IPtronics releases four-channel TIA and VCSEL driver chip set /Is 100GbE already in need of a tune-up?

JANUARY 27, 2011 -- IPtronics has announced sampling of its quad IPTA12G4C TIA and quad IPVD12G4C VCSEL Driver for pluggable module applications. The chipset is offered as a complement to IPtronics’ existing four-channel offerings that the company says has gained traction for InfiniBand QDR and FDR.

The IPVD12G4C VCSEL Driver Array and IPTA12G4C TIA/LIA Array are designed to offer advanced features while reducing power dissipation to 0.45 W for the chipset. The 0.45 W figure reflects total power dissipated in the Tx/Rx module or for each cable end, including power in the optics as well as terminations, according to IPtronics.

Channel rates of 12.5 Gbps enable 50-Gbps total bandwidth. With a selectable bandwidth feature the chipset is suitable for multi-rate modules.

IPtronics says the IPxx12G4C chip set is unique because it accommodates both applications for chip-to-chip communications, active cable applications as well as pluggable QSFP+ optical modules without compromising performance, feature-set, or cost. The chipset is fully InfiniBand and Ethernet compliant and includes such functions as on-chip PROM for vendor and start up settings, advanced temperature control features, “any rate” operation by selectable bandwidth, polarity, I2C interface, RSSI, and more.

The low-power features combined with advanced management functions lead to system operational expenditure savings as well as capital expenditure savings, the company asserts.

“Our second-generation four-channel chip set enables a wider use of IPtronics silicon, in particular pluggable modules for QDR InfiniBand and 40G Ethernet applications such as QSFP+ as well as emerging storage applications such as miniSAS,” said Jesper Bek, CEO of IPtronics. "Driven by customer demand, we have spun a revision of our world leading 12 channel chipset with proven performance.”

By JIM THEODORAS

Still in its infancy, 100 Gigabit Ethernet (100GbE) already appears to have entered a midlife crisis. Critics have been vocal about 100GbE's shortcomings: It's too expensive… The modules are too big… There's no serial client port… The components are backordered until eternity.…

Industry has responded quickly to address these criticisms. Let's look closer at the milestone technology, its strengths and weaknesses, and the 100GbE tune-up already underway.
Shortcomings

No sooner had 100GbE networking arrived to the relief of carriers seeking a leap forward in the scalability of their infrastructures than the nascent technology's detractors began to complain about:

    Price: The rule of thumb is that each new bandwidth milestone (typically a 10-fold advancement) should cost 2.5X the previous. With 100GbE stag-nating at 6X to 12X the cost of a 10GbE port, customer dissatisfaction around price is considerable.
    Size: Vendors rallied around the CFP module form factor relatively early on in the lifecycle of 100GbE, which enabled everyone to quickly commence work. However, given that CFP was based upon existing technologies for demonstration purposes, the modules turned out quite big. To customers accustomed to svelte 10G SFP+ ports, the idea that a client port would be cinderblock-sized seemed beyond absurd.
    Lack of a serial client port: Given 40/100GbE was the first Ethernet protocol designed simultaneously for both telecom and datacom applications and encompassed no fewer than 10 PHY definitions, it came as a shock that something might be missing in the coverage. Sure enough, while IEEE defined 100GbE PHYs from 10 m to 40 km and the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) extends to 2000 km, the humble serial singlemode fiber client port appears to have been somehow forgotten. The bread and butter of Ethernet connections is the simple patch cable. IEEE 802.3ba offers 100-m multimode and 10-km singlemode options, leaving a sizable gap in coverage. The 100-m multimode fiber PHY is the wrong fiber type without enough link budget for most inner-office uses; the 10-km singlemode PHY is overkill.
    Component shortages: Despite public statements otherwise, 100GbE is not really shipping–at least not of a scale comparable to 10GbE. 100GbE is real and works well as intended. And, despite price challenges, willing buyers are plentiful. But component shortages continue to thwart the supply chain. 100GbE is possible only through a clever combination of esoteric technologies, many struggling to reach volume production.

Figure 1. As was the case with 10GbE module form factors, the CFP is expected to undergo an evolution toward a smaller size.



Typically, a period of disillusionment follows when products based upon a standard first hit market. While those who labored years to introduce a standards-based product are proud as new parents of a first child, others not emotionally evolved quickly identify deficiencies and suggest how things should've been done differently.
Figure 2. The technological underpinnings of 100GbE transmission will complement other optical elements to create agile core networks.



