Submarine cable SEA-ME-WE4's upgrade to 40 Gbps was recently announced by Verizon. The needs for more capacity will be therefore met by Verizon (News - Alert) customers doing business in Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East. Improved performance and better scalability will also be provided to Verizon customers.

In a release, Ihab Tarazi, VP of global network planning for Verizon said, "SEA-ME-WE4 is a major link connecting Southeast Asia to Europe through the Middle East-critical regions to our multinational customers. With the phenomenal growth we're seeing in these areas, SEA-ME-WE4 will provide the much needed capacity without the time and cost of laying new cable." 

The fourth project in the SEA-ME-WE also known as South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe is SEA-ME-WE4 which was launched in 2005. Southeast Asia is linked to Europe through the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East by SEA-ME-WE4. Voice, data, Internet and various broadband applications are carried by the system using DWDM or dense wavelength division multiplexing.

The current highest wavelength capacity of 40 Gbps technology has been deployed by SEA-ME-WE4 system. With a length of 12,427 miles, this is the longest submarine cable system to deploy such technology. The SEA-ME-WE4 system has been developed by a 16 member consortium including the initial member, Verizon. The submarine cable system in Marseilles, France will have Verizon as the landing/terminal party.

A key component in Verizon's sophisticated mesh network architecture, the SEA-ME-WE4 covers 14 transoceanic routes. Combined 40,000-plus miles of ultra-long-haul network in the U.S. are also covered by the SEA-ME-WE4. All available network routes are used by the architecture. Latency or the time taken by an optical signal to travel from one point to another is lowered. Route flexibility and diversity are also increased by the architecture. Restoration within 300 milliseconds is offered by mesh networks like that offered by Verizon and 15 percent fewer dedicated protection paths are also required by these networks.

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