Build robust, resilient internet connectivity to prevent March 2024 service disruption repetition

March 14, 2024 saw a massive disruption of Internet connectivity in several African countries. West Coast African countries affected included Ghana, Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, and Benin.

It was reported that the disrup­tion was due to several submarine fibre optic cables having been cut. These cable systems are the West African Cable System (WACS), Main One, South Atlantic Tele­communications 3 (SAT 3), and ACE.

On May 13, 2024, Main One reported the successful com­pletion of repairs and the full restoration of services on its cable. The nearly eight-week mean time to repair and fully restore services highlights the vulnerability of critical submarine fibre optic cable infrastructure, which circumvents the continent and links it to the rest of the globe.

Reminiscence

For me, it reminisces the early days of 2002, when we engineered the first digital internet connec­tivity via the satellite earth station at Kuntunse for a palsy 64kbps data speed and an unimaginable US$21,000.00 monthly fee. User access to this shared bandwidth was via the then-fixed cop­per-based telephone line network and analogue dial-up modems.

Then, it was a constant challenge to provide access while offering shared access to 64kbps and, later, 128kbps internet bandwidth. Today, internet access speed on some smartphones exceed several megabits per second (Mbps). At the time of the internet’s emer­gence in Ghana, most could not have predicted its effect on how we access information, communi­cate, play, entertain, do business, and interact with our governments.

The struggle of providing access to internet users was hazardous at best. From the early analogue dial-up modems to the implemen­tation of various last-mile tech­nologies via the Ghana Telecom copper cable-based telephone infrastructure, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) implementation chal­lenges, legally contested anti-com­petition practices, frustrations of access limitations to copper lease lines and associated sudden overnight 1000 per cent increase in their monthly access fees, point-to-point and or point-to-multi­point wireless systems deployment, WiMAXuser access technologies, associated access frustration to GT towers, the regulator’s incapac­ity and in capabilities to regulate the industry, the emergence of fi­bre optic cables and digging rights of way, the politics of access to internet connectivity on the SAT 3 submarine cable, it’ s outrageous pricing etc, are but a microcosm of the struggles and frustrations of the pioneers of internet service provision in Ghana.

Internet Today

From the early internet days, the early 1990s, when access was mainly for urgent email, browsing a few web pages, and using early search engines, today, internet access is ubiquitous over your smartphone or via fibre optic cable to the home (FTTH).

Today, internet traffic encom­passes all converged communi­cations, voice, video, and data. Today, Internet usage encom­passes casual web browsing and crucial commercial, business, entertainment, leisure and com­mercial gaming, and e-government applications and services.

Technologies, applications, and services include Virtual Private Networks (VPN), Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), which transmits voice communications over the Internet, Cloud services (for data storage and software applications), Data centres (that house and host a multitude of servers and other network equip­ment for services such as email servers, web hosting, and online games), Content Delivery Net­works (that deliver content quickly to global users), to today’s integra­tion of Artificial Intelligence into every aspect of technology and human endeavour.

Internet networks are now a crit­ical infrastructure that underpins all Internet services.

Threat

This growing dependency on the internet as the sole technological platform for almost all human technology interactions means that any disruptions to its continuous availability highlight its critical and crucial importance. The vulner­ability, robustness, and resilience of the network infrastructure un­derpinning the internet are a grave threat to countries’ national secu­rity, “a clear and present danger” threat to the wealth of nations and most rightly so! Any disruption is a catastrophic event.

As a result, more and more ur­gent and essential steps are being taken globally to build and main­tain more robust, resilient, reliable, and secure internet infrastructure. The infrastructure that encom­passes the African Continent and integrates seamlessly with other global internet networks no less.

Search for solutions.

Government agencies at the highest levels are now conscious of the potential threat that inter­net disruptions pose and are react­ing and participating in the search for solutions at the highest level. In response to the March 2024 disruption, the Ghanaian regulator recently announced that all oper­ators, including mobile network operators, Internet service provid­ers, and cable service providers, met to discuss ways to mitigate the disruptions and restore services as soon as possible.

