Eli5 How does the teeny tiny ‘actual’ undersea internet cable transport all the information requests from both sides of the Atlantic?

Question

If the huge layers of cables around it are just for protection, how can the large number of requests be transmutted through a cable that thin?

In: 2

Answer 1

Data isn’t a physical object which needs a certain diameter of cable to travel through, like an oil pipeline or something, it only depends on the ability to rapidly vary the signal in order to convey information. The more quickly the signal can be varied the more quickly information can be transferred, and those cables have switching equipment on either end which are capable of *very* fast switching.

Another technique is to use the same fiber to transmit information using different frequencies of light. In essence there are multiple conversations taking place just at different “colors” of light, and by applying various filters each of the many different conversations can be separated out from their combined signal.