Pacific Wave completes second 40G transpacific route

The Pacific Wave international peering exchange, which connects research and education networks in the Pacific Rim, says it has completed a second 40-Gbps connection from the U.S. West Coast to Australia and New Zealand. Crossing the Pacific Ocean from Los Angeles through the Big Island of Hawaii and on to Australia, the new fiber-optic network link complements an existing 40-Gbps link from Seattle through Oahu to Australia.

Both submarine cable links provide increased performance and robustness to the Pacific Wave peering exchange, which is the chief means by which the world’s research and education networks cross the Pacific Ocean. In this capacity, Pacific Wave enables cutting-edge research in all realms of data-intensive science, including cancer treatment, climate research, digital media, genomics, oceanography, seismography, software-defined networking, space science, and more.

Pacific Wave is a joint project between the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) and the Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP) with support from the University of Southern California and the University of Washington. It features connection points at three U.S. West Coast locations: the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Seattle.

"It's important to note that upgrades like this are not an endpoint in themselves but a step toward the future," said PNWGP's executive director Amy Philipson. "Increased bandwidth invariably brings increased demand for bandwidth, which is why Pacific Wave’s planned connectivity upgrades include 100-Gbps connectivity as well – and I'm sure it won’t end there."

The upgrade will not only benefit innovation in Australia and New Zealand but around the world, she adds. Researchers around the globe will also benefit from improved connectivity to facilities located in the Pacific Rim.

"This upgrade significantly improves global access to the unparalleled collection of international astronomical observatories in Hawaii," said University of Hawaii president David Lassner. "Current instruments already generate terabytes of data every 24 hours, and next-generation projects like the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea and NSF-supported Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope on Haleakala will challenge our international research networks even more. So it was critical that we built into this upgrade our plans to move to 100 Gbps in 2016."

Lassner also serves as principal investigator for the NSF International Research Network Connections (IRNC) project that supported the US costs of the upgrade.

This news comes on the heels of an announcement by the Australian advanced network AARNet of their new partnership with New Zealand advanced network REANNZ and Southern Cross Cable Networks to provide New Zealand scientists and researchers with access to ultra high-speed international connectivity as well as the general Internet. The partnership means that New Zealand scientists and researchers will, for the first time, have capacity for big-data transport between New Zealand and the rest of the world.

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