This isn't to say that the criticisms are wrong–just that it's not uncommon for shortcomings to be identified following an innovation's appearance. In this light, there's a strong argument to be made that 100GbE is running par for the normal course of milestone technologies.
Widely distributed pain

The early criticisms are evidence of the huge, urgent challenge that is being tackled by 100GbE.

The pain of meeting that challenge is widely shared. Current and future module form factors that 100GbE users demand will challenge optical vendors. The addition of a high-speed gearbox to the protocol stack will challenge serializer-deserializer (SerDes) vendors. High-speed analog-to-digital converters will challenge chip vendors. Massive processing power will challenge chip vendors and mathematicians. Interferometers will challenge waveguide vendors. Eight optical processing channels will challenge integrated-optics vendors. Wide, fast data buses will challenge host-board designers. The list goes on.

It is this very technical difficulty and the current shortages that indicate the right long-term path has been taken with 100GbE. If designers had taken an easier route with off-the-shelf technologies, there would be little hope of meeting the long-term price/bit needed to be viable in the marketplace. As 100GbE transmission requires an amount of processing power that is unprecedented in Ethernet history, delivery is dependent on future silicon geometry reductions and optical integration–neither of which can be rushed. Both must follow natural technology-development curves. Once achieved, the resulting metrics (power, size, and price) will be more palatable.

The good news is that unprecedented industry teamwork characterizes the ongoing 100GbE tune-up. Standards-body and industry-consortia activity has reached fever pitch. This collaborative spirit is helpful because the huge investment demanded must be evenly distributed, like the aforementioned pain.
Moving forward

Let's look at how the industry is addressing 100GbE's early shortcomings.

Price: It is somewhat disingenuous to compare a coherent, first-generation 100GbE ultra-long-haul network-side port to a third-generation 10GbE SFP+ client-side port. Prices fall with time, volume, and technology advances. Over time, more vendors get into the game, expanding customer choice. And it's amazing what healthy competition can do to margins.

As volumes increase, products can transition from host companies' prototype labs to contract manufacturers' production lines. As integrated-circuit geometries shrink, price points should fall. Specifically, major fabs' transition to 45/28-nm geometries, silicon-on-insulator substrates, high-dielectric constant materials, and metal gate technologies will greatly benefit all silicon ASICs and ASSPs in the 100GbE food chain.

Size: The main problem with the CFP is size. One could reasonably argue that it appears CFP designers wrapped sheet metal around a 10-port 10GbE line card, relabeled it, and called it a day.

However, a more appropriate comparison would be early largeform-factor, 300-pin modules–about the same size as a CFP, but not Zpluggable. All bandwidth steps cut their teeth on unwieldly packages before maturing into more appropriate sizes. Also, the same multi-source agreement (MSA) that developed the CFP has publically detailed potential second- (CFP2) and third-generation (CFP4) offerings (see Figure 1). CFP2 is a logical progression, moving from a 10-wide CAUI data bus to a four-wide CAUI-4 and supporting the same PHY definitions. CFP4 attempts to be a third-generation client-port data bus, using the upcoming CPPI-4 data bus.

The main source of contention with CFP4 plans is that other data protocols (InfiniBand, Fibre Channel, etc.) have already adopted a pre-existing form factor, the QSFP+, for the same purpose (see "New QSFP+ transceiver designs go the distance" on page 21 of this issue). Will CFP4 benefits justify the industry split, or is this a case of Ethernet choosing CFP4 over QSFP+ just to be different? Proponents of CFP4 claim additional jitter and power budgets warrant change, while QSFP+ proponents disagree, claiming differences to be minor and saying failure to leverage the huge industry investment in QSFP would be unwise.

Lack of serial client port: Actually, 100GbE has a serial client port: the 100GbE-LR4 PHY definition. The main concern with this PHY appears to be cost–high for a 10-km link and even more disproportionate as you recede to a 10-m patch cable.

One driver of the higher cost is the need for four color-stabilized lasers, along with the associated wavelength multiplexer/demultiplexer. Existing alternatives in the standard are based upon ribbon cable, which is fine for card-to-card interconnect but requires special considerations for routes that go through plenums/conduits (and you can forget about using patch panels or many couplers).

