The Asia America Gateway (AAG) consortium has enhanced its trans-Pacific cable network with network specialist Ciena for a 100G expansion, to address the growing demand for broadband access.

Ciena’s converged packet optical solutions will add multi-terabit data capacity, and enable AAG’s network to reliably meet the demands of  on-demand data networking services and traffic growth driven by mobile applications, high-definition video and cloud computing, said a statement.

AAG is a 20,000-km submarine communications cable system, connecting Southeast Asia with the US mainland, across the Pacific Ocean via Guam and Hawaii.

It provides connectivity between Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Hong Kong SAR, Philippines, Guam, Hawaii and the US West Coast.

The consortium will now deploy Ciena’s GeoMesh submarine solution, including the 6500 Packet-Optical Platform, powered by WaveLogic coherent optics with Flexible Grid technology, to maximise ultimate capacity and provide greater return on investment of its subsea cable assets.

With Ciena’s plug-and-play programmable network elements and 100G coherent technology, the AAG consortium is able to cost-effectively extend the lifetime lifespan of its network by increasing the ultimate cable capacity by as much as three times the original design capacity in some segments.

Ciena’s OneControl Unified Management System together with the integrated test set capabilities of WaveLogic will also provide the operators of AAG end-to-end network management and visibility for early detection, diagnosis, and prioritisation of any faults, ensuring that the operators of AAG can resolve issues proactively and maintain network availability.

Mohamad Izani Karim, management committee chairman, AAG, said: “The AAG system provides critical connectivity between multiple countries in Asia and the United States, so it is critical that our network is highly reliable and capable of supporting our evolving needs.

“Ciena’s packet-optical and unified management solutions allow us to cost-effectively transform our infrastructure to a scalable, flexible and programmable network to support the high-bandwidth applications that our customers demand.”

Meanwhile, Europe India Gateway (EIG) has completed the first phase of 100G submarine cable upgrade with Ciena.

The EIG cable system, spanning approximately 15,000 km, connects 12 countries across three continents, enhancing capacity and providing much needed diversity for broadband traffic connecting Western Europe with the Mediterranean, Middle East, Africa and India.

Given the strategic importance of this network corridor this network upgrade allows EIG’s consortium members to satisfy their immediate needs for redundancy and resiliency in their network architectures.

John Russell, management committee chairman, EIG, said: “This single coherent solution provided by Ciena enables us to meet customer demand for more capacity with scalability, reach and resiliency.” - TradeArabia News Service