Canada: First fiber optic ring in permafrost is ready
The Canada North Fibre Loop is ready. It brings redundant bandwidth to north-western Canada, and therefore also to the German satellite station in Inuvik.
If the soil material is not too loose, a slot for fiberglass can be milled with such a machine. Otherwise, it is necessary to drill deep into the rock.
(Image: Northern Lights GP)
The Canada North Fibre Loop is closed. This was announced by the government of the Yukon Territory in north-western Canada. As far as is known, it is the world's first fiber optic ring laid in permafrost. It is around 4,000 kilometers long and will provide the Yukon and the neighboring Northwest Territories with redundant fiber optic connections for the first time from December. This should significantly reduce the frequent Internet and mobile communications outages in the region.
The German Aerospace Center (DLR) and other space organizations will also benefit from this. They operate ground stations in the city of Inuvik, which could initially only be used as a backup due to the lack of a reliable broadband connection.
(Image:Â Northern Lights GP)
Fiber optics in permafrost must be even better packaged and protected than submarine cables. When the top layer of soil thaws and freezes, it shifts considerably, which exerts great pressure on the cable housing. In addition, there are extreme temperature fluctuations. The material not only has to withstand extremely low temperatures for decades, but also frequent wildfires and forest fires.
The Yukon covers 482,000 square kilometers, about a third more than the Federal Republic of Germany. The territory, which was split off from the Northwest Territories (NWT) in 1898, lies between the Arctic Sea to the north, the NWT to the east, the province of British Columbia to the south and Alaska to the west. Of the 46,000 inhabitants, almost 33,000 live in the capital Whitehorse, the rest are lost in the cooler climes. The NWT is even more sparsely populated: Just under 45,000 people in 1.35 million square kilometers – 30 percent of the total area of the EU in terms of size.
Starlink in Whitehorse fully booked
The fiber optic infrastructure was correspondingly underdeveloped. A fiber optic line runs from British Columbia to the Yukon, to the capital Whitehorse and, since 2021, almost 400 kilometers further to Dawson City in the Klondike – a region well known to fans of Scrooge McDuck as the alleged source of his enormous wealth. The situation is similar in the NWT: a fiber optic line from Alberta to the NWT capital of Yellowknife (population over 20,000) was extended 1,200 kilometers along the Mackenzie River to Inuvik by 2017.
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This was the first time fiber optic was available north of the Arctic Circle. However, both the spur line to the Yukon and the NWT were frequently interrupted. Because the routes are thousands of kilometers long, there is often a mudslide, forest fire, flood or careless construction work somewhere, and an entire territory goes offline. Mobile communications, cash register systems, ATMs, emergency calls and even air traffic were also regularly affected. The repair work then takes time; the climate is harsh and the journey to the scene of the accident is long.
Radio relay and satellite connections were unable to cope with the data volumes. Starlink has been available in the Yukon since fall 2022 and, given the unreliable fiber optic problems, is so popular – that Starlink operator SpaceX in Whitehorse has stopped connecting new customers since this summer. The regional capacity of the satellites has been exhausted and the company has a waiting list.
Dempster Fibre Line closes the circle
This is where the Dempster Fibre Line comes in: It connects Inuvik with Dawson City via around 778 kilometers along the Dempster Highway. This closes the Canada North Fibre Loop. If the fiber breaks at one point, the data traffic runs in the other direction through the loop to the Internet. Most users won't even notice the line breaks. Their bandwidth will no longer change and the round-trip times will only be minimal.
The project was approved in 2018 and the start of construction was delayed by two years to 2021. The money came mainly from federal funds (59 million Canadian dollars); further contributions came from the Yukon (5 million dollars) and the network monopoly Northwestel (15 million dollars). The Dempster Fibre Line is owned by the Canadian Crown and the infrastructure is managed by the Yukon Territory, which has contracted Northwestel to operate it for 20 years.
