Vocus has announced the upgrade of its Melbourne to Adelaide cable route to 800Gbps, attributing the decision to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and the growth of cloud computing. The upgrade, powered by Ciena optical transponders, enables Vocus to deliver services of up to 400Gbps to its customers, with plans for a future upgrade to 1.6Tbps on the same route.
Jarrod Nink, Vocus’ Chief Operating Officer, highlighted the significant compute, storage, and networking requirements driven by AI running in hyperscale cloud environments. As large language models process massive amounts of data and parameters, the demand for bandwidth is predicted to grow substantially.
Vocus also mentioned the increasing transmission requirements driven by strong data center investments, including Microsoft’s upcoming Kemps Creek data center in western Sydney and NEXTDC’s expansion plans in Adelaide, Darwin, Port Hedland, Melbourne, and Sydney.
The upgraded cable route utilizes a dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) system that leverages both the optical C-band (1530–1565nm wavelengths) and L-band (1565 to 1625nm wavelengths). This technology provides twice the capacity compared to systems that utilize the C-band alone.
For cloud providers, this upgrade translates to faster data movement between regions or data centers, meeting the growing demands of AI and cloud computing applications. Vocus continues to invest in enhancing its infrastructure to support the evolving needs of its customers in the digital age.