SEACOM

SEACOM:

• Investors: Herakles (backed by Blackstone); Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (founded by Prince Karim Aga Khan IV of Pakistan) through IPS; Venfin (led by South African Johann Rupert); Convergence Partners (led by former South African DoC DG Andile Ngcaba); Shanduka (led by South African Cyril Ramaphosa); Neotel (has pledged ZAR 20 million for cable station)
• CAPEX/Cost : approx. USD 650 mn
• RFS : June 2009
• Financing arranged by Nedbank and Investec
• Suppliers/Contractors : Tyco
• Length 15,000 km
• Links Southern and East Africa, Europe and South Asia
• Capacity : 2 FP, 1.28 Tbps design
  

Source SEACOM/Terabit

• "The connectivity from Egypt to Marseille, France, will be provided through Telecom Egypt's TE-North fibre pairs that SEACOM has purchased on the system. TE-North is a new cable currently being laid across the Mediterranean Sea"
• "SEACOM, which is privately funded and over three quarter African owned, will assist communication carriers in south and east Africa through the sale of wholesale international capacity to global networks via India and Europe"
• "SEACOM will be the first cable to provide broadband to countries in east Africa which, at the moment, rely entirely on expensive satellite connections"
  

• "When it is fully functional in 2009, SEACOM will be a service provider of international fibre optic bandwidth along the east coast of Africa linking South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia to India and Europe"

• SEACOM is 76.25% African owned by: Industrial Promotion Services (26.25%), an arm of the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development; Venfin Limited (25%); Convergence Partners (12.5%) ; Shanduka Group (12.5%)
• The remaining 23.75% is held by Herakles Telecom LLC

National Lambda Rail (NLR)

This is a work-in-progress & will be updated soon! :-D

Source Reese/NLR

Quotes taken from nlr.net

The foundation of the NLR infrastructure is a dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM)-based national optical footprint using Cisco Systems' 15454 optical electronic systems, with a maximum capacity of 40 and 32 wavelengths per fiber pair respectively. Each wavelength can support transmission at 10 billion bits per second (10 Gbps). This optical system is deployed nationwide across roughly 15,000 route-miles of dark fiber that NLR has obtained through Level 3 Communications. Four NLR wavelengths have been implemented using 10 Gigabit Ethernet LAN PhY (physical layer), a technology and architecture that had previously been limited to metro-area networks. NLR can also support the SONET (Synchronous Optical NETwork) Technology employed in traditional telecommunications networks, if needed. The initial wavelengths provide:

• a national 10 Gbps IP network to support internetworking and end-to-end transport protocol experiments,
• the first-ever national switched Ethernet experimental network with circuit-like 1 Gbps services,
• a quick-start facility for new research projects in support of data- and computation intensive science projects, and a redundant sparing capability in the event of a channel-specific failure.

Additional wavelengths are activated across individual segments of the infrastructure as needed. A more detailed description of NLR services and a guide for researchers interested in using NLR services are available. Nearly a dozen research projects are already using NLR services.

Quotes taken from Wikipedia

National LambdaRail is a high-speed national computer network infrastructure in the United States that runs over fiber-optic lines, and is the first transcontinental Ethernet network. The name is shared by the organization of research institutions that developed the network, and, to date, plans to continue developing it. LambdaRail is similar to the Abilene Network, but LambdaRail permits deeper experimentation than Abilene does.

It is primarily oriented to aid terascale computing efforts and to be used as a network testbed for experimentation with next-generation large-scale networks. National LambdaRail is a university-based and -owned initiative, in contrast with Abilene and Internet2, which are university-corporate sponsorships. This gives universities more control to use the network for these research projects. National LambdaRail also supports a production layer on its infrastructure.

Links in the network use dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM), which allows up to 64 individual optical wavelengths to be used (depending on hardware configuration at each end) separated by 100 GHz spacing. At present, individual wavelengths are used to carry traditional OC-X (OC3, OC12, OC48 or OC192) TDM circuits or Ethernet signal for Gigabit Ethernet or 10 Gigabit Ethernet.

Internet2 + Internet2 Network (formerly Abilene)

This is a work-in-progress & will be updated soon! :-D

Internet2 Network (formerly Abilene) - Source internet2.edu

Quotes taken from internet2.edu

Internet2 is the foremost U.S. advanced networking consortium. Led by the research and education community since 1996, Internet2 promotes the missions of its members by providing both leading-edge network capabilities and unique partnership opportunities that together facilitate the development, deployment and use of revolutionary Internet technologies.

By bringing research and academia together with technology leaders from industry, government and the international community, Internet2 promotes collaboration and innovation that has a fundamental impact on the future of the Internet.