Indeed, governments and tele­com regulators in other affected African countries are taking similar approaches to seek a collaborative solution to service disruptions in their respective countries.

Internet economy

In its e-Conomy Africa 2020 re­port, the IFC projects, an African Internet economy of $180 billion. Research shows a direct correla­tion between a country’s GDP and internet access in Africa. It’s estimated that internet availability and usage positively impact GDP per Capita. A 10 per cent increase in mobile Internet penetration can increase GDP per capita by 2.5 per cent in Africa compared to 2 per cent globally.

Ghana Internet Data

As of January 2024, statista.com reports Ghana’s internet users population at 24 million, up from 23 million in January 2023, indicating a penetration rate of 71.94 per cent. Furthermore, there are 6.6 million social media users as of January 2023. The top 3 social media sites accessed were WhatsApp, Facebook, and TikTok. Mobile Internet traffic as of 2023 cost US$0.73 per gigabyte.

The full impact on the coun­try’s GDP due to the March 2024 disruption may not be readily computable; however, disruptions to telecommunications affect several sectors of the economy, including government operations, businesses, and financial services. Prolonged disruptions can, there­fore, lead to significant economic losses.

Resilience needs

Therefore, governments, reg­ulators, engineers, and operators must urgently address the need for a robustly secure, redundant, resilient, and self-healing solution that eliminates future disruptions to the provision of internet ser­vices in their respective countries, including Ghana.

Achieving such a goal requires infrastructural integration, critical advanced technology imple­mentation, and enforcement by Africa-centric laws and legislation based on similar initiatives in the more advanced countries.

In this article, I seek to highlight and explore useful technologies and make some critical recom­mendations towards achieving this objective.

Solution layers

In the quest for an engineered, robust internet network based on the vast submarine fibre optic cable resources already ringing the African continent, the solution must be immune from any single or multiple points of failure.

A robust, resilient continental internet infrastructure must be complemented by an even more robust in-country engineered infrastructure based on on-land FO cables and microwave radio systems.

That is the only way to ensure that the final last-mile access to the customer is free of disruptions.

Thus, three distinct intercon­nected solution layers are identifi­able. These being.

i. the African continental infrastructure,

ii. In-country infrastructure.

African Continental Infra­structure

1.1 Current links

Several multiple submarine Fiber Optic cable systems currently ring Africa. The total inventory of operational fibre optic cables reached 1.8 million km, and the to­tal inbound international Internet bandwidth reached 26.9 Terabits per second (Tbps) as of June 2021.

Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 16.6Tbps, with 91.7 per cent supplied directly via submarine FO cables. North Africa accounts for the balance of10.3 Tbps.

The usage recorded is still only a fraction of the total designed capacity of at least 406.5 Tbps available on the 31 submarine ca­ble systems installed. These figures are subject to rapid and significant change as several new cables are being installed today on the conti­nent. (africanwirelesscomms.com)

Africa’s current submarine FO cable systems map illustrates the geo routes and capacities.Diagram 1: African Undersea Cables 2023.

These are generally in three major FO cable groupings: the West Coast, East Africa, and the Mediterranean (Northern Africa). The map illustrates the key landing cities of the continent’s multiple cable systems.

West Coast African cables gener­ally terminate in Europe, London, Sisymbria, and Pen march. East Coast cables terminate in the Mid­dle East and Asia, in cities such as Karachi, Mumbai, etc.

Mediterranean Cable systems link Asia, typically Karachi and Mumbai, to the east and European cities such as Marseille, Palermo, etc., to the west.

Cable Concentrations

An examination of Diagram 1: Africa Undersea Cable shows that most West Coast cable systems from Europe concentrate their landings in Lagos, Nigeria, Melk­bos strand, and Yzerfontein in South Africa.

However, Southern Africa terminated fibre cable from both the West Coast and East Coast of Africa, thus serving as a critical cross-connect between both cable systems. The cross-connection remains crucial in engineering a more integrated, resilient, robust internet infrastructure for the continent.

The writer is an ICT Consultant

To be cotinued

BY LESLIE MENSAH TAMAKLOE