Is Asia Truly Part of the Internet?

[Blacksheep]

For the past two days we have been unable to access the internet outside Borneo. Yesterday there was a partial return but service was and remains very slow and unreliable with many sites remaining unreachable. This link (www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/249389/1/.html)from Channel News Asia explains that the disruption was caused by an earthquake near Taiwan that damaged undersea cables. China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and elsewhere were knocked out, with knock-on effects as far away as Australia for companies whose Internet is routed through affected areas.
The implication is that most of East and South East Asia is connected to the internet through Taiwan. The internet is supposed to be based upon a "geodesic" model so that removal of any single node (by a nuclear strike for example) would not disrupt the services elsewhere. This is not the case with this earthquake.
So, is Asia really "on the Internet" or not?

[Wangja]

No problems here in Korea.

[allthatglitters]

From the front of this mornings news paper:-
The Telco Tsunami,
Taiwan quakes break undersea cables, disrupting Internet connections in Asia.

http://www.todayonline.com/pdf_open.asp?id=2812FPG001

[Gertrude the Wombat]

The internet is supposed to be based upon a "geodesic" model so that removal of any single node (by a nuclear strike for example) would not disrupt the services elsewhere.
That was the original design when the net was run by the American military.

But redundancy costs money. Now that the net is run by commercial companies for profit they build in just as much or as little redundancy as they think they can make a profit from.

[stickyb]

For the past two days we have been unable to access the internet outside Borneo. Yesterday there was a partial return but service was and remains very slow and unreliable with many sites remaining unreachable.

So, is Asia really "on the Internet" or not?


I think you will find that the problem is more to do with finance and cost models that the physical topography. A lot of ISPs constrain their trafic via "least cost routing" and prohibit that trafic from making use of alternate routes.

To use a flying example, if you want to go from HK to SF you would set off east rather than west. You could still get there if you went west, via India and Europe, but at extra cost and time.

Most of the Internet services are back to normal now, even though the cables have not been repaired. Why? Routing restrictions have been relaxed, allowing the net to function as designed.

[ZFT]

They're no way near back to normal in Thailand. Some ISPs still virtually 'dead', others only partial services. Normal services could be weeks away!!

[Terraplaneblues]

http://www.cybergeography.org/atlas/cables.html

Fascinating stuff

[allthatglitters]

Understand equipment on the way to address the damage. But reports of several weeks before back to normal. Just happened at the time the ISP start offering 100Mbs connections and the upgrade of my service to 6Mbs.