• Internet2 is a not-for-profit advanced networking consortium comprising more than 200 U.S. universities in cooperation with 70 leading corporations, 45 government agencies, laboratories and other institutions of higher learning as well as over 50 international partner organizations.
• Internet2 members leverage its high-performance network (i.e. I2 Network) and worldwide partnerships to support and enhance their educational and research missions.
• Beyond just providing network capacity, Internet2 actively engages our community in the development of important new technology including middleware, security, network research and performance measurement capabilities which are critical to the progress of the Internet.

Quotes taken from Wikipedia

Internet2 is a non-profit consortium that develops and deploys advanced high-performance network applications and technologies for education, research, and the next-generation public Internet. It is led by over 200 universities and partners with many affiliate members and corporate members drawn from companies in the publishing, networking and other technology industries.

The original Internet2 project was founded informally in 1996 under the auspices of EDUCAUSE and was organized as the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID) in 1997. UCAID later changed its name to Internet2. Internet2 is a registered trademark. The Internet2 consortium administrative headquarters are located in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Internet2 provides the U.S. research and education community with a network that satisfies their bandwidth-intensive requirements. The network itself is a dynamic, robust and cost-effective hybrid optical and packet network. It furnishes a 100Gb/s network backbone to more than 210 U.S. educational institutions, 70 corporations and 45 non-profit and government agencies.

The uses of the network span from collaborative applications, distributed research experiments, grid-based data analysis and social networking. Some of these applications are in varying levels of commercialization, such as IPv6, open-source middleware for secure network access, layer 2 VPNs and dynamic circuit networks.

Internet2, with help from its members, created the Abilene Network and was a prime investor in the National LambdaRail (NLR) project, with nearly 10 million dollars. During 2004–2006, Internet2 and NLR held extensive discussions regarding a possible merger. Key to this merger was the condition that Internet2 would operate its successor to Abilene using NLR's infrastructure (NLR has IRUs on actual fiber infrastructure from WilTel, now Level(3), where Internet2 utilizes leased optical wavelengths from Qwest for Abilene). Those talks paused in the Spring of 2006, resumed in March 2007 and eventually fell apart in September 2007.

Palapa Ring (7)

*Update*
According to some local news at the end of October, Powertek Utama Internusa has indeed withdrawn its membership from the consortium. This is based on some statements quoted from the consortium spokesperson Rakhmat Junaedi. But what a bit strange is that the company (Powertek) has stated that "it should not be finalized yet" !!

• "PT Powertek Utama Internusa akhirnya memutuskan untuk mundur dari megaproyek infrastruktur jaringan nasional Palapa Ring. Keputusan ini disambut baik anggota konsorsium. Mundurnya Powertek dibenarkan oleh juru bicara konsorsium Palapa Ring, Rakhmat Junaedi. Namun, ia menegaskan, meski telah menerima surat dari yang bersangkutan, proses mundurnya Powertek belum rampung seluruhnya." Bisnis.com 28/10/08
• "Ketika dikonfirmasi, CEO PT Powertek Utama Internusa Rose Melati Adikusuma, tak mau menyatakan secara tegas kemundurannya dari konsorsium. "Keputusannya belum final, jadi lebih baik tanyakan saja kepada konsorsium. Saya tak punya wewenang untuk membicarakan hal ini," tandasnya seraya mengelak mundurnya Powertek terkait kepentingan salah satu partai politik." Bisnis.com 28/10/08
  

*--*

There are two new things (as of October 2008).

1. It seems that in the last minutes Powertek has fulfilled its duty regarding the consortium's financial commitment to deposit 5% of the agreed total investment of each party (in this respect, Powertek shall invest around USD 30 mn). This fact revises my previous post: yes, Powertek is (up to now, still) in the Palapa Ring consortium!
2. As the result of the second pre-qualification process, GMSL and Tyco are out of the field! The consortium chooses NEC, ASN and Fujitsu-NSW.
   

Main One

MAIN One is a private cable system currently under construction; owned by Main Street Technologies: "led by Ms. Funke Opeke, who worked as an executive at Verizon, as the chief technology officer at MTN, and as chief operating officer of Nitel from late-2006 to early-2007".

