Network Fiber implementation notes

Documentation index · Generation pipeline · Stage 13 convergence · v13 AAO publication

Status and scope

network-fiber is a standard, default-rendered pass (formerly “Fiber Synthesized”). Its checked-in input lives in assets.static/fiber-synthesized, so ordinary generation does not need network access, an external checkout, credentials, or the optional network-topology authorization state.

The dataset is a validated cleanup and union of the TeleGeography submarine- cable API snapshots v3.2022 and v3.20260805. It is not a strict set difference. The unused path assets.static/fiber-evolution is reserved for a future new - old product if one is implemented.

Published v14 previews

Network Fiber is present in every projection of the immutable v14 AAO release (published under the former “Fiber Synthesized” product name). These dedicated 480-pixel thumbnails show the checked cleanup and union with v3.20260805 as the primary visible snapshot. Select one to stream the corresponding layered .svg.gz through the corrected v14 viewer.

Cahill–Keyes	AuthaGraph
Dymaxion	Myriahedral
Star-X	Voronoi

Source boundary

Both source directories came from checkout 4d98b5472152a7c2272c49d8d0125b1ae0419984 of https://github.com/telegeography/www.submarinecablemap.com:

The manifest pins the route, landing, and combined cable-detail SHA-256 digests for both snapshots. Every JSON document parses; route and landing GeoJSON types and coordinate bounds validate; cable-index IDs exactly match routed IDs; cable details match filenames; and every cable-to-landing reference resolves.

Each snapshot lacks one otherwise redundant standalone landing-detail file: sapporo-japan.json in 2022 and cape-town-south-africa.json in 20260805. This is recorded as benign because the aggregate landing collections are complete, every cable reference resolves, and neither synthesis nor rendering consumes the standalone landing-detail files.

TeleGeography map data is CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 Unported. The static dataset and generated pass retain that license and attribution boundary.

Cleanup and union algorithm

scripts/synthesize-submarine-cable-snapshots.py performs the synthesis deterministically:

1. recursively parse and validate every source JSON file;
2. validate cable index, details, routes, landings, IDs, references, coordinate bounds, and source counts;
3. pair system observations when they have the same safe ID, one unique exact Unicode-normalized name, or one unique exact nonempty landing-ID set across both complete snapshots whose names also share a normalized token of at least three characters; the last is recorded separately as strong topology evidence rather than an exact-name identity;
4. classify exact pairs as retained active, retained planned, planned-to-active, or active-to-planned;
5. retain unmatched observations with neutral SNAPSHOT-only labels rather than claiming additions, removals, construction, or decommission;
6. preserve both source geometries in audit files without averaging, interpolation, or fuzzy identity inference; and
7. build the cleaned union from every v3.20260805 feature plus only unmatched v3.2022-only features, preventing matched older geometry from being drawn twice.

The result contains 746 comparison identities: 456 stable-ID matches, three unique exact normalized-name matches, 18 strong unique landing-set/name-token matches, 49 v3.2022-only records, and 220 v3.20260805-only records. There are 34 planned-to-active system identities. Three unique landing-set candidates with no shared name token remain unmatched rather than risking a false identity assertion.

The checked outputs are:

Regenerate the static snapshot explicitly with:

make refresh-network-fiber
make check-network-fiber

Refresh is intentionally not a dependency of make all: a source refresh is a reviewable static-data change, while standard rendering remains offline.

Default rendering

The SVG group network-fiber is the default data layer. It draws all 718 route features from v3.20260805 plus 49 unmatched v3.2022-only route features. The 20260805 snapshot is therefore the primary and complete visible network, with older-only context kept faint and dashed. The rendering follows the alpha60 fiber style: current and activated routes are green (rgb(18,152,12)), while planned and 2022-only context routes are black.

The plate explicitly states “snapshot-only ≠ construction or decommission.” Current landing points are filled; unmatched older landing points are hollow. All products use the Stage 13 light-gray background, enlarged route/point marks, and 2× plate title.

The same Natural Earth base and seam-safe path projection serve Cahill–Keyes, AuthaGraph, Dymaxion, Myriahedral, Star-X, and Voronoi. Star-X uses the shared fixed 60°S Antarctic cap and topmost Antarctic paint order.

Build targets and profile selectors

Generate the standard family with:

make generate-network-fiber
make generate-network-fiber-artifacts
make generate-network-fiber-cahill-keyes

network-fiber, fiber, and fiber-map are generation-profile aliases. Because the pass is standard, its six SVG, PDF, PNG, and Cahill–Keyes snapshot products are part of the ordinary make all graph.

Verification

tests/test-fiber-synthesized-generation.cc checks the source/default labels, manifest counts and digests, cleaned-union classifications, and representative geometry in all six projections. The generator reopens every SVG and checks its viewBox, required semantic groups, exact route and landing element counts, default-layer metadata, source hashes, attribution, caveat, font, and finite coordinates.

The focused Cahill–Keyes preview contains exactly 767 route elements and 2,037 landing elements. make check-network-fiber independently verifies every checked static payload against SHA256SUMS.