Lightstorm, a leading cloud and AI network infrastructure platform delivering high-performance terrestrial and subsea connectivity across Asia-Pacific, today announced the successful quadrupling of client service capacity of its Japan–Guam–Australia (JGA) submarine cable system. Powered by Ciena’s WaveLogic coherent optical technology, the upgrade significantly increases capacity and performance across the JGA route. This enables scalable, ultra-low-latency connectivity between Japan and Australia, while providing improved Pacific network resiliency.
JGA is the newest, low-latency subsea cable system connecting Tokyo to Sydney, delivering an advanced Pacific route optimized for cloud, AI, and data-intensive workloads.
Enabling Cloud and AI-Driven Growth
The move from 100Gbps to 400Gbps client traffic between two major data centre hubs represents a significant increase in efficiency, scalability, and economics for customers supporting hyperscale cloud services, AI training and inference workloads, content distribution, and latency-sensitive enterprise applications.
By increasing fiber-pair efficiency and lowering cost-per-bit, the JGA cable upgrade allows Lightstorm to rapidly scale capacity, while maintaining high levels of network performance, resilience, and route diversity. These capabilities are increasingly critical as cloud and AI workloads drive sustained, multi-terabit demand between major Asia-Pacific compute regions.
The upgraded JGA system is already supporting large-scale, multi-terabit deployments for a leading global cloud platform, carrying production traffic between Japan and Australia. These deployments leverage JGA’s ultra-low latency, high availability, and rapid scalability, validating the system’s readiness for the most demanding cloud and AI use cases operating at hyperscale.
JGA provides a compelling alternative to traditional Asia-Pacific routes that transit the South China Sea, offering improved end-to-end latency between Tokyo and Sydney, along with enhanced operational and geopolitical diversity for global carriers, cloud service providers, and large enterprises.
Collaboration with Ciena
Lightstorm worked closely with Ciena Services to deploy Ciena’s industry-leading coherent optics across the JGA system. Lightstorm is also leveraging Ciena’s Navigator Network Control Suite for consistent, end-to-end management of its network, to drive operational efficiencies, and ensure high spectral efficiency, long-haul performance, and seamless scalability.
“Upgrading JGA to 400Gbps client traffic is a major milestone to us delivering AI-ready, cloud-optimized connectivity across the Pacific,” said Amajit Gupta, Group CEO and MD. “As the newest and lowest-latency cable between Tokyo and Sydney, JGA provides a powerful foundation to support cloud and AI architectures. Ciena’s technology enables us to unlock greater capacity from our subsea assets while delivering greater performance and reliability.”
“Subsea operators like Lightstorm require scalable, high-performance optical solutions to meet surging cloud and AI bandwidth demands,” said Amit Malik, Vice President and General Manager, Asia Pacific, Japan and India, Ciena. “With WaveLogic coherent optics, Lightstorm is transforming JGA into a platform capable of delivering 400G services today and seamlessly scale to 800G services in the near future.”
About JGA Cable System
The Japan–Guam–Australia (JGA) submarine cable system delivers a highly diverse, ultra-low-latency path between Tokyo and Sydney, with intermediate Pacific landing points supporting resilient, flexible routing. With the introduction of 400Gbps clients, JGA supports next-generation network architectures designed for hyperscale cloud platforms, AI workloads, and global enterprise connectivity.
About Lightstorm
Lightstorm is a digital infrastructure platform delivering high-capacity terrestrial fiber and subsea connectivity across Asia-Pacific. Designed to power the next generation of AI, cloud, and hyperscale workloads, Lightstorm’s network enables deterministic, low-latency, and high-throughput connectivity across distributed compute and data ecosystems. With assets spanning India, Southeast Asia, and strategic international submarine routes, Lightstorm provides a resilient, scalable, and programmable connectivity fabric enabling AI, cloud, content, carrier, and enterprise customers to scale globally with predictable performance and agility. For more information on our offerings, visit https://www.lightstorm.net/
About Ciena
Ciena is the global leader in high-speed connectivity. We build the world’s most advanced networks to support exponential growth in bandwidth demand. By harnessing the power of our networking systems, interconnects, automation software, and services, Ciena revolutionizes data transmission and network management. With unparalleled expertise and innovation, we empower our customers, partners, and communities to thrive in the AI era. For updates on Ciena, follow us on LinkedIn, or visit the Ciena Insights webpage and Ciena website.
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