A cheaper/better solution that uses the now-ubiquitous duplex fiber-optic patch cable is needed. Curiously, the current favorite alternative is a 10-wavelength PHY. If four channels are too expensive, how could 10 be better? The answer lies in the electronics, as proponents of the new PHY argue that no gearbox circuitry is needed and all lanes stay at 10 Gbps, rather than climb to 25 Gbps. (Supporters have formed the 10x10 MSA.) Finally, some industry thought leaders are assembling a call for interest (CFI) for a lower-cost, 2-km serial 100GbE singlemode PHY.

Component shortages: No fundamental physical limitation makes 100GbE components unobtainable. Rather, today's shortages are simply market dynamics at work. As volumes rise, the number of vendors climbs, and technology advances, then parts will become more readily available.
Where hidden value lies

There is hidden value in 100GbE that goes beyond simple price/bit comparisons. The coherent detection used in 100GbE's OIF guise brings with it extra link budget, as well as modulation and wavelength flexibility.

At the network level, WDM expand-ed bandwidth transmission–but also hindered growth by creating more equipment and configuration rules. 100GbE's emergence means a return to more flexible networks with fewer configuration rules.

There is a magic that develops when 100GbE's coherent detection, gridless reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADMs), and Raman amplifiers are combined (see Figure 2). Coherent detection gives sufficient link budget to lower dispersion compensation. Raman amplification reduces the EDFA optical gain required. Combined, coherent detection and Raman amplification can greatly reduce the amount of EDFAs needed, and get rid of them entirely in some cases. Fewer EDFAs means less reliance on gain-slope compensation and, in the case of EDFA-less networks, eliminates being tied to EDFA wavelength bands. Gridless ROADMs enable more flexible channel allocation. When combined with coherent detection, they signal bandwidth allocation-on-demand, since 10G, 40G, and 100G channels can co-exist on the same fiber without wasteful guard bands.

Combining these technologies suddenly renders network architectures powerful and flexible–
yet simple, too, with fewer EDFAs and no gain-slope compensators, dispersion-compensation spools, wavelength grids, or complex configuration rules to contend with. Many networks become simple glass fiber between router nodes–as before WDM's advent.

This is where 100GbE's true value lies, and the benefit is more than worth a few growing pains along the way.
The next big thing

What's next? It might seem premature to ask, but–given the ever-increasing time and difficulty required to reach the next Ethernet speed milestone–the sooner, the better. Moreover, the best way to reduce costs associated with an existing Ethernet data rate is to start on the next generation, as all lower rates benefit.

The second generation of 100GbE is already in sight (narrow parallel data buses with more attention to metrics), and the third generation is on the horizon (serial data buses and small client-only ports). The very technologies that enable the third generation of a major speed step form the foundation of the next. There is disagreement in the industry as to whether that speed step will be 400GbE or 1 terabit Ethernet (TbE), but, for now, let's just call it TbE.

High-speed, data-bus technologies that enable quad- or single-lane 100GbE will be paralleled to form TbE's wider busses. The same coherent detection that came to 100GbE's rescue will be used to generate sufficient gain for reasonable link distances. Advances in digital signal processing leveraged for QPSK encoding and decoding will be extended to more sophisticated modulation techniques already developed in other fields of communications. Integrated optics will be expanded to more channels with more components integrated. Gridless ROADMs will allow TbE to take up various amounts of spectral width on the fiber, depending upon reach needed.

As TbE technology creeps from labs to hero experiments, field trials and, eventually, nascent products, one can be sure that detractors will quickly appear to point out what should've been done differently.

Zarlink intros new active optical cable/LightCounting: Optical transceiver sales to exceed $2B in 2009

JUNE 24, 2009 -- Zarlink Semiconductor (search Lightwave for Zarlink) is providing its new ZLynx 4x10-Gbps active optical cable with quad small-form-factor (QSFP) terminations for InfiniBand QDR for sampling. The new cable is providing infrastructure links between Mellanox (booth #520) and the ISCnet InfiniBand network at this week's International Supercomputing (ISC'09) conference in Hamburg, Germany.
"We are solidifying our leadership position in the active optical cable market, with new products for data center interconnect," says Ram Rao, product marketing manager with Zarlink's Optical Products group. "We were the first volume producer of active optical cables, with ZLynx cables now deployed in data centers worldwide. Building on this market-proven expertise, our new ZLynx cable meets performance, power, and cable management requirements as QDR speeds begin to dominate data center deployments."
The ZLynx QDR cable cable delivers ultrahigh signal integrity required as speeds migrate to 10 Gbps, allowing operators to meet the bandwidth demands of data-intense services such as advanced mobile communications and cloud computing applications. According to the interconnect provider, the lightweight, flexible cable simplifies equipment installation and eliminates airflow concerns to reduce cooling requirements and satisfy green performance requirements for data centers.

