The Eurasia Terrestrial Cable Network is an important part of the global telecom infrastructure, consists of various terrestrial cable systems such as TEA, TEA-2, TEA-3, ERA, ERMC, EKA, CR2, etc, with the efforts and cooperation from carriers in China, Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and other Asian and European countries, the Eurasia Terrestrial Cable Network has been stable enough to offer bandwidth up to 10G or 10GE with SLA guaranteed.
The TEA (Transit Europe-Asia) is a terrestrial cable network between Europe and Asia via the territory of Russia, with its Russian segment running over Rostelecom's DWDM network. The Asian segment of the TEA terrestrial cable network may run over:
The TEA terrestrial cable network enables a short latency and stable solution for traffic transiting Europe and Asia.
The TEA terrestrial cable network is a meaningful alternative to the mainly US centric trans-Pacific cable systems in connecting internet networks between Europe and Asia.
The TEA-2 terrestrial cable system is an upgraded cable system of the TEA, connecting major cities in Europe and Hong Kong, Beijing, etc, across Russia via RosTelecom's state-of-the-air terrestrial cable system and connecting to backbones of either China Unicom or China Telecom at the China-Russia Border in Heihe.
The TEA-2 cable system forms an affordable and stable Eurasia broadband internet infrastructure.
The TEA-3 terrestrial cable system runs across Russia via RosTelecom's terrestrial backbone and connecting to backbones of Chinese operators at the China-Russia Border in Manzhouli (Manchuria).
The TEA-4 terrestrial cable system is the latest serie of Rostelecom's TEA terrestrial cable route, including TEA, TEA-2, TEA-3 and TEA-4.
The TEA-4 connects Europe, Russia, Mongolia and China, through the China-Mongolia Border in Erlianhaote (Erenhot).
The TEA-4 shortens latency from China to Europe via Rostelecom's backbone network, being comparable to the Europe-Russia-Mongolia-Asia (ERMC) and the TMP Transit-Mongolia terrestrial routes.
The Europe-Russia-Japan (ERJ) is an Eurasia cable route seamlessly combining TTK's terrestrial backbone network across Russia to Europe, and the HSCS cable system between Russia and Japan jointly built by TTK and NTT.
The HSCS was upgraded with 200 Gbps DWDM technology for a total system capacity up to 5.4 Tbps in 2018.
The ERJ cable offers a low latency route from Europe to Japan, with latency (RTD) of 144ms between Tokyo and Amsterdan.
TTK offers other Eurasia terrestrial cable routes to China, Europe-Russia-Asia (ERA) and Europe-Russia-Mongolia-Asia (ERMC) .
The Europe-Russia-Asia (ERA) is an Eurasia terrestrial cable system connecting Europe to China across Russia, jointly built by TTK and China Unicom.
TTK and China Unicom build the cross border terrestrial cable system at Manzhouli (Manchuria) in China and Zabaikalsk in Russia.
The ERA cable system is capable of 100Gbps DWDM, offering a low latency Eurasia route:
The Europe-Russia-Mongolia-China (ERMC) is an Eurasia terrestrial cable route connecting Europe, Russia, Mongolia and China, jointly operated by TTK and China Unicom via, Mongolia Railway.
TTK, Monglia Railway Authority (RailCom, now GEMNET) and China Unicom operate the ERMC terrestrial cable system via Erlianhaote (Erenhot ) in China-Mongolia Border.
In Mongolia, EMRC runs over 2 parallel optical cable routes of approximately 1000km each, along the railway connecting southern and northern borders of Mongolia along Sukhbaatar-Darkhan-Ulaanbaatar-Choir-Zamyin Uud. It forms OTN network with ROADM nodes and reserve protection in Mongolia.
The ERMC cable system is capable of 100Gbps DWDM, offering a low latency Eurasia route:
TTK offers other Eurasia terrestrial cable routes, Europe-Russia-Asia (ERA) to China, and Europe-Russia-Japan (ERJ) to Japan.
The TMP Transit-Mongolia is a low latency Eurasia terrestrial cable from China to Europe, via Mongolia and Russia.
The TMP terrestrial cable is operated by China Telecom Global (CTG) and its partners in Mongolia and Russia, through the China-Mongolia Border at Erlianhaote (Erenhot ), in a similar route as the Europe-Russia-Mongolia-Asia (ERMC) terrestrial cable.
The TMP terrestrial cable features ultra low latency, with
The Diverse Route for European and Asian Markets (DREAM) is an 8,700km Eurasia terrestrial cable route conneting Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan and China, with extension from the Kazakhstan-China border (Khorgos) to Hong Kong through fiber cable backbones across China.
The DREAM terrestrial cable route was launched in 2013 by MegaFon with a partnership with Kazakhtelecom.
