KDDI America, the US division of KDDI Corp., has teamed up with Russian national carrier Rostelecom to launch a 10-Gbps wavelength service with what KDDI asserts is the lowest latency between Japan and Europe.
KDDI and Rostelecom signed an agreement early last year to upgrade and modify the Russia-Japan Cable Network (RJCN) and Transit Europe-Asia (TEA) to construct 10-Gbps wavelength resources between Tokyo and London using the shortest route via Russia. The new RJCN/TEA route is 7-100 ms shorter than the Indian Ocean route and 45-60 ms shorter than the US/Atlantic Ocean route. The RJCN upgrade was completed in January 2012.
The shortest route is the best way to address the requirement for low latency transmission. KDDI says the fiber-optic network will be ideal for delivering high-capacity content such as video transmission services to support the broadcast of events in Europe and Africa.
KDDI has also been working with Rostelecom’s operations team to improve the network quality, and claims to have been operating at 100% availability on its international private leased service between London and Tokyo – a total distance of 10,000 km or over 6,200 miles.
The partners point out that RJCN was not affected by the earthquake in Japan because the cable is laid in the Sea of Japan. The network will continue to play an important role to provide customers with cable diversity, they say.