Japan-Guam-Australia North Cable System Begins Installation
RTI Connectivity Press Release
September 12, 2019
RTI Connectivity Press ReleaseSingapore, – RTI Connectivity Pte. Ltd. (RTI) announced today that installation has begun on the JGA North (Japan-Guam-Australia) Cable System between Minami Boso, Japan and Piti, Guam (JGA North). JGA North is on schedule and is expected to be commercially available in 1Q 2020.
JGA North’s submersible repeaters were manufactured by NEC Corporation and the submarine cable was manufactured by OCC Corporation. JGA North lands in Minami Boso, Chiba, and is extended by terrestrial dark fibers to two neutral world-class data centers in Tokyo, providing capacity customers with easy access to RTI’s expansive network. While the initial design capacity of JGA North is 24 Tbps (Terabits per second), it is expected to be expanded significantly by adopting a higher optical signal modulation format using the latest available NEC transponders.
Dr. Jun Murai, founder of WIDE Project and professor at Keio University in Tokyo, Japan and widely recognized as one of founding fathers of the global Internet, along with other distinguished guests from Keio University and the WIDE Project, attended the cable loading ceremony hosted by RTI in August 2019.
JGA North Enhances Collaboration
“The JGA North cable meets the needs for the development/enhancement of the academic data highway for the enhanced research and collaboration for various academic initiatives.” said Dr. Murai. “RTI’s unique cable network design with Guam-as-a-hub enables connectivity to institutions in key countries throughout the Asia Pacific region as well as onward connectivity to the United States.”
JGA North Accelerates Innovation
Garret Yoshimi, Vice President of Information Technology & Chief Information Officer of the University of Hawai’i System noted, “JGA North's high capacity connections, together with RTI's significant other investments in the region, are critical to sustainable support for global science efforts that require very large datasets transported among computational and visualization partners in real-time or near-real-time. Interconnection between JGA North and the many new and existing submarine cable assets landing in Guam, via the neutral Gateway Network Connections facility, will empower and support UH researchers and educators to engage in future-focused research and online learning collaborations with all of our institutional partners throughout the Asia Pacific region.”
JGA North Delivers Diversity, Lower Latency and Scalability
JGA North will land at the Gateway Network Connections, LLC (GNC) facility in Guam. Announced in June 2019 through a strategic partnership between RTI and GTA, GNC is Guam’s first combined neutral cable landing station and data center, providing seamless interconnection for both existing and new cables between and among Asia, Australia, and the United States. With its connection to GNC, JGA North will provide critical diversity across the Asia Pacific Region, improve speeds to certain destinations, and allow for rapid provisioning, not only to RTI cables including JGA South, Hong Kong-Guam (HK-G) and Southeast Asia-United States (SEA-US), but also for other Guam-landed cables that will soon be more efficiently utilized as a result the construction of GNC.
JGA North Increases Reliability
In collaboration with industry experts, a key focus of JGA North’s design was to enhance reliability. Masahiro Soma, RTI’s Chief Technology Officer, observed, “JGA North avoids passing through existing areas where seismic activity has been an ongoing issue. JGA North’s route between Japan and Guam not only increases network reliability, but it also reduces latency between certain destinations, such as Tokyo-Sydney. RTI’s ongoing investment in landing infrastructure also improves delivery.” Mr. Soma added, “RTI’s expansive network design includes backhaul and city POPs that will greatly improve accessibility and offer streamlined provisioning processes and timeframes as RTI has total control over its end-to-end services. When commercially in-service next year, 10G and 100G circuits will take only days to provision instead of months.”
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About RTI
RTI is a leading independent undersea cable owner providing large-scale network solutions across a wide variety of industries including cloud companies, network operators, regional carriers, global enterprises, content providers and institutions for higher learning. RTI is headquartered in Singapore. For more information, visit www.rticable.com
About GNC
GNC is a joint venture between RTI and GTA, the incumbent operator in Guam. The GNC facility will serve as Guam’s first combined neutral Cable Landing Station (CLS) and Data Center (DC). GNC will provide seamless interconnection for both existing and new cables seeking onward connectivity between and among Asia, Australia and the United States. GNC will be an 11,800-square-foot (1,096 square meter) Type 3 designed data center with approximately 250 racks of capacity and 2 megawatts of power.
About Keio University
Keio University is Japan's oldest institute of higher education, founded in 1858 by educator and intellectual leader Yukichi Fukuzawa. Fukuzawa stressed the importance of jitsugaku (science), which continues to be the university's guiding maxim. A private university, Keio University is located at the heart of Tokyo and provides comprehensive education and advanced research in a wide range of scientific fields. It includes 10 undergraduate faculties, 14 graduate schools, and approximately 30 research centers and institutes, including a university hospital. For more information, visit https://www.keio.ac.jp/en/
About WIDE Project
WIDE Project is a research consortium about Internet technology composed of more than 100 companies and approximately 70 universities. WIDE Project is famous for supporting the Internet from early times and establishing the Internet infrastructure in Japan. WIDE Project is broadly recognized as a representative research organization of Japan. For more information, visit http://www.wide.ad.jp/index_e.html
About the University of Hawai’i System
Established in 1907 and fully accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, the University of Hawai‘i System includes 10 campuses and dozens of educational, training and research centers across the state. As the sole public system of higher education in Hawai‘i, UH offers an array of undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees and community programs. UH enrolls more than 55,000 students from Hawai‘i, the U.S. mainland and around the world. For more information, visit www.hawaii.edu
