Having outgrown the capacity that current providers can offer, Google has made a wise investment for future growth. Google joined five other international companies to build a high-bandwidth sub-sea fiber optic cable linking the United States and Japan. The construction of the new Trans-Pacific infrastructure will cost an estimated three-hundred million.
Having outgrown the capacity that current providers can offer, Google has made a wise investment for future growth. Google joined five other international companies to build a high-bandwidth sub-sea fiber optic cable linking the United States and Japan.
The new cable system – named Unity – will address Google’s growing broadband demand by providing much needed capacity to sustain the unprecedented growth in data and Internet traffic between Asia and the United States. Unity is expected to initially increase Trans-Pacific lit cable capacity by about twenty percent, with the potential to add up to 7.68 Terabits per second (Tbps) of bandwidth across the Pacific.
“As more and more people conduct online searches and interact with applications like Gmail, Google Earth and YouTube, we've had to think outside the box to create a more scalable, affordable and easy to manage network that meets our users' needs worldwide. One of the biggest challenges we face is staying ahead of our broadband capacity needs, especially across Asia,” Google’s Francois Sterin said in a blog posting.
This new 10,000 kilometer (km) Trans-Pacific cable will provide connectivity between Chikura, located off the coast near Tokyo, to Los Angeles and other West Coast network points of presence. At Chikura, Unity will be seamlessly connected to other cable systems, further enhancing connectivity into Asia. The new five fiber pair cable system can be expanded up to eight fiber pairs, with each fiber pair capable of carrying up to 960 Gigabits per second (Gbps). By having a high fiber count, Unity is able to offer more capacity at lower unit costs. Construction will begin immediately, with initial capacity targeted to be available in the first quarter of 2010.
According to the TeleGeography Global Bandwidth Report, 2007, Trans-Pacific bandwidth demand has grown at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of sixty-four percent between 2002 and 2007. It is expected to continue to grow strongly from 2008 to 2013, with total demand for capacity doubling roughly every two years.
"The Unity cable system allows the members of the consortium to provide the increased capacity needed as more applications and services migrate online, giving users faster and more reliable connectivity,” said Unity spokesperson Jayne Stowell.Google has made these types of investments in the past.
However, “If you're wondering whether we're going into the undersea cable business, the answer is no. We're not competing with telecom providers, but the volume of data we need to move around the world has grown to the point where in some cases we've exceeded the ability traditional players can offer. Our partnership with these companies is just another step in ensuring that we're delivering the best possible experience to people around the world,” Sterin adds.
The Unity consortium is a joint effort by Bharti Airtel, Global Transit, Google, KDDI Corporation, Pacnet and SingTel. The name Unity was chosen to signify a new type of consortium, born out of potentially competing systems, to emerge as a system within a system, offering ownership and management of individual fiber pairs.
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