Shore landing conduit containing the fibre
optic cable and sea water return anode cable.
Saanich Shore Station computer and power
feed equipment.
The CTB provides access to the fibres and
power conductors in the cable.
Strait of Georgia Shore Station Computer
and power feed equipment.
The above water elements of VENUS start at the shore landing conduits. Here the fibre optic cable and the seawater return anode cable come ashore in a series of ducts and concrete pull boxes. These conduits provide protection for the cable as it transitions from the ocean to the Shore Station.
In the Cable Termination Box (CTB), the fibres in the cable are connected to the Shore Station network equipment and the power conductor in the cable is connected to the power feed equipment.
The Shore Station network equipment, computers, and power feed equipment are contained in 19″ equipment racks. The Shore Station computer runs the software that controls all the elements of the above water/underwater equipment. The power feed equipment converts three-phase 600V AC to:
- 360V DC on the Saanich Inlet Array; and
- 1200V DC on the Strait of Georgia Array.
The Shore Station network equipment takes the laser light pulses received from the fibre optic cable and converts them into electrical signals. These signals are then sent to Data Management and Archiving System (DMAS) computers which contain the instrument driver software and also buffer the incoming data streams. A dedicated network link is then used to transport the data back to the University of Victoria where it is stored and processed.
