Google, in partnership with SubCom, has announced that their privately owned Dunant subsea cable, spanning from Virginia Beach, Virginia to Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez in France, is now operational. Named after Henry Dunant, the first Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of the Red Cross, the Google subsea cable Virginia Beach France project was initially announced in 2018 with an expected launch in 2020. Despite pandemic-related challenges, the nearly 4,000-mile cable, capable of carrying 250 terabits per second, is now functional. This high-capacity cable, featuring 12 fiber pairs and several technical innovations, is set to support the growing demand for cloud services and online content, thereby contributing to the rapid expansion of Google Cloud.
Introduction
From TechCrunch By Frederic Lardinois
Google’s New Subsea Cable
Google, together with its partner SubCom, announced that the company’s privately owned Dunant subsea cable between Virginia Beach, Virginia and Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez on the French Atlantic coast is now operational.
Project Details
Google first announced this project, which was named after the first Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of the Red Cross, Henry Dunant, back in the middle of 2018. At the time it expected the project to go live in 2020, but besides dealing with the complications of spanning a long cable between continents, the project leaders probably didn’t budget for a pandemic at the time.
Technical Specifications
The almost 4,000-mile cable has a total capacity of 250 terabits per second — or enough to transmit the “entire digitized Library of Congress three times every second” (though maybe using Library of Congress data size references is starting to feel a bit antiquated at this point?). Unlike some older cables, Dunant uses 12 fiber pairs, coupled with a number of technical innovations around maximizing its bandwidth, to achieve these numbers.
Quotes from Google
“Google is dedicated to meeting the exploding demand for cloud services and online content that continues unabated,” said Mark Sokol, senior director of Infrastructure, Google Cloud. “With record-breaking capacity and transmission speeds, Dunant will help users access content wherever they may be and supplement one of the busiest routes on the internet to support the growth of Google Cloud. Dunant is a remarkable achievement that would not have been possible without the dedication of both SubCom and Google’s employees, partners, and suppliers, who overcame multiple challenges this year to make this system a reality.”
Future Projects
With Dunant now being operational, the next Google cable to go live will be the Grace Hopper cable between New York and Europe, with landing sites in Bilbao, Spain and Bude, UK. Google first announced this new cable, which it is also building in partnership with SubCom, last July. It’s expected to go online in 2022 and will feature a total of 16 fiber pairs.
In addition, Google is also building the Equiano cable from South Africa to Portugal. This cable is supposed to go online later this year.
Google’s Consortium Partnerships
In addition to its privately owned cables, Google is also a partner in a number of consortiums that band together to build cable systems.
Question & Answer
1. What is the name of the subsea cable project recently announced by Google and SubCom?
Google and SubCom have announced the operational Dunant subsea cable project, spanning from Virginia Beach, Virginia to Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez in France.
2. What is the capacity of the Dunant subsea cable in terms of terabits per second?
The Dunant subsea cable has a total capacity of 250 terabits per second, capable of transmitting vast amounts of data.
3. What technical innovations were incorporated into the Dunant subsea cable project?
The Dunant subsea cable project features 12 fiber pairs and several technical innovations aimed at maximizing its bandwidth and transmission speeds.
4. What are Google’s plans for future subsea cable projects?
Following the completion of the Dunant subsea cable, Google plans to launch the Grace Hopper cable between New York and Europe in 2022, as well as the Equiano cable from South Africa to Portugal later this year.
