Tata Communications Circles The Globe With Low-Latency Network Ideal For Carrier Ethernet Services

CEN Feature (Jun 28 2012) Business Ethernet , Global

1. 

   Tata Communications recently launched a low-latency communications network that circles the globe and is aimed at meeting the cutting edge requirements of the world’s top financial firms. They need the lowest latency possible because they make or lose millions of dollars in trades that take place in only a few milliseconds, says John Hoffman, head of Ethernet product management for Tata.

   The carrier’s award-winning Carrier Ethernet services run on the low-latency multipoint network. The global ring consists of undersea cables that meet at points of presence (POPs) located near the stock exchanges in six cities – New York, Chicago, Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong and London, says Hoffman. Each city on the ring is one of the top ten financial hubs in the world. City-to-city connectivity instead of exchange-to-exchange connectivity enables other businesses that require low-latency connections such as IT and pharmaceutical companies to obtain service, too, he adds.

   Tata plans to add more cities to the ring in the future. The first cities that will be added are located where the carrier already owns low-latency connectivity. Mumbai, in Tata’s home country of India, is likely to be next, says Hoffman.

   Customers can purchase connections beginning as low as 2 Mbps and increase their bandwidth in increments of 2 Mbps up to 100 Mbps. The second tier, from 100 Mbps to 1,000 Mbps, is sold in 50 Mbps increments. The third tier, from 1,000 Mbps to 10,000 Mbps, is sold in 500 Mbps increments. Tata’s undersea cables operate at 10 Gbps, so a 10G connection would require its own wavelength, says Hoffman.

   “We are seeing a lot of demand for 100-Mbps to 500-Mbps connections,” says Hoffman. “Customers typically are buying two times what they need in order to mitigate any potential delay issues.”

   The global network is based on software- and platform-agnostic Provider Backbone Bridging (PBB) technology (IEEE 802.1ah). PBB makes it easier for Tata to provision multipoint Ethernet. It also offers customers added security, scalability and efficiency. This is because it encapsulates an entire Ethernet frame before transporting them it to its destination, he explains.

   Tata has installed an overlay network on the ring to constantly monitor latency. It sends out a frame every second and averages the transit time of each frame to ensure that all the links in the system are operating optimally, he adds. There is no defined speed for each set of cities on the ring as there are six or seven cables that cross the Atlantic and their latency can be up to 6 Msec difference due to the distance of the span.

   “We are not the lowest latency on all routes, but, only Tata Communications offers a multipoint, low-latency service,” says Hoffman.

   Customers typically buy separate routes to back up their connections. This is because a protected service may have the fastest working path, but the protect path is often not the second-fastest route, he adds. In addition to low latency, the Tata-owned network enables the carrier’s customers to enjoy 35% lower cost than they would have to spend putting the links together themselves with other providers, says Hoffman. 

   Bookmark or Share this article

Recent Comments

Login to comment