• Branched system from Portugal to Angola
• Contractors/Suppliers : Tyco; contract awarded on April 2008
• CAPEX: USD 300 mn
• RfS: May 2010
• Length : 12,900 km
  

• Reportedly considering an extension to South Africa, but company representatives said that they were “a little disappointed with the South African Government’s attitude” toward foreign operators.
• The Phase 1 cable system will span 6,900 km and provide the much needed high capacity for international and internet connectivity to countries between Portugal and the West coast of Africa
• The submarine cable project is designed in two phases, with the second phase extending connectivity another 6,000 km to South Africa
• The dual fiber pair, 1.28 Terabits per second, Dense Wave Division Multiplex project will connect Nigeria, Ghana and Portugal in the first phase with onward connectivity through Portugal to Europe, Asia and the Americas; and extends to Angola and South Africa in the second phase
• The Main One Cable system will provide open access to regional telecom operators and Internet Service Providers at competitive rates that are less than 20% of current SAT-3 or Satellite international bandwidth prices in the region
  

Source/Courtesy Terabit/Main Street Tech.

TEAMS

TEAMS (The East African Marine System) is a point-to-point system connecting Mombasa, Kenya and Fujairah, UAE. It was initially proposed by Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) in 2006.

• Supply contract awarded to ASN in October, 2007
• CAPEX : USD 82 mn
• Revised ownership, as of 2008: Gov’t. of Kenya (20%); UAE incumbent Etisalat (15%); Earmark for “Private Telecommunications Operators” (65%) -- Interested: Safaricom, UUNet, Access Kenya, Jamii Telecom
• Investors assuming 5% equity would pay USD 214/Mb/mo. for wet plant between Mombasa and Fujairah
  
• Onward connectivity from Fujairah to Europe or USA would be USD 55k to USD 100k per STM-1 per year, according to Kenyan gov’t
• RFS : ??
• Capacity : ??

Credits: M Ruddy/Terabit

*Update*
Quotes from Telegeography 11/03/2009

Eleven shareholders in The East African Marine Cable (TEAMS) international undersea cable project have signed an agreement to plough USD110 million into the fibre-optic link, while the Kenyan government has pledged another USD20 million. The government, Telkom Kenya and Safaricom each hold 20% in the TEAMS project, while Kenya Data Networks and Econet Wireless have 10% each. Other investors include Wananchi Online (5%) and Jamii Telkom (3.75%). Another five companies plan on buying a 1.25% stake each, while the remaining 5% has yet to be allocated, Reuters reports. The installation of the cable, which will link Mombasa in Kenya to Fujairah in the UAE, is due to begin later this month and is scheduled to be complete by June.

Quotes from Subtelforum 11/03/2009

Reuters Africa is reporting that eleven shareholders of The East African Marine Cable (TEAMS) have agreed to contribute $110 million to the project. The Kenyan government will contribute an additional $20 million. Major shareholders include Telkom Kenya, Safaricom, Econet Wireless, Kenya Data Networks, Wananchi Online and Jamii Telkom.

Bitange Ndemo of the Kenyan Information and Communications Ministry said that TEAMS is on track for completion in June.

EASSy

East African Submarine cable System (EASSy) was proposed by a consortium of regional (east African) operators.

• CAPEX : USD 265 mn; Financing from Development Financial Institutions (DFIs) including World Bank/IFC, EIB, ADB, AFD, KfW
• RfS: 2009
• Contractors: ASN
• Length: approx. 10,000 km
  
• Capacity: 1.4 Tbps design (after contract revisions); lit ?
  
• Linking eight countries from Sudan to South Africa, via Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Madagascar and Mozambique; Landings will be located in Port Sudan (Sudan), Djibouti (Djibouti), Mogadishu (Somalia) Mombasa (Kenya), Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania), Toliary (Madagascar), Maputo (Mozambique) and Mtunzini (South Africa)

Source/Courtesy Terabit/EASSy

Intra-Asia Cables (2)

This shall be a try to give different looks for submarine fiber optic cables in Asia. It seems very crowded, in particular in the East Asia region and that around Singapore :-D

Submarine Optical Cables in Asia - 1 (Source/Courtesy Tata/LirneASIA/D. Goswami)

Submarine Optical Cables in Asia - 2 (Source/Courtesy Telegeography)

Submarine Optical Cables in Asia - 3 (Source/Courtesy Tata)

IAC = Intra Asia Cable ?? Is it the other name for TGN-IA ??

Intra-Asia Cables

Some times ago, I'd tried to find out more about Pacnet's EAC-C2C cables. It was not easy since both EAC and C2C are mature systems that operated since more than 6 years ago and that the ownership was changed several times. I found an interresting talk given by Yves Poppe at APAN meeting oneday in 2006: i.e. he addressed 3 "east Asian telecommunication aortas" :

• EAC (East Asia Crossing) : design capacity --> 2.56 Tbps; RFS Jan 2001
• APCN-2 (Asia Pacific Cable Network - 2): design capacity --> 2.56 Tbps; RFS Dec 2001
• C2C (City to City): design capacity --> 7.68 Tbps; RFS Dec 2001
  

As reported by several media, Pacnet (formerly ANC) currently owns and operates both EAC and C2C. ANC took over EAC in January 2003.