OCTOBER 5, 2009 -- Global sales of optical transceivers are expected to reach $2.1 billion in 2009, according to the latest market forecast by opto-electronic transceiver market research company LightCounting LLC. While LightCounting said the figure represents a “minor improvement in the market outlook,” it noted that it’s a lot better than the sharp declines in optical transceiver sales reported in late 2008 and early 2009.
LightCounting maintained what it described as a “conservative” 5% growth projection for 2010, considering the uncertainty of timing a sustainable economic recovery. Double-digit growth will likely follow in 2011-2013, as the optical networking industry rushes to meet steadily growing bandwidth demand, according to the company.
Key indicators of the improving market, in LightCounting’s estimation, include:
    Higher than expected transceiver sales by vendors focused on the Asian market, which are likely to post 5-15% increases in annual sales.
    Majority of optical transceiver suppliers reported increasing orders in Q2 2009 and projected 5% to 10% revenue growth for the last two quarters of 2009.
    FTTx deployments continue strong despite the downturn, as carriers race to provide new voice, video, and data service bundles to bandwidth-hungry consumers.
    Bandwidth utilization in optical networking infrastructure remains high.
    Datacenter upgrades are gaining momentum again, as competition among content providers intensifies ahead of the imminent economic recovery.

"Despite reported market improvements, service providers are likely to stay prudent and favor incumbent technologies," commented Dr. Vladimir Kozlov, founder and CEO of LightCounting. "This trend will sustain the SONET/SDH market through 2011-2013, while delays in the adoption of 100GbE interfaces will open the door for 40GbE to become the higher-speed Ethernet of choice for most applications."
This report presents historical data from 2006-2008 and a market forecast through 2013 for SONET/SDH, Ethernet, Fibre Channel, CWDM, DWDM, FTTx transceivers, optical interconnects, and active optical cables, sorted into over 100 product categories. The report includes forecasts for XFP and XFP-E 10-Gbps tunable transceivers as well as QSFP, CFP and CXP, 40-Gbps, and 100-Gbps modules. The 2006-2008 sales data accounts for 30 transceiver vendors, with more than 25 sharing confidential sales data with LightCounting.

Omnitron offers 10G media converter for repeater, wavelength transponder applications/NeoPhotonics adds 40-km, 80-km SFP+ optical transceivers

Omnitron Systems Technology has unveiled the new iConverter XG+ 10-Gbps media converter, a protocol-transparent unit with two pluggable transceiver ports that support Power Level 4 XFP optical transceiver modules. The iConverter XG+ therefore can function as a long-range fiber repeater or a wavelength transponder, Omnitron says.

In addition to supporting Power Level 4 optical modules, which the company says is a media converter first, the iConverter XG+ also supports wavelength-tunable XFP transceivers for DWDM wavelengths. Network operators can set and save the wavelength of these tunable XFPs via the iConverter management system, which eliminates the need for external programming equipment, Omnitron adds.

Omnitron has partnered with Menara Networks to add Optical Transport Network (OTN) capabilities to the iConverter 10G+ as well. Menara Networks offers XFPs with OTN capabilities embedded within the optical module (see “Menara Networks announces full C-band tunable XFP, XENPAK modules”). The capabilities include integrated ITU-T G.709 OTU-2 framing, forward error correction (FEC), automatic receiver threshold adaptation, and SBS suppression for ultra long reach applications. It also can be tuned in 50-GHz increments.

Using the Menara Network XFPs, the iConverter XG+ can operate as a fiber repeater and wavelength transponder to extend OTN transmission distances over DWDM networks. The XG+ supports 100% traffic throughput and has no packet size restrictions, Omnitron asserts. It offers protocol transparency within the range of 9.95 to 11.32 Gbps, which supports such common protocols as 10 Gigabit Ethernet, 10-Gbps SONET/SDH, 10G Fibre Channel, and G.709 OTN OTU-2.

iConverter XG modules are available as standalone units or chassis plug-in modules. Three interface configurations are available that support XFP to XFP, XFP to SFP+, and SFP+ to SFP+, respectively. Pluggable XFP and SFP+ transceivers are supported for multimode and singlemode applications. Copper to fiber conversion is achieved with CX4 interface XFP transceivers.

