Verizon Business Implements Optical Mesh for Pacific Undersea Cable System

Verizon Business has implemented an optical mesh with five paths on the trans-Pacific portion of its global network to provide more diverse routes to benefit large business and government customers.


This network architecture provides route diversity across the five paths in the event of a cable cut or other network disruption. Previously, the trans-Pacific transport network used a ring configuration to provide redundant paths. However, that architecture provided protection against only a single failure within any network ring, and service restoration on the alternate path usually increased the latency of the transmission. Additionally, in the event of a service interruption on two or more segments of the same network system, physical restoration of the cable may not be available until a cable ship is deployed to make repairs.


Each of the five paths operates with 10 Gbps capacity, offering automatic restoration and real-time management of voice and data traffic on the Pacific undersea cable routes. The Pacific mesh is currently deployed on two major submarine cable network systems in the Pacific called Japan-US and China-US. With completion of the Trans-Pacific Express (TPE) cable in the third quarter of this year, the company will expand meshing to include Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan. By year-end, Verizon Business will have seven-way mesh diversity deployed on the trans-Pacific network.


"We have seen a dramatic improvement in our overall network performance in the Atlantic since we introduced meshing," said Yali Liu, director of Asia-Pacific network planning for Verizon Business. "We're now extending this same benefit into the Asia-Pacific region, and we will continue to expand the enhanced diversity and reliability of a meshed network to meet the growing demands of our global customers."http://www.verizon.com