Amazon Web Services (AWS) signed an IRU agreement for the use of a fiber pair on MAREA, the transatlantic submarine cable partially owned by Telxius.
MAREA is the highest capacity submarine cable in the world and provides the lowest latency route between the U.S. and Southern Europe. The route is further south than other transatlantic cables, with landing points in Virginia Beach and Sopelana, Spain.
“We have developed a deep relationship with Amazon Web Services across the geographies we serve and are excited by their long-term commitment with the MAREA submarine system. As the market pioneer and leader in cloud IaaS for over 10 years, it’s encouraging to see AWS active in the subsea cable market. Cloud providers increased activity in the cable business is now a major driver of the submarine telecom industry,” says Rafael Arranz, Chief Operating Officer of Telxius, Cable Business.
https://telxius.com/en/amazon-web-services-agreement/
Microsoft and Facebook test 400G on trans-Atlantic cable
A field demonstration conducted by Acacia Communications, in collaboration with Microsoft and Facebook, achieved the first 400G single carrier DWDM transmission over the 6,600 km Marea submarine cable between Virginia Beach, Virginia and Bilbao, Spain. The transmission employed Acacia’s AC1200 coherent module, which is powered by its Pico digital signal processor. Utilizing Acacia’s patented Fractional QAM modulation, the field demonstration achieved 400G transmission using approximately 4 bits/symbol, with a baud rate of nearly 70Gbaud. Additionally, modulation formats greater than 4 bits/symbol were utilized to achieve a spectral efficiency of 6.41 b/s/Hz on the same 6,600 km cable.
The Marea submarine cable, a joint project between Microsoft, Facebook, and global telecommunications infrastructure company Telxius, features an “open” design that allows it to evolve with technology and enables adoption of new technologies, such as the Acacia AC1200 coherent module.
MAREA redefines the transAtlantic subsea bandwidth equation
Construction of the highest-capacity subsea cable to cross the Atlantic is now complete.
The 6,600 km MAREA subsea cable, which was jointly funded by Microsoft and Facebook, links Virginia Beach, Virginia to Bilbao, Spain. The cable will be managed by Telxius, Telefónica’s new infrastructure company. The cable features eight fiber pairs and an initial estimated design capacity of 160 Tbps.
The cable takes a more southern route than other transatlantic cables, which mostly connect northern Europe to the New York/New Jersey region.
- TE SubCom served as the system supply partner for MAREA.
