Aqua Comms, a global subsea connectivity services provider, has announced its first live commercial 400 Gbps Ethernet Trans-Atlantic service for Energy Sciences Network (ESnet), a high-performance network that supports scientific research, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science and managed by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. ESnet provides services to over 50 Department of Energy research sites, including supercomputing facilities, major scientific instruments, and the entire National Laboratory system.

Aqua Comms’ 400GE circuit replaces the existing 100GE circuit on the New York-London route in ESnet’s network. The upgraded circuit increases the aggregate Trans-Atlantic bandwidth from 400 Gbps to 700 Gbps. The network uses Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme submarine network solution, powered by WaveLogic 5 Extreme coherent optics and Manage, Control and Plan (MCP) advanced software capabilities, to support ever-growing connectivity and bandwidth needs.

Jon-Paul Herron, ESnet’s Department Head of Network Services, said, “ESnet is actively preparing the network to meet the flood of data coming from all of our upcoming science needs, including the high-luminosity upgrades of CERN’s Large Hadron Collider as well as the related CERN Data Challenge ’24 (DC24) during the first quarter of next year.”

Chris Bayly, Chief Commercial Officer at Aqua Comms, said, “As super computing requirements continue to grow, we envisage 400Gb/s and the transition to spectrum services being more widely consumed by organisations such as ESnet to help accommodate an almost insatiable need for bandwidth.”

Ciena’s Senior Director, Global Submarine Sales, Thomas Soerensen, commented that “400Gb/s capabilities provide a fourfold increase in capacity that’s ideal for high-bandwidth, ‘big science’ applications such as augmented/virtual reality, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence.”

Aqua Comms offers managed capacity services, spectrum, and dark fiber to the global content, cloud, and carrier markets. In April 2021, Aqua Comms DAC was acquired by Digital 9 Infrastructure plc (D9), an LSE listed investment trust managed by Triple Point Investment Management LLP.  As of April 1, 2023, Aqua Comms’ new CEO, which was announced in December 2022 is Jim Fagan,