Management capabilities include status reporting, fault detection, threshold violations, loopback functionality, and SNMP trap notification.


NeoPhotonics Corp. (NYSE: NPTN) has added longer-reach SFP+ transceivers to its line of modules that meet 40-km (ER) and 80-km (ZR) reach requirements and support various communication protocols. The new SFP+ optical transceiver modules complement NeoPhotonics existing 6-Gbps SFP+ transceivers for Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) and 10-Gbps SFP+ modules for 10 Gigabit Ethernet and OC-192/STM-64 SONET/SDH transport.

SFP+ transceivers without integrated CDR are designed to support 10-Gigabit Ethernet transport and comply with IEEE 802.3-2005 and 802.3-2008. Versions with an integrated CDR support OC-192/STM-64 SONET/SDH and comply with the ITU-T Recommendation G.709 for Optical Transport Network (OTN) at the OTU2 line rate.

All of the company’s transceivers are designed to meet Telcordia GR-468 CORE qualification requirements and cover the extended operating temperature range of -5 to +85ºC (E-Temp), NeoPhotonics asserts. Both RoHS5 and RoHS6 versions are available as well. The SFP+ ER and ZR transceivers are available in sample quantities.

JDSU guides downward for start of FY2012 /Gigalight unveils 3G video SFP transceivers

JDSU (NASDAQ:JDSU and TSX:JDU) finished its fiscal 2011 on a positive note, recording sequential revenue gains for the fourth quarter and the fiscal year. However, the good times aren’t expected to roll right into the start of fiscal year 2012. The company guided first quarter 2012 non-GAAP net revenues in the range of $420 million to $450 million, well below the $472.3 million in non-GAAP net revenue it recorded in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011.

On a GAAP basis, JDSU drew $471.8 million in net revenue and $9.3 million in net income, or $0.04 per share in its fiscal 2011 fourth quarter, which ended July 2, 2011. Revenue was up both sequentially ($454.0 million) and versus the year-ago quarter ($390.9 million), while net income declined sequentially ($38.6 million, $0.16 per share) but was up versus the same quarter in 2010 ($1.5 million, $0.01 per share).

Gross margins for the quarter stood at 43.3% GAAP and 46.7% non-GAAP.

For the year, JDSU reported GAAP net revenue of $1.8045 billion, up 32.3% from $1.3639 billion for fiscal 2010. Net income also improved during the year, coming in at $71.6 million, or $0.31 per share, versus a net loss of $61.8 million, or $0.28 per share, for fiscal 2010. GAAP gross margin for the year came in at 43.8%; Non-GAAP gross margin was 47.6%.

JDSU’s Communications Test and Measurement revenue led the way during the final quarter of fiscal 2011. It garnered revenues of $211.3 million, an increase of 11.7% sequentially and 13.5% compared to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2010. The group accounted for 44.8% of JDSU’s total net revenue in the quarter.

Not surprisingly, given results reported by such companies as Finisar, Oclaro, and Opnext, the Communications and Commercial Optical Products business didn’t fare as well. This operation saw revenues decrease 3.4% compared to the prior quarter. However, the $202.3 million in revenue did represent a year-on-year improvement of 28.6%. Within this group, Optical Communications revenue of $174.5 million decreased 5.5% sequentially, but increased 29.5% year-on-year.

During a call with analysts after the earnings announcement, CFO David Vellequette reported that while sales of LAN/SAN pluggables grew during the quarter, revenue for ROADMs, circuit packs and Tunable XFPs declined, primarily due to inventory corrections.

In a prepared statement, JDSU President and CEO Tom Waechter predicted tough sledding ahead, at least in the near term. "Currently we are seeing macro-economic challenges and inventory corrections which we believe will be short-term in nature as the end market drivers remain strong," he said.

Waechter elaborated on this comment during a call with analysts after the earnings announcement. “As we look ahead, there are several factors causing some short-term volatility for JDSU,” he said: “First, our general economic conditions and uncertainties; second, our inventory corrections by our Optical Communications customers; and finally, the September quarter seasonality for our CommTest business segment. We strongly believe that fundamental end-market drivers for our products remain strong for the long-term, but, as indicated by our guidance, we are not immune to the current macroeconomic challenges, optical inventory corrections or CommTest demand seasonality.

