Cable & Wireless announced Wednesday its completion of the second phase of construction on its $3.5 billion global IP network.
When finished in the summer or fall of 2001, the network will be the world’s first true single global network, according to Chad Couser, Cable & Wireless spokesperson.
“We’ve taken our U.S. network and built it out to create a single global network,” Couser said. “And unlike our competition’s, which is made up of a patchwork of different networks, we’ll be able to offer our customers one global service level agreement throughout the world.”
Now, instead of hopping from one network to the other, customers can access content on C&W’s one network, cutting down on latency issues. When completed, officials say, data traffic between Toyko and London will travel on the network at the same speeds and consistency as traffic between Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
When completed, the network will be made up of 84 nodes throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia. Capacity will be a whopping OC-192 throughout, connecting the U.S. to Europe to Asia to the U.S.
Europe and the U.S. are scheduled to connect another 30 nodes in the third phase. In Asia, the network will connect with Japan’s node in Osaka and another four undetermined nodes. C&W is also scheduled to add Points of Presense to 80 cities throughout Japan.
Andy MacLeod, C&W global network operations executive vice president, said the mesh architecture, combined with its global network, creates a unique business solution.
“This infrastructure gives Cable & Wireless a unique global capability,” MacLeod said. “Its seamless design — the only one in the industry — enables us to deliver our customers’ data quickly and reliably throughout the world and provide the capability for next-generation IP services, with guaranteed service levels.”
Cable & Wireless is one of the first global backbone companies to use the mesh network architecture, considered the evolution of the SONET-ring architecture used in many current networks.
Instead of traveling in a linear fashion, as in a SONET-ring, data is transmitted on a mesh network through the fastest node available. The completion of the second phase gives C&W 23 nodes throughout the U.S., 12 in Europe and two in Asia.
