Net capacity down to wire
Trevor Clarke
NBN debate ignores new era for apps, ideas Australia's submarine fibre-optic links to the world may not be fully utilised at the moment, but more are being built to cater to our insatiable appetite for data and content.
The Southern Cross Cable lands at a beach in Oregon, US. File Photo: SCCL
The online feast - shown recently by Bureau of Statistics data revealing record downloads in the last three months of 2012 - has helped triple the total capacity of our submarine cable links since 2008 and is expected to continue to grow rapidly, according to market researcher TeleGeography.In 2008, Australia's lit capacity - or the actual traffic-carrying ability of the system - on all its submarine cable connections was 1.2 terabits per second (Tbps). It rose to 3.4 Tbps in 2012. Most of Australia's international internet traffic travels over five cables: Southern Cross Cable Network, Australia-Japan Cable, Telstra's Endeavour, Pipe Network's PPC-1 and SeaMeWe-3.
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While its capacity is dwarfed by other regions - the trans-Atlantic region had 19.2 Tbps in 2012, intra-Asia 14.4 Tbps and trans-Pacific 13.5 Tbps - TeleGeography analyst Alan Mauldin expects existing cables to be upgraded and joined by new links.''"The capacity of nearly all cables can be upgraded overtime through the introduction of new equipment in the landings stations," Mauldin said. "This allows operators to increase demand incrementally without incurring the huge cost of having to build a new cable each time they need more capacity." Advertisement
However, he said all of the cables in the region were operating at a fraction of their potential capacity."For instance, Southern Cross will be upgraded in a few months to have 2.6 terabits of capacity in service but has the potential to be over 12 terabits,'' he said.''Even with a large amount of potential capacity on existing cables, new cables can still be viable, particularly ones that would improve network resilience - such as a new cable on the west coast of Australia up to Singapore. This route is only served by one older system.''Although a new cable plan by Pacific Fibre recently collapsed, there have been several announcements of other ventures including the Tasman Global Access cable proposed by Telstra, Vodafone and TNZI, the Australia Singapore Cable by Leighton Group and the APX-West by SubPartners.''There have been various plans for a new west coast cable for over a decade, and it seems likely that at least one of these will be built,'' Mauldin says. ''There does seem be room for another cable from Australia/NZ to the United States as well, but as the Pacific Fibre collapse showed, it can be challenging to get all the pieces in places for that type of project given the high construction cost."'The Hawaiki Submarine Cable, connecting Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and the US west coast by 2015, will also add to the current capacity and hopes to provide islands in the Pacific with broadband education and health programs.But while TeleGeography notes plenty of unused potential capacity, Hawaiki's chief operating officer, Ludovic Hutier, expects capacity issues to arise as traffic grows about 50 per cent a year. He forecasts a capacity requirement of 28 Tbps by 2019."Considering the total capacity available on existing cables [21.4 terabits] and the construction period for a new trans-pacific cable [of 2 years], the capacity will arithmetically run out in 2018," Mr Hutier said."Therefore, there is clearly a short-term need for Australia and New Zealand to have a new cable system in service."Mr Hutier said any plans for places like New Zealand to become a data centre hub would be dependent on better direct links to the US. The Australia Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) describes these submarine cable links as "vital component of our national infrastructure" and maintains three protection zones surrounding the cable landing zones – two in Sydney and one in Perth – where maritime activities are restricted. Follow IT Pro on Twitter 51 comments
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