“We cannot predict exactly how long this downturn will last for us but we do believe it's a near-term issue,” he concluded.

Waechter also revealed that, in addition to the tunable SFP+ announced earlier this week (see "JDSU touts tunable SFP+ optical transceiver module"), the company plans to unveil higher-performing tunable XFPs aimed at two customers he declined to identify. The company also is working on ROADM subsystems based on liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) technology. Waechter also expects the company to introduce modules for coherent-based 40-Gbps and 100-Gbps applications next year.



Gigalight has introduced its 3G Video SFP optical transceiver modules for SD-SDI (270 Mbps), HD-SDI (1.485 Gbps), and 3G-SDI (2.97 Gbps) applications. The modules are designed for long-distance and HD video signal transfer, and come in four models: transmitters, receivers, transceivers, and transmitter/receiver. The modules will support transmission distances ranging from 10 km to 80 km.

Compared to traditional modules, the 3G video SFPs better overcome transmission impairments to provide long reach at full bandwidth, the company asserts. Gigalight’s 3G video SFP uses MCU control and high accuracy DDM to meets the such specifications as SMPTE 424M, 292M, 259M-C, 297, etc.

The new 3G video SFP is Gigalight’s first offering in the video optical communication field.

Colt opens low-latency route from Dublin to London /Alcatel-Lucent to supply 100G SLTE for GlobeNet connection to Colombia

European network services provider Colt says its new network route from Dublin to London is online. The route offers improved resilience, lower costs, and “the fastest possible speed” between Ireland and mainland Europe, Colt asserts.

Colt is quoting latency of 4.267 ms between Colt nodes in London and Dublin, with connectivity up to 10 Gbps. Colt says it currently carries over 500 Gbps of traffic across the Irish Sea. The new Dublin-London link extends Colt’s total capacity between the two cities to 4.8 Tbps.

The new route, which is part of Colt’s wider strategic network investment plan for Europe, incorporates the new Sea Fibre Networks cable, CeltixConnect, which is based on the Infinera DTN platform.

Colt says it’s not done in Ireland. The service provider also has an extension from Dublin to Cork on its roadmap, with completion of this new connection expected toward the end of this year.

In addition to supplying connectivity to financial services firms, Colt says it counts the majority of multinationals based in Ireland with network services. It provides last-mile fiber to more than 250 locations in Dublin, according to Gary Keogh, director, Colt Ireland.

“Ireland is an exciting place for Colt because of the enormous success of its ICT sector which continues to grow, particularly in the Dublin area,” said Keogh. Our continued investment here will ensure Ireland remains right at the heart of Europe’s network infrastructure and the location of choice for large enterprises across a number of sectors.”



Submarine capacity supplier GlobeNet, a subsidiary of Brazil’s Oi, will use optical transport equipment from Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) in its recently announced project to link Colombia to its existing undersea fiber optical network (see “GlobeNet undersea cable route to link Colombia and Miami”). The equipment will provide GlobeNet the ability to support 100-Gbps wavelengths over the new 1000-km route, which will serve the need for broadband services between Colombia, the United States, and other Latin American countries.

Alcatel-Lucent will supply an integrated 100G-capable wet plant of cable and high-bandwidth repeaters, power feed equipment, and its 1620 Light Manager (LM) submarine line terminal equipped with coherent technology. The ultimate design capacity of the route will be more than 8 Tbps “on each connectivity path,” according to GlobeNet and Alcatel-Lucent.

The GlobeNet submarine cable system currently spans 22,000 km with landing points in Rio de Janeiro and Fortaleza in Brazil, Maiquetía in Venezuela, St. David’s in Bermuda, Boca Raton in Florida, and Tuckerton in New Jersey. The new extension will land on Colombia’s Atlantic coast.

Said Erick W. Contag, GlobeNet’s COO, “GlobeNet is committed to meeting the need for high-quality capacity to offer an improved experience for all of our customers. Our collaboration with Alcatel-Lucent is based on our confidence in the low latency, reliability, and speed of their solution, as well as their ability to seamlessly and efficiently introduce this extension to Colombia while maintaining all our existing network services.”