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International Data Connectivity in Iceland a White Paper

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International Data Connectivity in Iceland a White Paper International Data Connectivity in Iceland A White Paper 1 DATA CONNECTIVITY WHITE PAPER REPORT 2016 Iceland as a prime location for data centers The data connectivity aspect Since obtaining the first international data connec- This paper also focuses on backhaul quality, and shows tion in 1906, Iceland has come a long way as a prime data connectivity possibilities in Iceland. The paper location for data centers. Fast forward to 2015, and concludes with an overview of the different services connectivity coupled with a competitive environment and data connectivity solutions that providers offer for data center businesses are now important reasons the data center industry in Iceland. why Iceland is one of the highest ranked countries worldwide when it comes to digital competitiveness1. The Fiber Network Great connectivity is also a key reason that Cushman Some of the most important reasons why businesses & Wakefield ranked Iceland the safest location for choose Iceland for their data center needs is a globally data centers in their 2016 Data Center Risk Index2. competitive TCO, security of power supply and minimal data connectivity risk. One of the most important factors that characterizes favorable data center locations worldwide is the The fiber network consists of reliable backhaul in quality of onshore and offshore fiber infrastructure Iceland and a redundant submarine cable network and competitiveness of telecommunication service that delivers data securely and efficiently across the providers. These factors minimize risk for data center Atlantic, between the US, Europe, and Iceland. businesses and provide opportunities for companies to optimize operations and expand them into the future. Submarine Cables Data center connectivity from Iceland to the rest of the world is provided by undersea transatlantic cables, one Competitive Connectivity between Iceland and Greenland, which then links to in Iceland North America, another, called FARICE-1, that links Iceland to the U.K., and a third, DANICE, that runs • Redundant between Iceland and Denmark [Figure 1]. • Reliable The submarine cable connectivity into Iceland utilizes • Fast the most modern technology which ensures future-proof • Multiple service providers capacity and performance. In 2014, new terminal equipment introduced coherent Iceland offers a solid fiber network in terms of 100G wavelength and flex grid technology bringing redundancy and reliability where a number of service the capacity of FARICE-1 to 11 Terabits/s and DANICE providers, such as Level 3, compete with services to 34.4 Terabits/s. to optimize operating conditions of data centers in Iceland. Top-tier international connectivity solu- The latter is the equivalent of 3.400 10G circuits which tions include WDM, SDH to Ethernet, and a suite of is vast capacity and has brought the total capacity on managed services. Iceland´s submarine network to 62 Terabits/s, securing Iceland´s capability to supply connectivity demand in This document serves the purpose of introducing the coming years [table 1]. Iceland´s data connectivity. It briefly describes the fiber network, information about redundancy and reliability of the submarine cable infrastructure and presents latency figures between Iceland and other international networks. 1 World Economic Forum: Competitiveness Index (GCI), http://reports.weforum.org/global- competitiveness-report-2014-2015/economies/#indexId=GCI&economy=ISL 2 http://www.cushmanwakefield.com/en/research-and-insight/2016/data-centre-risk-index-2016/ 2 Figure 1. Domestic fiber network and submarine cable landing sites FARICE-1 POP POP POP POP GREENLAND C. DANICE Table 1. Iceland submarine cables and respective capacities high performance computing, cloud services, content providers, and government services. Submarine cables Capacity 2016 A combination of factors have allowed network owners FARICE-1 11 Terabits/s in Iceland to reach 100% uptime for the submarine data network where network design and maintenance are DANICE 34.4 Terabits/s without compromise with the highest level of security and redundancy in mind, supported by a strong leg- Greenland C. 17.2 Terabits/s islative regime. The cable protection zone is 1 km and the submarine cables are monitored closer to land on A Reliable Network a continuous basis with radar and an automatic sur- Iceland submarine cable network is built to the strin- veillance system. gent quality requirements of international data centers, 3 DATA CONNECTIVITY WHITE PAPER REPORT 2016 Proximity to Europe and US The Farice network Iceland is located between Europe and North America. The Farice network is the main data network that con- Iceland as a data center location offers competitive data nects Iceland with Europe. Farice is an Icelandic data connections to main hubs on each side of the Atlantic connectivity service provider. The submarine