3 Telecommunication Aortas in East Asia (Source Telegeography; taken from Yves Poppe's Talk) -- seems it is a typo: C2C <----> APCN2

FTTH in Italy

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

FTTH in Italy (as of June 2008) - Source FTTH Council

India - Some Numbers (Again!)

Milestone for telecom growth in India

• 1994 –NTP 94
• 1999 –NTP 99
• 2001 –Deregulation of the ILD
• 2002 –Deregulation of the ILD
• 2003 –Abolished RPP
• 2004 –Launch of ADSL on Fixed line (Internet Boom)
• 2005 –74% Foreign Investment Allowed in Telecom Sector

International Bandwidth Usage (Ghosh/Aircel)

• China has more than 10 times of higher bandwidth usage as comparison to India
• By 2011 India is likely to have 1000 Gbps bandwidth usage

Others :

• As of 2007, India utilized 36+ Gbps international Internet bandwidth
• Current broadband penetration in India less than 1%
• Broadband to contribute the maximum to the capacity growth in India

( 2007 ? )

Source/Courtesy : Ghosh/Aircel

FTTH in the Netherlands

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

FTTH in the Netherlands (as of June 2008) - Source FTTH Council

Cables Passing Mediterranean

Just to mention several new cable systems in western Asia/Mediterranean which are planned or currently prepared/installed :

• IMEWE
• MENA
• MEF
• TE NORTH
• SEACOM
• FLAG MED
• FLAG EA
  
• EASSY
• EIG
• Other ??

Targeted RFS schedule and countries will be connected with each system can be seen below.

Source/Courtesy : Tordela/Sparkle

FTTH in the United States

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

FTTH in the USA (as of June 2008) - Source FTTH Council

FTTH in Slovenia

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

FTTH in Slovenia (as of June 2008) - Source FTTH Council

FTTH in Iceland

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

FTTH in Iceland (as of June 2008) - Source FTTH Council

FTTH in Norway

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

FTTH in Norway (as of June 2008) - Source FTTH Council

i2i (Cable Network)

i2i stands for India to International. It is the first private cable to directly link India and Singapore. i2i was planned as a cable network spanning 10,800 km which would approximately be cost USD 650 mn. Phase 1 of i2i cable development covered a linear link between Chennai - Tuas and a terrestrial link between Chennai and Mumbai. What about Phase 2 or beyond ? This should include a submarine cable link between Mumbai and Singapore. Does anybody know?

• Contractors/Suppliers :ASN
• Repeatered system, 64
• Capacity 8 FP; 8.4 Tbps; 105 Lambdas; 10 Gbps; initial 160 Gbps
• Length 3,200 km
• Landing Points : Chennai (Madras) India, Tuas Singapore
• Owners: Bharti, SingTel
• CAPEX USD 250 mn
• RFS / Commercial Traffic: May 2002
• Contract Award: October 2000
• Construction : late 2000 - April 2002
• Wholesale capacity is available in STM-1, -4, -16, and -64 levels; 10-Gbit/sec wavelengths; and dark fiber, which can support 40-960 Gbits/sec.
  
• It was a plan to branch to Medan ?? (see below - at that time, Indosat would not let this happened :-D )
  
• A terrestrial link between Chennai and Mumbai (2,000 km - inlcudes in Phase-1 / USD 250 mn??)

i2icn - Phase 1 (Source/Courtesy ASN)

Another version (source Apman):

i2icn (Source Apman)

• Length : 3,200 km
• Capacity : 8,400 Gbps ; (8 fp x 105 wl @ 10 Gbps)
• RFS : 2001

FTTH in Denmark

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

FTTH in Denmark (as of June 2008) - Source FTTH Council

FTTH in Sweden

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

FTTH in Sweden (as of June 2008) - Source FTTH Council

FTTH in Taiwan

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

FTTH in Taiwan (as of June 2008) - Source FTTH Council

FTTH in South Korea

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

FTTH in South Korea - Source FTTH Council

FTTH in Hong Kong

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

FTTH in Hong Kong (as of June 2008) - Source FTTH Council

FNAL | RNAL

FNAL / RNAL (FLAG North Asia Loop / REACH North Asia Loop) is owned by FLAG Telecom, currenlty Reliance (??) and REACH (still??). This has shortly been addressed in the thread "intra-Asia cables" or something similar. But I guess I'll decompose that large scope to each corresponding system. Note that this post is work in progress, I will update this again later. You are free to comment! :-D

Source/Courtesy FLAG

FNAL/RNAL (Source : Apman)

FNAL/RNAL:

• Length : 9,500 km
• Capacity : 3,840 Gbps (6 FP x 64 wl @ 10 Gbps)
• RFS : 2001

FTTH in Japan

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

FTTH in Japan (as of June 2008) - Source FTTH Council

APCN2

This system is owned by the APCN consortium. Note that this post is work in progress, I will update this again later. You are free to comment! :-D

APCN2/Telegeography

EAC - C2C

Both EAC and C2C are currently operated by Pacnet, previously ANC. I've address these cable systems shortly in the thread "intra-Asia cables" or something similar. But I guess I'll decompose that large scope to each corresponding system. Note that this post is work in progress, I will update this again later.

