Report
See https://mybroadband.co.za/news/internet/336416-how-south-africas-internet-survived-cable-breaks.html and the aftermath at https://mybroadband.co.za/news/internet/336426-slow-internet-speeds-in-south-africa-at-least-12-more-days.html.
Both the SAT-3 and WACS undersea cable were damaged Jan 16, 2020. This left many South Africans with slow Internet connections to international websites. The cable systems are deployed in the Atlantic Ocean and connect various African countries to Europe – including South Africa. That leaves Africa Coast to Coast (ACE) and Equiano providing access to Europe and beyond and SAFE providing access via India and Malaysia and the South Africa Express (SAEx2) which will provide access via India and Malaysia in 2021.
“Leon Thevenin on its way to the WACS S1i cable grounds,” TENET said. “We have a provisional repair date of the 8th February for the WACS cable system.”
“SAT-3 will be attended to thereafter. This information may be subject to change.”
Cable Maps
Maps of the cables (from https://www.submarinecablemap.com/) to Europe are shown below:
| SAT3 (RFS 2002 April) | WACS (RFS 2012 May) | ACE (RFS 2012 December) | Equiano (RFS 2021) |
|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |
Cables going East to India and Malaysia are shown below.
| SAFE (RFS 2002 April) | South Asia Express (SAEx2) (RFS 2021 Q1) |
|---|---|
 |  |
RfS = Ready For Service so the current backups to Europe and probably the US are ACE going West and SAFE going East.
Result as observed by PingER
Looking at the minimum RTT seen from SLAC to 20 targets in Southern Africa we see a step function going from a 25%-75% of ~ 300-320 ms to 325-355ms. See the statistics below.
Minimum RTT measure every 30 minutes for Sites in Southern AFRICA seen from EDU.SLAC.STANFORD.PINGER
| Tick | min | 25th% | avg | median | 75th% | 90th% | 95th% | max | iqr | std dev | # pairs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20Jan01 | 280.444 | 303.117 | 312.614 | 316.141 | 321.182 | 325.130 | 325.531 | 329.477 | 18.065 | 12.637 | 20 |
| 20Jan02 | 280.498 | 297.056 | 309.626 | 314.285 | 317.884 | 324.135 | 324.826 | 325.112 | 20.828 | 12.793 | 20 |
| 20Jan03 | 280.517 | 303.163 | 312.347 | 316.178 | 321.177 | 324.280 | 324.960 | 329.499 | 18.014 | 12.433 | 20 |
| 20Jan04 | 280.461 | 303.154 | 312.365 | 316.158 | 321.146 | 324.649 | 324.978 | 329.489 | 17.992 | 12.457 | 20 |
| 20Jan05 | 280.447 | 303.144 | 312.051 | 316.130 | 321.151 | 324.690 | 324.943 | 329.539 | 18.007 | 12.395 | 20 |
| 20Jan06 | 280.451 | 296.392 | 310.530 | 315.753 | 320.903 | 324.763 | 324.981 | 329.496 | 24.511 | 13.628 | 20 |
| 20Jan07 | 280.468 | 296.436 | 310.834 | 315.841 | 321.240 | 324.988 | 325.506 | 329.450 | 24.804 | 13.775 | 20 |
| 20Jan08 | 280.476 | 303.144 | 311.708 | 314.254 | 321.011 | 325.028 | 325.524 | 329.554 | 17.867 | 12.457 | 20 |
| 20Jan09 | 280.518 | 303.151 | 311.782 | 314.255 | 319.939 | 323.939 | 325.036 | 328.314 | 16.788 | 11.658 | 20 |
| 20Jan10 | 280.465 | 300.798 | 309.671 | 311.542 | 315.925 | 324.952 | 325.496 | 328.318 | 15.127 | 12.842 | 20 |
| 20Jan11 | 280.474 | 301.814 | 309.915 | 311.603 | 315.171 | 325.012 | 325.430 | 329.738 | 13.357 | 12.748 | 20 |
| 20Jan12 | 280.515 | 296.730 | 311.775 | 315.344 | 322.416 | 324.938 | 329.779 | 330.877 | 25.686 | 14.228 | 20 |
| 20Jan13 | 280.429 | 305.275 | 311.683 | 313.730 | 316.397 | 325.007 | 325.491 | 329.706 | 11.122 | 12.046 | 20 |
| 20Jan14 | 280.531 | 303.975 | 309.400 | 311.155 | 315.672 | 318.695 | 324.584 | 329.770 | 11.697 | 11.031 | 20 |
| 20Jan15 | 296.380 | 305.315 | 313.079 | 312.597 | 318.192 | 324.055 | 325.876 | 336.248 | 12.877 | 9.760 | 20 |
| 20Jan16 | 296.726 | 305.008 | 313.498 | 312.889 | 319.100 | 325.828 | 328.229 | 336.273 | 14.092 | 10.343 | 20 |
