Southern Cross Cable Network, which connects Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii, completed its latest upgrade adding 900 Gbps to all segments of the network, bringing total Network lit capacity to 5.8Tbs. In addition, Southern Cross Cable Network has deployed the Ciena 8700 Packetwave packet switching platform, augmenting its existing suite of Carrier Ethernet services.
“While we have augmented our transmission by 900 Gbps per segment, we have also upgraded our key Ciena 5430 nodes to 15 Tbps OTN switching capability, a first for the region and a world first for a submarine cable operator as far as we are aware. Southern Cross’ key switching nodes are now capable of switching over 100 times Southern Cross’ original segment capacity,” stated Anthony Briscoe, president & CEO of Southern Cross.
“Our latest expansion has also deployed Ciena’s 200Gbs per wavelength technology across our Hawaiian inter-Island network in another world first in technology activation, as well as continuing to leverage Ciena’s flexible grid, GeoMesh and 8D-2QAM technologies to maximise capacity and resiliency within our Network while ensuring operational simplicity, scalability and evolution toward software defined networking (SDN).“
“The introduction of Ciena’s 8700 with integrated coherent 100G WaveLogic3 line modules for this market application is yet another world first achieved by Southern Cross. Southern Cross remains critically focused on product and service innovation to continue to enhance its existing product suites to satisfy changing customer and industry demands. The deployment of Ciena’s 8700 platform allows us to provide a seamless MEF CE2.0 compliant Carrier Ethernet packet offering from 1Gbs all the way through to 100Gbs.”
The Southern Cross Cable Network is owned by Spark NZ (50%), Singtel-Optus (40%) and Verizon Business (10%).
