Characterization over time and growth model for the submarine cable network

Abstract Around 99% of the global Internet traffic is estimated to pass through fiber optic cables laid down under the sea. These submarine cables together can be considered as a single network that has evolved over time, becoming a fundamental cornerstone of today’s global Internet infrastructure. This work provides a detailed characterization of the evolution of this network, which grew from just ten to more than ten thousand nodes in nearly four decades. In addition to this large growth, peculiar invariant network properties are identified such as the absence of triangles, a large number of small components, and components in the form of simple paths. The peculiarities found in the SCN evolution are the motivation for a novel network growth model that can better represent this kind of network. The proposed model is simple having only two parameters and uses growth mechanisms designed to capture the evolution of the SCN, such as mixing preferential attachment with stretching paths. A direct comparison with real data and other models for network growth indicates that the proposed model is relatively accurate (under proper parameterization) and superior to alternative models.