| 20Jan17 | 301.328 | 330.032 | 348.988 | 348.759 | 355.767 | 387.082 | 392.328 | 408.823 | 25.735 | 25.731 | 20 |
| 20Jan18 | 301.306 | 330.101 | 345.969 | 348.990 | 355.285 | 366.246 | 385.621 | 389.538 | 25.184 | 21.546 | 20 |
| 20Jan19 | 301.268 | 329.970 | 346.692 | 346.227 | 355.276 | 385.389 | 389.286 | 396.487 | 25.306 | 24.191 | 20 |
| 20Jan20 | 301.307 | 327.376 | 342.864 | 340.419 | 352.677 | 369.400 | 386.111 | 389.233 | 25.301 | 22.337 | 20 |
| 20Jan21 | 301.146 | 327.248 | 346.865 | 342.833 | 352.699 | 396.258 | 412.843 | 415.990 | 25.451 | 30.435 | 20 |
| 20Jan22 | 301.350 | 323.368 | 341.581 | 339.179 | 352.644 | 369.499 | 386.202 | 389.188 | 29.276 | 23.344 | 20 |
| 20Jan23 | 305.829 | 324.277 | 342.455 | 339.436 | 352.019 | 369.405 | 386.094 | 389.259 | 27.742 | 22.234 | 20 |
| 20Jan24 | 305.722 | 323.285 | 341.580 | 338.587 | 352.055 | 366.430 | 386.448 | 389.562 | 28.770 | 22.446 | 20 |
| 20Jan25 | 305.680 | 324.671 | 342.747 | 340.071 | 351.452 | 369.217 | 385.966 | 389.601 | 26.781 | 22.061 | 20 |
| 20Jan26 | 305.761 | 323.724 | 343.401 | 349.319 | 356.299 | 386.491 | 389.553 | 389.553 | 32.575 | 22.892 | 19 |
| 20Jan27 | 305.794 | 321.125 | 341.578 | 338.668 | 352.731 | 369.613 | 386.166 | 389.261 | 31.606 | 23.321 | 20 |
The targets are
For the 7 targets in South Africa the 25%/median/75% before 2016 and after are ~294/300/306ms and 327/345/356ms.
Traceroute
The route measured 19:00 hrs 1/28/2020 PST from SLAC to South Africa goes East across the US via Chicago, Washinton to London and thence S. Africa:
Tue Jan 28 18:59:32 2020: executing exec(traceroute -m 30 -q 1 -w 1 -A 196.24.110.67 140)=traceroute from 134.79.197.214(www.slac.stanford.edu) to 196.24.110.67(brunsvigia.tenet.ac.za) for 134.79.138.4 traceroute to 196.24.110.67 (196.24.110.67), 30 hops max, 140 byte packets 1 rtr-serv01-02-serv01-dmz-webserv.slac.stanford.edu (134.79.197.131) [AS3671] 0.788 ms 2 rtr-core2-p2p-serv01-01.slac.stanford.edu (134.79.254.65) [AS3671] 0.591 ms 3 rtr-fwcore1-trust-p2p-core1.slac.stanford.edu (134.79.254.134) [AS3671] 1.123 ms 4 rtr-core1-p2p-fwcore1-untrust.slac.stanford.edu (134.79.254.137) [AS3671] 1.538 ms 5 rtr-border1-7k-p2p-core1.slac.stanford.edu (134.79.252.173) [AS3671] 1.482 ms 6 rtr-border2-7k-p2p-border1-7k.slac.stanford.edu (192.68.191.214) [AS3671] 1.614 ms 7 sunn-cr5-ip-p2p-border2-7k.slac.stanford.edu (192.68.191.233) [AS3671] 1.858 ms 8 134.55.40.145 (134.55.40.145) [AS293] 4.548 ms 9 134.55.40.150 (134.55.40.150) [AS293] 46.417 ms 10 washcr5-ip-a-chiccr5.es.net (134.55.36.46) [AS293] 63.692 ms 11 * 12 londcr5-ip-c-aofacr5.es.net (134.55.37.22) [AS293] 138.575 ms 13 * 14 lt-0-0-0-2-ldn1-ir1.net.tenet.ac.za (155.232.208.28) [AS2018] 331.160 ms 15 londcr5-sdn-a-newycr5.es.net (134.55.220.21) [AS293] 137.494 ms 16 xe-11-3-0-201-ldn1-ir1.net.tenet.ac.za (155.232.212.106) [AS2018] 137.352 ms 17 lt-0-3-0-1-mtz1-pe1.net.tenet.ac.za (155.232.152.20) [AS2018] 329.393 ms 18 et-1-0-0-0-ams1-ir1.net.tenet.ac.za (155.232.1.80) [AS2018] 328.407 ms 19 xe-1-3-0-0-isd1-pe2.net.tenet.ac.za (155.232.1.60) [AS2018] 339.301 ms 20 eth3-39-cpt3-p1.net.tenet.ac.za (155.232.1.37) [AS2018] 354.698 ms 21 lt-0-3-0-0-mtz1-pe1.net.tenet.ac.za (155.232.152.21) [AS2018] 330.381 ms 22 et-0-0-1-0-cpt2-p2.net.tenet.ac.za (155.232.64.64) [AS2018] 354.586 ms 23 eth3-39-cpt3-p1.net.tenet.ac.za (155.232.1.37) [AS2018] 353.473 ms 24 et-0-0-1-0-cpt3-p2.net.tenet.ac.za (155.232.64.61) [AS2018] 353.617 ms 25 196.24.111.221 (196.24.111.221) [AS2018] 357.517 ms 26 pinger-cpt-01.tenet.ac.za (196.24.110.67) [AS2018] 354.664 ms traceroute -m 30 -q 1 -w 1 -A 196.24.110.67 140 took 5secs. Total script traceroute.pl time=5secs,
AS3671 is ESnet and AS2018 is TENET