Understand how the submarine cable between Brazil and Portugal could change your internet. technology

Internet operators as well as streaming, cloud and financial services, such as banks and stock exchanges, will benefit from the user structure once they have achieved a share of the traffic capacity. The cable will also be used by research institutes and corporate networks.

In short, the new cable brings two improvements:

• High speed and low latency, which is the time taken for information to travel from one point to another. This is useful for services that have heavy data traffic and require short response times, such as online gaming and live streams.
• Security: The direct connection between Brazil and Portugal minimizes the risk, as the data does not need to go through devices from other countries, such as the United States.

Together about 6 thousand kilometers, Alalink leaves Fortaleza, where information is also sent from So Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. It is also related to French Guiana.

From the capital of Serra, the cable leads to the city of Signes in Portugal, which, in turn, is connected by terrestrial cables to Lisbon, Madrid, Barcelona and Marseille. In the Atlantic Ocean, it is joined by Cape Verde, Mauritania, and Morocco, as well as the Madeira Islands and the Canary Islands.

high speed, low latency

Designed for a useful life of 25 years, the cable should guarantee greater speeds in communication between continents. It was designed for a traffic capacity of 72 terabits per second (Tbps), according to Allalink, the company that made it. However, a Changes in the final installation phase increased the number to 100 Tbps.

Since 2014, other high-capacity cables similar to Elalink have been installed between South America and North America. However, they are overtaken by the new cable between Brazil and Portugal due to another factor.

Latency of EllaLink, that is, the time taken for information to travel from one point to another less than 60 milliseconds. According to the company, this number represents a 50% drop from the number that is typically registered.

• 5G also stands out for its low latency; See when the technology will arrive in Brazil

The reduction in latency occurs because, until then, high-speed communication between Brazil and Europe relied on cables that previously passed through the United States. Direct routing allows data to reach its destination faster.

The infrastructure manager of IX.br, a project of the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br), Julio Sirota, says that a direct connection between Latin America and Europe can improve the performance of applications that run on intensive data traffic. depend.

“The installation of the new submarine cable should create shorter routes along Europe and consequently with lower latency, allowing for better performance for those who intend to access game and video streaming sources located in Europe”, he said. Explained.

In a statement, the Brazilian government highlighted that ElaLink will improve research and education opportunities in Latin America and Europe. This is because a portion of the cable’s capacity will be allocated to the academic consortium.

Building the Connection to Europe and Latin America (BELLA), as it is known, brings together research institutions from countries in both regions. The hope is that the cable will help researchers access scientific equipment in other countries.

The connection between Latin America and Europe through ElaLink also provides greater security in communication. This is because it would not need an intermediary country like the US to reach its destination.

The underwater cable project was created in 2012, but gained traction years after the revelation of a US espionage scandal.

In 2013, documents leaked by Edward Snowden, a former analyst for the United States National Security Agency (NSA), indicated that The agency had access to e-mails and calls from BraziliansIncluding former President Dilma Rousseff.

According to Sirota, calls passing through the United States pose potential security risks because they have to pass through intermediate equipment in US territory before moving on the rest of the route.

“From a security and privacy point of view, the fewer intermediary points there are, the less chance of unfair action on transferred data,” he said.

Another advantage of cable is what is known as network availability. With an additional route between Latin America and Europe, services can continue to function as normal even if the route through the US is blocked.

Investment for the construction of the submarine cable came from Elalink, which it claims has earmarked 150 million euros ($923 million at current prices). Much of the value was sourced from companies such as the European Union-affiliated European Investment Bank (EIB).

Another amount was allocated by the so called anchor customers. Chief among them are Bela Sangha. The group, formed by research networks in Europe (Géant) and Latin America (RedCLARA), will use part of its traffic capacity in scientific exchange, in addition to the companies Cabo Verde Telecom and Emacon (Ilha da Madeira).

The European Union said it has invested 26.5 million euros (about R$163 million) through the Bella consortium.

The Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), in turn, is reported to have invested 8.9 million euros (R$54.8 million). The investment was made through the National Education and Research Network (RNP), a social organization of the MCTI.

In addition to AlaLink, the Brazilian government is partnering with Argentina, Australia and New Zealand for a . involved in the project of Undersea fiber optic cable connecting South America with Asia and Oceania. Known as Humboldt, the project will cost approximately US$400 million and is expected to be a cable with an initial data transmission capacity of 400Gbps.