The upgrades were carried out on Aqua Comms’ AEC-1 that connects the US, Ireland, the UK, and AEC-2 system, which connects North America with Scandinavia, Ireland and the UK.
Through this collaboration, the AEC-1 cable, which spans 5,521km has been completely modernised and upgraded to support 400GbE services using Ciena’s WaveLogic 5 Extreme (WL5e), doubling the cable’s capacity to almost 20Tbps.
While on Aqua Comms’ 7,650km AEC-2 system, Ciena’s offering enables it to support up to 500G trans-Atlantic channel rates as well as the introduction of spectrum sharing and backhaul capabilities for its customers.
“Moving at high speed is key and Ciena’s strong history of innovation has been instrumental in our ability to adapt to changing network requirements,” said Andy Hudson (pictured), chief networks officer at Aqua Comms.
“With Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme submarine network solution we are not only boosting our submarine network capacity but also adopting AI capabilities and software intelligence, bringing greater velocity and simplicity to our network.”
Both upgrades were carried out with the networks in-service, through such, the upgrade will also give Aqua Commsaccess to Ciena’s Manage, Control and Plan (MCP) domain controller.
In addition, Aqua Comms is also adopting Ciena Insights Service and predictive software capabilities to help resolve network issues.
“Aqua Comms has proven to be a trailblazer in the subsea market,” said Ian Clarke, vice president of global submarine solutions at Ciena.
“With these network enhancements Aqua Comms can offer greater efficiencies and reliability across its network and support the hyper-growth traffic between the US and Europe.”
Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme is powered by Ciena’s WL5e coherent optics and advanced software capabilities that deliver reduced cost per bit, simplified operations and smarter analytics.
In related news, Triple Point Investment Management recently launched the initial public offering (IPO) for a new company, Digital 9 Infrastructure (DGI9), which plans to invest in a number of ventures including Aqua Comms.
