Japan-U.S. Cable Selects Ciena for Trans-Pacific 100G Submarine Network

Ciena® Corporation, the network specialist, toay announced that the Japan-U.S. Cable Network is upgrading its trans-Pacific submarine network, which spans close to 23,000 kilometers from the U.S. to Japan, with Ciena’s market-leading coherent 100 Gigabits per second (100G) technology.

Expected to be in service in early 2013, the upgraded network will bring five terabits per second of additional capacity to a crucial global network route connecting North America and northern Asia. As the first direct coast-to-coast 100G trans-Pacific submarine network, this will allow Japan-U.S. Cable customers to enjoy the benefits of increased bandwidth and support rapidly increasing capacity demands.

The Japan-U.S. Cable is made up of more than 26 consortium members, including leading global service providers such as: Verizon Business, AT&T, BT, Sprint, CenturyLink, KDDI, NTT, Cable & Wireless Worldwide, Tata Communications, SingTel, Softbank Telecom, France Telecom, Level(3), AboveNet, KT, Starhub, PCCW, and Telstra.

Ready for service in 2001, the Japan-U.S. Cable Network spans close to 23,000 kilometers and includes two landing stations in California, one in Hawaii, and three in Japan. To provide the 100G service, Ciena’s 6500 Packet Optical platform with WaveLogic™ 3 coherent optical processors will replace existing 10G optical equipment at each landing station.

WaveLogic 3 optimizes the Japan-U.S. submarine cable network to achieve capacity and reduced latency over trans-Pacific submarine distances while improving the overall economics of the network.

“Previously equipment and service companies who installed and maintained these cables were the sole source for submarine landing terminal equipment hardware. But now vendors such as Ciena, who have made large investments in advanced coherent technology for a wide range of carrier applications, are disrupting the economics of the submarine networking industry. With their Packet-Optical technology, they can retrofit existing plants, increasing capacity and extending the life of submarine carriers’ large capital investments. In return, submarine carriers get access to advanced technology and can elicit true competitive bids for networking hardware”, stated Andrew Schmitt, Directing Analyst for Optical, Infonetics Research.

“As bandwidth consumption accelerates worldwide, submarine networks have emerged as a potential bottleneck in global networks due to the cost, challenge, and financial risks of deploying new submarine cables. Ciena’s WaveLogic 3 coherent technology has completely changed the economics of bandwidth and time-to-market for submarine network operators, enabling dramatic increases in capacity over existing cable systems”, added Anthony McLachlan, Vice President and General Manager, Asia Pacific, Ciena.