Opening opportunities in subsea communications

Subsea infrastructure for Oil & Gas Production and Ocean Science Cabled Observatories has increased in complexity as we seek greater depths, longer step-out distances and longer performance life, now up to 30 years. The capability of the sensors being developed for long term health management and environmental monitoring is leading to a significant increase in both bandwidth for communications and adaptive technology necessary for expansion into new systems and technologies for data transmission and communication conversions. This has in turn presented new challenges for controlling design, deployment and operational risk to support evolving communications and monitoring networks. As the methods and means of communication from systems and subsea equipment continue to evolve, new and unique product technologies are needed to provide effective solutions. Identified as Active Flying Leads (AFL), this new technology allows for the integration of subsea qualified connection systems to be used in communicating between various pieces of equipment. In some cases, communication protocols are converted using the AFL to avoid protocol conversion somewhere else in the system. This paper cites various case studies and the solutions that were developed to solve issues that are directly applicable to the Ocean Science and Offshore Energy markets.