C2C / Telegeography 2001

EAC / Telegeography 2001

ReadMe

As of current state, this blog is just a collection of my stuff, thoughts, material etc. It isn't intended to as professional-grade information media. Please note that all stuffs are available AS IS and without any warranty. If you find that some information useful, you are free to use them at your own risks, as long as it conforms with this creative commons term.

Note-1
As you might see, I try to a bit monetize this site by putting Adsense. Although Google has claimed that "Adsense is family-safe", it several times happened that "unwanted/irrelevant/possibly-negative" ads have shown at the client page. And it is unfortunately not yet possible to filter ads based on keywords. So, in such a case, please accept my apologize and I would appreciate if you give me a feedback and hint to what you've experienced, in order for me to add those "unwanted"-websites to my Adsense filter list. This is currently the only possibility to prevent certain website-links appear.

FTTH in China

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

FTTH in China (as of June 2008) - Source FTTH Council

FTTH in Singapore

This is work in progress, will be updated later. I try to clean my dashboard from so many drafts... :-D

FTTH in Singapore (as of June 2008) - Source FTTH Council

Tata Indicom Cable (TIC)

TIC belongs to the first cable systems which are fully owned and operated from the beginning (not acquired) by VSNL/Tata. TIC is also known as TIISCS (Tata Indicom India-Singapore Cable System). Several facts:

• Capacity : 320 Gbps lit; 5.12 Tbps design; 8 FPs; 96 Lambdas @ 10 Gbps
• Feature : HW and wavelength protection on wet segment; leading SLAs; linked directly to Tata's redundant network in India; onward connectivity from SG to Hongkong, Tokyo and USA
• Construction : 11/2003 - 9/2004; deep shore-end burial; ring-protected backhaul in SG
• Length : 3,175 km
• RFS since : late 2004
• CAPEX : ??
  
• Suppliers : Tyco ??
  
• CLP : Chennai, Changi (backhauled to Global Switch; Tai Seng Avenue)
• #BU : 4 (currently all stubs)

TIC Route (Source/Courtesy Tata)

Apollo Cable

Apollo Cable:

• Owner : Cable & Wireless
• Length : 13,000 km
• Capacity : 3,200 Gbps (4 FP x 80 wl @ 10 Gbps)
• RFS : 2002

FALCON

FALCON:

• Owner : FLAG Telecom
• Length : 11,600 km
• Capacity : 2,560 Gbps (4 FP x 64 wl @ 10 Gbps)
• RFS : 2006

EUMEDCONNECT

EC has also pioneered investment to connect mediterranean countries (North Africa and Middle East) to support research and education networking between them internally and between them and Europe as well : the EUMEDCONNECT. The role of the governments and/or mediterranean NRENs to support this project and their national networks has contributed to the success of the initiative: user community starting to rely on the infrastructure.

EUMEDCONNECT:

• 11 Mediterranean Countries connected since 2004, 7 wholly reliant
• Serving 1.4M users in 400+ Institutions
• Network traffic growing over 50% per year
• Over 100 projects Connected
• Major users include EUMEDGRIDMedGeNet
• Closely connected to GEANT2
  
• The only large-scale R&E e-infrastructure serving the Mediterranean region
• EC EUMEDIS funding of EUMEDCONNECT ends Dec 2007
• EUMEDCONNECT planned to continue to end Q2 2008 with partner funding
• CAMREN is a very important demonstration of partner commitment
  

EUMEDCONNECT2 plans:

• Provide higher capacity, more cost effective infrastructure
• Active promotion of network for FP7 and other research projects, tele-medecine and environmental applications
• Extended coverage to additional Mediterranean and Gulf NRENs
• Project managed with the CAMREN consortium
• Some EC funding now expected but still being negotiated (The Brussels event has helped!)
• Continued financial commitment from MED partners is essential

Source/Courtesy EUMEDCONNECT, Dante

Credits: Dany Vandromme (RENATER)

TEIN2

TEIN stands for Trans-Eurasia Information Network. It was "one of the new initiatives endorsed by ASEM III (October 2000, Seoul, Korea) to connect research networks between Asia and Europe by linking EU's GEANT, the pan-European gigabit research network, with Asia's research networks such as the APII Testbeds in order to promote information exchanges in research and development and education".

