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EllaLink & EMACOM launch the “EllaLink GeoLab” SMART submarine cable initiative

Seismology, volcanology, marine ecology, and oceanic conditions are key to understanding the future of our planet. EllaLink is proud to contribute to such understanding by launching the EllaLink GeoLab initiative which aims to provide the scientific community with real-time, accurate and relevant data on seabed conditions. This initiative will be the first dedicated facility of its kind as part of a telecoms submarine cable.

The EllaLink GeoLab infrastructure will be provided by EllaLink in cooperation with EMACOM. Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) Technology will be used on cable a dedicated fibre in the Madeira Branch of the EllaLink System. It will collect data along the route which will be optically transmitted back to the shore, independently and without impacting either telecoms traffic or the design life of the cable, making EllaLink in to the first system to integrate SMART cable concepts.

The Research and Education (R&E) community in Europe will enjoy access to the data generated by the EllaLink GeoLab initiative. For this, EllaLink is collaborating with GÉANT and the Portuguese NREN, FCT, both members of the BELLA Consortium, who will use EllaLink cable to support R&E collaborations between Europe and Latin America.