925 flights carrying a total of 24 million pounds of cargo throughout the 12-year construction effort. Source: National Science Foundation
In the closet, horizontal fiber is
terminated to MT-RJs loaded into AMP
NETCONNECT 24-port fiber-optic rackmount
patch enclosures. At workstations, the
copper and fiber jacks are housed in AMP
NETCONNECT Hideaway double-gang multimedia
outlets that house up to four front-loading
copper jacks and four MT-RJ bottom- or
top-fed fiber jacks.
"At science workstations, the singlemode
and multimode fiber ports are being used in
some cases, depending on scientists’
particular data requirements," says Croke.
"The multimode fiber ports in the berthing
rooms are not currently in use, but are
available for future high-bandwidth
services."
"Most of the horizontal cabling in the
DSL use wall-mounted raceways," says Croke.
"Each raceway typically includes three
copper cables, one four-strand multimode
fiber cable, and one two-strand singlemode
cable."
The wall-mounted raceway in the DSL is
the AMP NETCONNECT 1.5-inch surface-mount
raceway latching duct that features a
flexible hinge that can be opened and closed
repeatedly without cracking. The raceway
delivers fiber into an AMP NETCONNECT
six-port universal office box where it is
terminated to MT-RJ fiber jacks.
To replicate the outside storage
conditions at the South Pole, the connectors
were put through a cold temperature test
that involved placing the connectors in a
test chamber at -112° F (-80°C) for 137
hours. The connectors were found to be free
from damage following cold exposure, and the
insertion-loss measurements were all under
1dB.
Betsy Ziobron is a freelance writer
in Westbrook, Conn., who
frequently covers the cabling infrastructure
market.
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