The northern segment of the DREAM route offers a diversity by connecting to the Baltic Highway cable, with 3000km route from Tallinn in Estonia to Frankfurt in Germany via Riga (Latvia), Vilnius (Lithuania), Warsaw (Poland), and Berlin (Germany). DREAM also offers diversity at the Kazakhstan-Russian-border, connecting to MegaFon’s backbone. And through MegaFon's backbone, the DREAM also connects to the South-West Asia Network (SWAN), which links Russia to the Caucasus region and Turkey. Launched in Q1 2015 with an initial capacity of 100 Gbps, SWAN is the result of a partnership between MegaFon and Georgian fixed-line operator SilkNet.
The DREAM terrestrial cable features low latency solutions from China to Europe, with
The Super TSR (Transit Silk Road) is an ultra low latency Eurasia terrestrial cable route via the China-Kazakhstan Gateway, Khorgos.
The Super TSR was launched by China Telecom Global (CTG) through a partnership with a Kazakhstan operator in 2016.
The Super TSR features ulta low latency:
TRANSKZ is a terrestrial route linking Europe and Asia, and offers low latency and protected services between all major European markets to China and Hong Kong.
TRANSKZ was launched in 2016 in partnership between RETN and Transtelecom JSC.
TEA NEXT is a new generation fiber-optic communication line connecting Russian western and eastern borders, launched by Rotelecom.
TEA NEXT consists of 96 dark fiber lines available to international operators and global OTT companies for Europe to Asia (Eurasia) connectivity.
The TEA NEXT will be constructed based on the cutting edge Ultra Low Loss optical fibre which allow for use of all advanced long-distance DWDM equipment. The mainline will pass along the shortest route from West to East of the country with stations in largest cities.
The TEA NEXT will offer the shortest latency, Round Trip Delay (RTD ) of no more than 85 ms from Moscow to Vladivostok and 55 ms from Moscow to Khyagt.
The TEA NEXT project is developed by Rostelecom’s newly founded company Atlas which will be supported by financial and strategic partners, including one of the Russian banks and a number of international investors and communications operators. Total investment will amount to US$500 million within several years.
The TEA NEXT project is expected to be completed in 2023-2024.
The Middle East-Europe terrestrial system (MEETS) is a 1,400km terrestrial cable network which connects the Gulf Cooperation Council states and Eurasia. It is a highly reliable diverse route, built using the latest technology, and addresses the growing need for high bandwidth services and offers unique access to the Gulf region.
The MEETS consortium comprises Vodafone Qatar, du, Zain and Zajil. Vodafone Qatar Q.S.C. is in Qatar, du is the landing party in the UAE, Zain in Saudi Arabia, and Zajil in Bahrain and Kuwait.
The MEETS network is built alongside the existing power transmission network, the Gulf Cooperation Council Interconnection Authority (GCCIA) electrical transmission system. it is cost-effective and reliable, providing reduced service latency and geographic diversity across the Middle East.
The MEETS network is designed with 100G optical transport network (OTN) technology, offering connectivity in the GCC region with a design capacity in excess of 2.3Tbps, and an initial capacity of 200Gbps, deployed with Ciena’s converged packet optical networking solutions.
The MEETS network has the following access and landing points:
Vodafone East West Turkey Connect Fiber Cable System (EWTC) is a terrestrial fibre infrastructure across Turkey, enabling connectivity between the Eastern and Western borders.
Vodafone East West Turkey Connect Fiber Cable System (EWTC) enables a viable and cost-effective alternative for carriers and global enterprises demanding
high-speed connectivity between Europe, the Middle East and Asia, enables a shorter, direct terrestrial route with low latency and RTD (Round-Trip Delay).
In August 2007, Djibouti Telecom SA initiated a project to build a terrestrial fiber optic linking Djibouti to Ethiopia.
This Djibouti-Ethiopia terrestrial cable currently carries approximately 1.5 Gbps traffic. A backup network will be routed to the West Central Border of Djibouti (Galafi).
There is also a fiber protection on OPGW Power cable and the railway network.
The Silk Route Transit is a fibre-optic terrestrial cable across Iraq, over 3500 kilometres. It is owned and operated by iQ Group, a leading Iraqi fiber optic provider founded in 2005.
The Silk Route Transit’s multilayer fibre-optic network provides the shortest alternative terrestrial route to connect Europe to Asia, bypasses the “Red Sea Bottleneck”, the vulnerable checkpoint at the intersection of the Mediterranean Sea and the Suez Canal, offers superior options for carriers and businesses to cope with future internet traffic growth, and enables users to have high-quality and low latency-based experiences.
iQ Silk Route Transit Network is known as Iraq’s first fully secured fibre network, deployed in parallel with the Middle Eastern country’s strategic oil pipeline, strictly guarded by Iraqi security forces, offering a safe and high reliable connection.
iQ has constructed six cable landing stations in Iraq for the Silk Route Transit Network, including