TEIN2 is the second generation of the TEIN project and the first large-scale research and education network for the Asia-Pacific, which connects ten (10) countries in the region, and provides direct connectivity to Europe’s GÉANT2 network.

TEIN2 has created the first large-scale research and education network for the Asia-Pacific region, linking the national networks in China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Australia at speeds of up to 1Gbps. The high-capacity network aims to bridge the digital divide between different countries across the region. Its dual routes from Asia to Europe provide important inter-regional resilience. The network operations centre (NOC) is run by Tsinghua University (China).

The network is part-funded by the European Union’s EuropeAid programme, which is contributing up to EUR10 million towards the costs of connecting partner countries. Additional support has been provided by the Japanese networks Maffin, NICT and NII, who are contributing regional connectivity; a link from Japan to North America is provided by TransPAC2. Further assistance comes from Juniper Networks, which is sponsoring the Internet routing equipment located in TEIN2’s three network hubs in Beijing, Singapore and Hong Kong.

TEIN2:

• 9 Asian countries and Australia connected since 2006
• Serving 30M users in 3,800 institutions
• Major uses include:China/EU traffic, Tele-medecine, E-learning programmes
• Strong co-operation between partners
• TEIN2 recently extended from Dec 2007 to Sept 2008
• TEIN2 partners wish to sustain the programme
• EC approving further funding to 2011 for TEIN3
• TEIN3 plans to
  
  • Expand coverage to South Asia
  • Further stimulate applications deployment
  • Transfer project to Asian-lead organisation
  • Secure long term funding
  • Work co-operatively with other regional networks

TEIN2 has three main objectives:

• Increase direct Internet connectivity for research and education between Europe and Asia
• Improve intra-regional connectivity within Asia
• Act as a catalyst for the development of national research networking in the developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

The (TEIN2) project is divided into two phases.

• Phase 1 began in May 2004. It comprised a feasibility study to explore user needs and the connectivity market, and to plan further stages of the project. Phase 1 was successfully completed and the feasibility study accepted by the European Commission in November 2004.
• During Phase 2, the network has been built and is now being operated for the benefit of the TEIN2 partners. After planning studies and a major procurement programme, the first links came into service in December 2005. The network was fully deployed during the first half of 2006. This phase of the project is scheduled to run until the end of 2007.

TEIN2 (Source/Courtesy TEIN2; Dante)

Credits : DANTE / cathrin-at-dante.org.uk

GEANT2

What is GEANT2?

• 7th generation of pan-European research network infrastructure – continuation of a success story
• Project partners include 30 of Europe’s national research and education networks (NRENs), DANTE (coordinator) and TERENA
• Connects 34 European countries and serves over 3500 research and education establishments across Europe
• Over 30 million users
• Provides extensive international connectivity to other world regions
• Funded jointly by NRENs and European Commission
• Project timescale September 2004 – mid 2009
• Planning underway for GÉANT3; GEANT3 planned from Q3 2009 to Q2 2013
• Features: Hybrid network, 34 European Countries, International Connections

GEANT2 Objectives

• Provide a gigabit-speeds infrastructure to support European research and education
• Deploy the first international hybrid network: routed IP traffic combined with switched point-to-point circuits
• Implement e2e QoS provision
• Provide a research infrastructure for network technology developments
• Develop a wider range of network services: performance monitoring, security, bandwidth on demand, testbed facility, mobility and roaming
• Benchmark and support development of NRENs --> Compendium of NRENs
• Extend geographic reach of the network
• Conduct strategic studies into the future of European research networking (eg. SERENATE, EARNEST)
• Disseminate benefits and achievements of the network

EC has also funded/co-funded some regional RENs connected to GEANT, forming a worldwide REN collaboration. These include RedCLARA (Latin America), EUMEDCONNECT (Mediteran), TEIN (Asia), ORIENT (China) and SEEREN (Africa).

GEANT2 Intra and Inter-Network Connectivity (Courtesy of GEANT2/DANTE)

GÉANT2 Applications

GÉANT2 has a userbaseof 30 million+ researchers spread across 34 countries in Europa and many more in other world regions; they range from primary school children to nuclear physicists, from weather forecasters to cancer specialists; their requirements range from a few Kbps to many Gbps, from email to dedicated circuits

Information transmitted

Traditionally:

• Capacity of traffic: kbps
• Amount of users at the institution: Many
• Applications that are not very sensitive to underlying network (ie. e-mails, FTP, etc.)

