Verizon Business Extends Undersea Optical Mesh to Middle East

SUPERCOMM — Having completed a project enabling undersea traffic to circle the globe, Verizon Business now is extending its optical undersea mesh network to the Middle East.

The first phase of the extension includes installation of communications equipment in Egypt. The geographic location of Egypt allows for an efficient crossing from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea for submarine cable systems.

Undersea meshing creates multiple paths to reroute traffic in the event of undersea cable breaks or network disruptions. Verizon Business was the first service provider to offer seven-way diversity for services traversing cable systems in the Atlantic and Pacific. The meshing is made possible by installing communications equipment in network facility buildings linked to the submarine cables.

“Circling the globe with our mesh network has been a top priority we wanted to complete this year for our customers,” said Ihab Tarazi, vice president of global network planning for Verizon Business. “Since we introduced our mesh network, we have seen a dramatic improvement in our overall network performance. Now we extend this same benefit from India, to Singapore, through the Asia-Pac region to Europe and into the Middle East to help meet the growing demands of our multinational customers.”

Recent mesh deployments in Mumbai and Chennai, India; Marseille, France; and Singapore, coupled with an ultra long-haul build throughout France, completed the three-year project to circle the globe.

Verizon Business also will use the mesh technology on current and future undersea cable systems between Europe and the Middle East in which Verizon Business has an ownership or partners with other companies. One of the newest submarine cables Verizon Business will use for its industry-leading optical mesh architecture is the Europe India Gateway (EIG) cable network, scheduled for activation in 2010.

Verizon Business operates one of the largest global IP fiber-optic networks spanning six continents. The company also participates in more than 80 submarine cable networks including next-generation undersea cables SEA-ME-WE-4 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe), which link Southeast Asia to Europe via the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East, and the Trans-Pacific Express network linking the U.S. to mainland China, Taiwan and South Korea. Verizon Business is the only U.S.-based founding member of SEA-ME-WE-4 and only U.S. charter member of TPE.

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