section provided by the telecommunication companies listed of the network consists of two cables: FARICE-1 and in Figure 1a. Figure 2 shows latency figures for selected DANICE [Figure 3]. pairs of cities. Here, latency is a one-way measurement; half of a round trip delay (RTT) using 64-byte frames. Figure 1a. Telecommunication service providers in Iceland. Figure 2. Iceland Network Latency Reykjavk Lulea Hamina Copenhagen Hamburg London Poznan Amsterdam Berlin Frankfurt Paris Budapest Halifax Milan Bucharest Marseille New York Glasgow 13.0 ms Frankfurt 17.5 ms Zurich 20.0 ms Milan 22.0 ms ucharest 33.0 ms GlasgowCopenhagen 13.0 ms 14.9 ms FrankfurtAmsterdam 17.5 ms 17.8 ms MunichZurich 20.0 20.5 ms ms MarseilleMilan 22.0 25.0 ms ms HalifaxBucharest 33.7 33.0ms ms CopenhagenHamburg 14.9 15.1 msms AmsterdamLondon 18.9 17.8 ms ms WarsawMunich 20.5 21.6 ms ms PragMarseille 25.0 25.0 ms ms NewHalifax ork 33.7 40.6 ms ms Hamburgerlin 15.117.4 msms LondonPonan 18.9 19.6 ms ms ParisWarsaw 21.8 21.6 ms ms udapestPrag 25.0 ms26.0 ms New York 40.6 ms Berlin 17.4 ms Poznan 19.6 ms Paris 21.8 ms Budapest 26.0 ms Comparison Amsterdam London New York Halifax Comparison Amsterdam London New York Halifax Hamina 14. ms 18.3 ms 51. ms 48. ms Hamina 14.8 ms 18.3 ms 51.3 ms 48.7 ms Lulea 16.0 ms 18.7 ms 52.5 ms 491 ms LuleaReykjavk 16.017.9 ms ms 18.918.7 msms 40.652.5 ms ms 33.749.1 ms ms Reykjavík 17.9 ms 18.9 ms 40.6 ms 33.7 ms 4 Figure 3. Connectivity from Iceland to Europe DANICE is a four fiber pair, 2,304 km cable in use since 2009. The cable connects Blaaberg in Denmark with Landeyjasandur in Iceland. The DANICE cable comes ashore on the south side of Iceland, through a purpose eykavk FAICE-1 built landing station whereas FARICE-1 connects Iceland Keflavík from the east side of the country. DANICE Torshavn Farice offers, in collaboration with Tele Greenland, high capacity transatlantic network services between Scandinavia and Germany to the US (Boston) or Canada Copenhagen (Halifax and Montreal). Hamburg London Frankfurt Amsterdam Terrestrial routes The Greenland Connect submarine cable is operated by TELE Greenland and connects Canada, Greenland, and Iceland [Figure 4]. The cable contains two fiber pairs Submarine cables with a maximum lit capacity of 17,2 Tb/s. The cable FARICE-1 is a 1,205 km submarine cable that connects has landing points at Milton, Trinity Bay, Newfound- Dunnet Bay in Scotland with Seydisfjordur in the East land and Labrador, Canada, Nuuk in Greenland, and of Iceland, with optional branching to Faroe Islands. Landeyjarsandur in the South of Iceland. The cable has been in operation since 2004. Figure 4. Iceland’s International submarine cable connectivity Seydisfjordur Landeyjasandur Nuuk Faroe Islands Dunnet Bay Blaaberg Newfoundland and Labrador FARICE-1 DANICE GREENLAND C. 5 DATA CONNECTIVITY WHITE PAPER REPORT 2016 The Greenland Connect cable is co-located with the WDM is a technology that makes it possible to divide a DANICE cable in Iceland and the Trans Gulf submarine fiber pair into about 80 independent circuits that can cable in Newfoundland. Together these cables inter- each deliver up to 100 Gb/s and each wave is accessed connect the networks of major carriers in Europe and via a standard optical Ethernet or OUT interface. With North America. WDM, separation occurs of the data streams in a fiber by assigning data streams to specific wavelengths. By Connectivity services the means of WDM, executive waves in the fiber can Most existing data centers in Iceland are ON-Net, be allocated to clients, separate from other waves on meaning directly connected to the Farice network. the cable. From a security standpoint, data streams Extensions to new data centers and other locations can on individual carrier waves of light are virtually im- be provided by at least three different competing service possible to break into. providers in Iceland with WDM, SDH and Ethernet services as well as dark fiber solutions. Figure 5 shows an example of a data center customer located at a Keflavík Airport facility that has require- WDM ments for 20G services with a backup of 20G routes. The high-speed circuit of the Icelandic data fiber net- The delivery abroad is in Amsterdam (Telecity II) and work allows for access to WDM (wavelength-division London (Telehouse East). The figure then shows A & multiplexing) services for high capacity, high quality B services to London with diversity on the terrestrial and a high degree of security. part and B & C services to Amsterdam with diversity on the terrestrial part. The Keflavik Airport area in this case offers two diverse paths from the area. Figure 5. Iceland – Europe network map showing service set-up from KEF POP MULI LON REK CS DB BRE KEF AMS Keflavík Airport CS BB CS = cable station TC2 = Telecity II Route for service A Route for service C DB = Dunnet Bay Scotland BB = Baaberg DK BRE = Breiðholt TH-E = Telehouse East Route for service B Route for service D 6 The south coast route reaches the submarine cable ETHERNET in about 150 km.
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