Specialised:

• Capacity of traffic: More than 1Gbps
• Amount of users at the institution: dozens
• Applications between very specific points and very sensitive to throughput (ie. eVLBI, CERN LHC or DEISA)

Specialised Applications

High Energy Particle Physics (HEP)

• LHC (@ CERN) operational since 2007
• Needs multiple 10G links between the different nodes for the data processing
• Real time data processing

Radio Astronomy (eVLBI)

• Very Long Baseline Interferometry
• Flows of 1Gbps in real time (http://www.evlbi.org)

Supercomputing Centres

• e.gDEISA project (http://www.deisa.org)

GRIDS

• Like EGEE (http://www.eu-egee.org)

Services and Joint Research Activities

• End to End QoS
• Performance Monitoring
• Security
• Bandwidth on Demand
• Testbed, Cross Border Fiber
• Roaming, AAI

Credits : DANTE / cathrin-at-dante.org.uk

Bandwidth Prices

Posts related to "bandwidth price" issues:

• Bandwidth Price (3)
• Bandwidth Price (2)
  

• Bandwidth Price (1)
  
• Jakarta (IP) Bandwidth Price

• Broadband: Penetration and Pricing

• Domestic Bandwidth Price

Googles

Posts related to projects initiated/involving Google :

• SCJ Plan
  

• Unity Cable System

Asia America Gateway (AAG)

Posts related to Asia America Gateway (AAG):

• Asia America Gateway AAG (2)

• AAG: Something New?

Trans Pacific Express (TPE)

Posts related to Trans Pacific Express (TPE):

• Trans Pacific Express (2)
  

• Trans-Pacific Express (TPE) Cable System

Trans-Pacific Express (2)

The first phase of TPE (Trans Pacific Express) cable is just ready for service!

Some updates (see the other older post) :

• "Originally announced as a 5.12 terabit system in December 2006, the cable system has increased in capacity, and when fully deployed when phase two is completed, TPE will be a 6 terabit submarine cable system" (Submarine Cable News); 6.4 Tbps I guess
• Suppliers: Tyco (prime); ASN; NEC
• "With the addition of NTT Communications, the TPE cable system will add a submarine cable link to Japan giving the TPE cable system six landing sites"
• "The operating capacity of the system is 3.2 Tbps, an increase of 25 percent over the original system design. With a minimum 80 wavelengths per fiber, TPE has the highest wave-density of any submarine cable in the world at this length."
  

AT&T (Submarine Cable News)

“We are excited that the first phase of the Trans-Pacific Express is complete and ready for our customers’ use,” said Kaveh Hushyar, senior vice president of network planning and engineering for AT&T. “AT&T today carries more than 15.8 petabytes of IP and data traffic on an average business day, and this traffic volume is growing at more than 50 percent year over year. Our participation in the TPE network helps to ensure that we’re continually staying several steps ahead of our customers’ ever-growing global communications needs.”

AT&T owns or leases capacity on more than 80 submarine cable systems, which span more than 478,000 fiber-route miles (approx. 760,000 km) around the globe, including several submarine cable routes that the company uses to carry traffic between the Asia-Pacific region and North America.

Verizon

Verizon Business multinational customers with IP, data and voice communications traffic moving onto this cable system, which is now active, will see immediate benefits including additional capacity, greater physical diversity, reduced latency, improved performance and seven-way mesh network diversity, the company said in a statement.

In addition to the physical diversity of the TPE submarine cable route, customers also will take advantage of a network architecture design called meshing, which provides alternate paths for rerouting traffic in the event of a cable cut or network disruption. When a service interruption occurs and meshing is needed, the equipment housed in network buildings on land allows the rerouting of voice and data traffic within 50 to 100 milliseconds. (Finally, a commercial submarine mesh restoration, Cool!)

As a leader in global mesh networks, Verizon Business is the first to offer seven-way trans-oceanic mesh diversity across both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The company’s mesh network in northern Asia includes physical node diversity in major cities, coupled with backhaul and cable system diversity to provide superior survivability during network issues. Mesh nodes were recently installed in Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan. Japan was already included in the Pacific global mesh network.

“When you combine the complete TPE package we are offering our Verizon Business multinational customers, it’s second to none in the industry”

TPE Route (Courtesy TPE Consortium? ; Taken from Tata/Byron Clatterbuck)

SAT-3 | WASC

SAT-3 / WASC :

• Owners : Portugal Telecom, Sonatel, Cote d'Ivoire Telecom, Ghana Telecom, OPT Benin, Nigerian Telecommunications Ltd, Camtel, OPTGabon, Angola Telecom, Telkom SA Ltd, BT,Cable and Wireless, Teleglobe (USA), AT&T
• Length : 14,350 km
• Capacity : 120 Gbps (4 FP x 3 wl @ 10 Gbps)
• RFS : 2001

GLO-1

GLO-1

• Owner : Globacom
• Length : 8,700 km
• Capacity : 320 Gbps (2 FP x 16 wl @ 10 Gbps)

Asian Bandwidth Growth : Demands, Supplies & Facts

This will highlight and shall actually be a summary of the talk given by Bill Barney / Pacnet several times ago.

