Brian Lavallée's guest appearances

Brian Lavallée

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In January, the island state Tonga's Internet connection went dark for five weeks. The eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai undersea volcano cut Tonga's only international cable, its main domestic inter-island link.Brian Lavallée, senior director of submarine network solutions for Ciena, joins the podcast to explain why this particular severing of an undersea cable had such an impact on Tonga's network, how satellite connectivity provided a temporary backup for the island state and advancements being made in submarine network services."If you can have both – meaning you have a business case to either get satellite or submarine – you always go with submarine because the sheer magnitude of capacity you can run through a submarine cable is astonishing," said Lavallée. "You'll never get that capacity over a satellite network for the foreseeable future."Here are just a few things covered in this podcast episode:How Tonga's undersea cable was disconnected (1:45)Age and length of Tonga's submarine cable (05:24)New submarine cable technology compared with Tonga's cable (06:23)Fiber capacity of new and existing submarine cables (07:40)How damaged undersea cables are repaired (09:06)How satellite technology compares to undersea access (12:24)The business case for backup submarine cables (15:33)Examples of cable "faults" or disrupted service (17:39)Knocking on the door of the Shannon limit (21:10)Lifespan of submarine cables (24:29)Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In January, the island state Tonga's <a href="https://www.lightreading.com/asia/tonga-faces-a-month-without-internet-in-wake-of-eruption/d/d-id/774683" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Internet connection</a> went dark for five weeks. The eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai undersea volcano cut Tonga's only international cable, its main domestic inter-island link.Brian Lavallée, senior director of submarine network solutions for Ciena, joins the podcast to explain why this particular severing of an undersea cable had such an impact on Tonga's network, how satellite connectivity provided a temporary backup for the island state and advancements being made in submarine network services."If you can have both – meaning you have a business case to either get satellite or submarine – you always go with submarine because the sheer magnitude of capacity you can run through a submarine cable is astonishing," said Lavallée. "You'll never get that capacity over a satellite network for the foreseeable future."Here are just a few things covered in this podcast episode:<ul><li>How Tonga's undersea cable was disconnected (1:45)</li><li>Age and length of Tonga's submarine cable (05:24)</li><li>New submarine cable technology compared with Tonga's cable (06:23)</li><li>Fiber capacity of new and existing submarine cables (07:40)</li><li>How damaged undersea cables are repaired (09:06)</li><li>How satellite technology compares to undersea access (12:24)</li><li>The business case for backup submarine cables (15:33)</li><li>Examples of cable "faults" or disrupted service (17:39)</li><li>Knocking on the door of the Shannon limit (21:10)</li><li>Lifespan of submarine cables (24:29)</li></ul> <a href="https://www.lightreading.com/newsletter_signup.asp?utm_source=referral&amp;utm_medium=Acast&amp;utm_campaign=Podcast_CTA" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter.</a> Hosted on Acast. See <a href="https://acast.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.

Ciena's Brian Lavallée on Tonga's tussle with a broken submarine cable

Nothing demonstrates our dependence on mobile connectivity quite like the long summer vacation from school. How else are parents going to entertain angsty kids on the long trip to grandma's house? U.S. consumers and business users are spending many hours on our mobile phones each day, with that number poised to grow even more. 5G promises step increases in performance that will unleash new applications and services that today's best effort 4G/LTE networks cannot support, but much change needs to happen first. Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) need to carefully consider their 5G wireline infrastructure strategies in order to fully capitalize on the commercial opportunity. Today, we're talking to our own Brian Lavallee about the transformative promise of 5G, the state of 5G globally, and the technology strategies MNOs are taking to get to 5G.