Ciena Corporation

New York Stock Exchange
Back to all articles
Very Bullish +85

Ciena upgrades subsea cable throughput for Meta, Lightstorm

AI-generated analysis

🌐 Ciena set a new world record by transmitting 800 Gbps on a single wavelength across the 16,608-kilometre-long trans-Pacific Bifrost Cable System between Japan and Australia.

💻 This milestone enables next-generation cloud and AI connectivity across the submarine cable backbone used by major technology companies like Meta.

🔋 Ciena's WaveLogic 6 Extreme (WL6e) coherent optics achieved a 50% reduction in watts/bit compared to previous generation modems, significantly improving power efficiency.

⚙️ The trial delivered 18 Tbps of total fibre pair capacity within a compact Submarine Line Terminal Equipment footprint of only 10 rack units.

🌍 Ultra-high-capacity wavelengths demonstrated reliable performance across long subsea routes, supporting high-performance terrestrial and subsea connectivity from Singapore to California.

📊 Lightstorm upgraded its Japan-Guam-Australia (JGA) submarine cable system to support 400 Gbps client services using Ciena's optical technology.

🚀 The JGA upgrade quadruples the client service capacity of the existing system, facilitating next-generation cloud and AI connectivity between Asia-Pacific datacentres.

🗺️ JGA offers a compelling alternative to traditional Asia-Pacific routes that transit the South China Sea, providing improved latency and geopolitical diversity for carriers and enterprises.

💰 Increasing efficiency by moving from 100 Gbps to 400 Gbps client traffic reduces cost-per-bit and allows Lightstorm to rapidly scale capacity while maintaining high network performance.

🤖 These technical achievements reflect the evolving network requirements of AI, enabling internal networks with high capacity and ultra-low latency for training and deploying AI models.

🌱 Ciena's technology supports Meta's net-zero goals by lowering power consumption and reducing space requirements, delivering environmental, social, and governance benefits.

🔭 Brian Lavallée of Ciena stated that this record is more than a technical milestone but a glimpse into the future where submarine cables back the industrial revolution of AI.

📈 Production traffic between Japan and Australia on the upgraded JGA system validates the system's readiness for demanding hyperscale cloud and AI use cases.

🛠️ Lightstorm deployed Ciena's industry-leading coherent optics across the JGA system to support deterministic, low-latency, and high-throughput connectivity across distributed compute ecosystems.

📉 High-capacity terrestrial fibre and subsea connectivity across Asia-Pacific are now better positioned to handle multi-terabit demand driven by cloud and AI workloads.

Bullish Signals
  • Ciena's technology set a new world record by achieving unregenerated single-carrier 800 Gb/s transmission across the 16,608 kilometre-long trans-Pacific Bifrost Cable System.
  • The record-breakthrough enabled Lightstorm to quadruple client service capacity of its Japan-Guam-Australia (JGA) submarine cable system, supporting next-generation cloud and AI connectivity between Asia-Pacific regions.
  • Ciena's WaveLogic 6 Extreme (WL6e) coherent optics delivered 18 Tbps of total fibre pair capacity with excess operating margin, achieving a 50% reduction in watts/bit compared to the previous generation.
  • The JGA cable upgrade supports 400Gbps services between Japan and Australia, providing a compelling alternative to traditional routes that transit the South China Sea with improved latency and geopolitical diversity.
  • Ciena anticipates setting new benchmarks for capacity and efficiency as demand for AI and digital capacity reaches its highest point driven by hyperscalers scaling infrastructure.
  • The technology upgrades support Meta's net-zero goals by delivering a smaller carbon footprint through lower power consumption and reduced space requirements in subsea landing stations.
  • Lightstorm's network is already validating system readiness for demanding cloud and AI use cases with production traffic between Japan and Australia carrying multi-terabit deployments.
Risk Factors
  • While subsea cable demand is high, reliance on limited physical infrastructure exposes clients like Meta and Lightstorm to potential bottlenecks as hyperscalers aggressively scale for AI training datasets.
  • The article focuses on capacity milestones but does not address whether current revenue growth or profit margins can sustain the massive CAPEX required to upgrade subsea cables at this pace.
  • High power consumption remains a risk despite efficiency claims, as subsea landing stations face stringent ESG mandates that could limit expansion if watt/bit reductions are not maintained over longer product lifecycles.
  • The JGA cable system offers a geopolitical alternative to South China Sea routes, but relying on any single route for deterministic low-latency connectivity introduces concentration risk if geopolitical tensions escalate in the Asia-Pacific region.
Full Analysis
Optical connectivity provider Ciena has achieved a new world record in subsea transmission while upgrading throughput for cloud and AI infrastructure platforms Meta and Lightstorm. In a trial involving the transpacific Bifrost Cable System, which spans approximately 16,608 kilometres from Singapore to California, Ciena delivered an unregenerated single-carrier speed of 800 Gbps on a single wavelength using its WaveLogic 6 Extreme (WL6e) coherent optics technology. This achievement marks the first time such high capacity was attained on a submarine cable and resulted in a total fibre pair capacity of 18 Tbps with excess operating margin, all housed within a Submarine Line Terminal Equipment footprint of 10 rack units. Ciena stated that this milestone underscores the capability of its WL6e technology to perform reliably across demanding routes while reducing watts/bit by 50% compared to previous generations of coherent modems, delivering high-performance connectivity essential for terrestrial and subsea networks spanning continents. Concurrently, Ciena’s optical technology was utilized by Lightstorm to quadruple the client service capacity of its Japan-Guam-Australia (JGA) submarine cable system, enabling next-generation cloud and AI connectivity between Japan and Australia with support for 400Gbps services. This upgrade represents a significant efficiency gain, moving from 100Gbps to 400Gbps client traffic between two major datacentre hubs, which improves scalability and economics for customers supporting hyperscale cloud services, AI training, inference workloads, and latency-sensitive applications. Lightstorm noted that the JGA system provides a compelling alternative to traditional Asia-Pacific routes transiting the South China Sea, offering improved end-to-end latency between Tokyo and Sydney along with enhanced operational and geopolitical diversity for global carriers and large enterprises. These developments highlight the surging demand for internet and digital capacity driven by artificial intelligence, new cloud services, and emerging technologies, positioning subsea cables as the backbone of the AI era. Brian Lavallée, senior director at Ciena, described the achievement as more than a technical record but a glimpse into the future where submarine infrastructure supports the vast datasets needed for AI training and global cloud services. Additionally, Ciena emphasized that these power and space-efficient advancements support environmental, social, and governance goals by lowering power consumption and reducing carbon footprints, directly aligning with partners like Meta's net-zero objectives. The upgraded JGA system is already supporting large-scale multi-terabit deployments for a leading global cloud platform, validating its readiness for the most demanding hyperscale workloads operating across distributed compute and data ecosystems in the Asia-Pacific region.