Several facts happened in Asia:

• 41% of the world’s fixed line users
• More than 40% of the world’s mobile users : Number of subscribers in Asia has grown from 280m to more than 950m between 2003-2007 (GSMA, ITU, Frost & Sullivan); More than 210 million users have signed up for 3G services in Asia since the launch of the first high-speed mobile network data network in Korea in 2000 (CDMA Development Group)
• 38.7% of the world’s Internet subscribers: Growth (2000-2007) at 346.6%, compared to the rest of the world at 228.1%
• Over 42% of the world’s broadband Internet users: The number of broadband connections in Asia nearly quadrupled between 2003-2007 (27.3m to 100.5m); 128m out of world’s 350m broadband subscribers are in Asia. (Buddecom)
  

Those things are enforced among other by the following key drivers:

Driver#1: Asian traffic becoming more intra-asia as countries become a tighter market and content moves from the US to Asia; Data Traffic Pattern in the Region Becoming More Intra-Asia Oriented (Source: Gartner & Pacnet Estimates):

• Over 60% of traffic from Asia is intra-Asia
• The percentage of total traffic from many Asian countries to the U.S. is declining
• Local network capacity in Asia has become more pervasive and cost-competitive
• Regulatory changes have improved local termination costs
• Asian content creation and storage was rapidly migrating to Asia
  

Driver#2: supply and demand have started to become aligned; the matching of supply & demand has created a leveling of bandwidth pricing

Driver#3: Glass and content owners have an advantage over renters; traditional carriers in the services market who are wedded to leased capacity, rented last miles and paid IP transit are at a huge cost disadvantage

Driver#4: Asia has Fortune 500 companies driving 20%-30% of business, THE REST is through smaller corporate customers…

Driver#5: Customers are requiring more complex services and higher levels of management/support

Remarks

• The market is too broad and growing too fast for anyone to dominate;
• Different cost advantages at the local, international and content delivery level will create competition across assets classes;
• Collaboration is and will be inevitable alongside competition
• 14 new cables and extensions underway (USD 7.1 bn, see below): One built by sole owner (TGN Pacific??), Nine have at least three partners, Four have more than 10;
• Nobody has invested more than $180M of their own capital on a project; From 1998 to 2001, 14 cable investments of over $1b were made by standalone companies
• Diversification of investment is the theme
  

• 180 Fortune 500 Customers on Pacnet: 80% of the revenue delivered is on the network, 20% of the revenue is delivered on partners; Average deal requires six to 12 partners!
• One Customer: Austrade and DFAT --> 94 network providers collaborating, 31 countries touched, 22 major partners
  

• The Age of the “Global Carrier” is Over; The Age of the Standalone cable company is Over
• Collaboration and Cooperation are here for the years to come… your competitor today will be your partner or co-investor tomorrow
• Be friends ! :-D

Some Statistics Taken from Pacnet/Bill Barney (Courtesy of Each Marked Company)

Bandwidth Price (3)

Recently, Primetrica published new data for their IP transit pricing service and stated that "prices for wholesale Internet access (IP transit) are falling rapidly, but continue to vary dramatically around the world". How much should IP transit cost ?? Currently, according to Primetrica :

• Median monthly IP transit prices for 1,000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) ports in major U.S. and European cities ranged from USD 10 to USD 14 per Mbps in Q2 2008
• The median price of a GigE port in major asian cities ranged from USD 30 per Mbps month in Seoul to USD 45 per Mbps per month in Tokyo
• IP transit service in Latin America is even more expensive, with median GigE port prices ranging from USD 73 per month in Buenos Aires/Sao Paulo to USD 86 per month in Santiago
  

The curves below show rather old Primetrica's sample pricing data (Q3/2006). Median monthly lease price for STM-1 (this time circuit, not IP transit) according to this record, was :

• around USD 5,000 for trans-atlantic connection (London-New York)
• around USD 19,000 for trans-pacific connection (LA-Tokyo)
• around USD 11,000 for Hongkong-Tokyo connection
• around USD 15,000 for Hongkong-Singapore connection
  

Source/Courtesy Telegeography

Asian IP Bandwidth Price (Source/Courtesy Pacnet)