Aqua Comms, Telia Carrier, Ciena trial 400GbE transatlantic service
Aqua Comms DAC, which owns and operates the America Europe Connect-1 (AEC-1), America Europe Connect-2 (AEC-2), and CeltixConnect-1 (CC-1) submarine cable networks, has teamed with fiber network and IP backbone services provider Telia Carrier on a successful trial of a 400 Gigabit Ethernet (400GbE) service the two plan to offer between New York and Frankfurt, Germany. The live network trial leverage optical transport technology from Ciena (NYSE:CIEN).
The trial route combined Aqua Comms’ transatlantic submarine network capacity and 400GbE service from New York to London. Telia Carrier picked up the trial traffic from there, forwarding it from London to Frankfurt over what the companies called an “ongoing terrestrial service.” The trail demonstrated the ability of the two carriers to pass traffic from one network to the other. Aqua Comms’ role was at least partially enabled by the company’s recent network upgrade with Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme submarine network technology, which leverages the Ciena’s WaveLogic 5 Extreme coherent optics (see "Aqua Comms upgrades capacity on AEC-1, AEC-2 transatlantic submarine cables").
“The trial is an exciting new initiative for Aqua Comms and Telia Carrier as we continue to respond to the growing demand for critical infrastructure services,” commented Aqua Comms Chief Commercial Officer Chris Bayly. “The alliance with Telia Carrier and Ciena allows us to deliver a truly innovative solution that we believe will deliver efficiencies to our carrier, cloud, and content clients as they strive to support the hyper growth traffic between the U.S. and Europe.”
“Staying ahead of our customers' ever-increasing connectivity needs is paramount for us. This 400G pan-continental trial on a production network is all about ensuring the flexibility at all layers of the network, and especially in the underlying high-capacity transport infrastructure required for delivering the best high-performance connectivity for our customers in the U.S. and Europe and for their end-users,” added Telia Carrier Vice President, Sales Ivo Pascucci.
“The race to 400G is on, and Telia Carrier and Aqua Comms continue trailblazing a path in the subsea market by evolving their networks to support the explosive traffic growth and high-bandwidth services driven by the cloud and video streaming,” said Ian Clarke, vice president of global submarine solutions, Ciena. “With WaveLogic 5 Extreme, Aqua Comms and Telia Carrier offer new 400GbE services to customers over the critical transatlantic route between New York and Frankfurt.”
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Stephen Hardy | Editorial Director and Associate Publisher, Lightwave
Stephen Hardy is editorial director and associate publisher of Lightwave and Broadband Technology Report, part of the Lighting & Technology Group at Endeavor Business Media. Stephen is responsible for establishing and executing editorial strategy across the both brands’ websites, email newsletters, events, and other information products. He has covered the fiber-optics space for more than 20 years, and communications and technology for more than 35 years. During his tenure, Lightwave has received awards from Folio: and the American Society of Business Press Editors (ASBPE) for editorial excellence. Prior to joining Lightwave in 1997, Stephen worked for Telecommunications magazine and the Journal of Electronic Defense.
Stephen has moderated panels at numerous events, including the Optica Executive Forum, ECOC, and SCTE Cable-Tec Expo. He also is program director for the Lightwave Innovation Reviews and the Diamond Technology Reviews.
He has written numerous articles in all aspects of optical communications and fiber-optic networks, including fiber to the home (FTTH), PON, optical components, DWDM, fiber cables, packet optical transport, optical transceivers, lasers, fiber optic testing, and more.
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