Aqua Comms Doubles AEC-1 Trans-Atlantic Capacity with Ciena's 400G Solution

Aqua Comms has upgraded its two Trans-Atlantic submarine cable routes with Ciena’s cutting-edge GeoMesh Extreme submarine network solution to meet digital connectivity demands across the US, Ireland, Denmark, and the UK. Aqua Comms' AEC-1 transatlantic cable system has been completely modernized and upgraded to support 400GbE services leveraging Ciena’s WaveLogic 5 Extreme (WL5e), doubling the cable’s capacity to almost 20Tbps.

Aqua Comms owns two transatlantic subsea cable systems, the 5,521km AEC-1 connecting the US, Ireland, the UK, and the 7,650km AEC-2 linking the US and Denmark with branches toIreland and Norway.

The AEC-1 cable system (formerly known as AEConect) was ready for service in 2016, designed with 130 x 100 Gbps per fibre pair in a total of 4 fiber pairs. With Ciena's solution, AEC-1 cable system has been completely modernized and upgraded to support 400GbE services leveraging Ciena’s WaveLogic 5 Extreme (WL5e), doubling the cable’s capacity to almost 20Tbps.

Aqua Comms launched the AEC-2 cable system in last December. The latest upgrade supports up to 500G Trans-Atlantic channel rates and the introduction of spectrum sharing on the AEC-2 cable system.

Both upgrades were successfully completed with the networks in-service, using Ciena’s robust design and implementation capabilities, the upgrade will also provide Aqua Comms with access to Ciena’s Manage, Control and Plan (MCP) domain controller that offers a more sophisticated management and control capability, translating into significant operating efficiencies. Aqua Comms is also adopting Ciena Insights Service and predictive software capabilities to help resolve network issues.

Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme submarine solution is powered by Ciena’s WL5e coherent optics and advanced software capabilities that provide reduced cost per bit, simplified operations, and smarter analytics.