INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Cabling

In what is believed to be another world first for the longest single span 400GbE services yet achieved on a submarine cable network , Southern Cross in collaboration with Ciena were able to successfully commission and test the services error-free as part of the NEXT commissioning processes , paving the way for the introduction of 400GbE services between Sydney , Auckland and Los Angeles .

The NEXT cable will support Southern Cross ’ continuing mission to enable reliable connectivity between the people and communities of Australia , New Zealand and the Pacific Islands to the rest of the world .

The NEXT cable will provide the first international submarine fiber connections to Tokelau and Kiribati and reinforce Fiji ’ s growing role as a digital hub for the Pacific Islands .

The NEXT cable has taken just over two years to complete during the global pandemic and will become the third route in the Southern Cross network eco-system between Australasia and the USA .

The NEXT system will boost the capacity of the ecosystem by approximately 500 %, to around 100 Terabits / second , effectively more than doubling Australia and New Zealand ’ s direct international connectivity capability to the USA .

To put this in perspective , this would allow the transfer of the half petabyte of data generated from the approximate 7,500

F1 2022 car wind-tunnel model tests in 111 seconds , or just over 300 seconds to transfer the estimated 10 billion photos on Facebook Southern Cross NEXT leverages Ciena ’ s GeoMesh Extreme , powered by WaveLogic 5 Extreme ( WL5e ) coherent optical technology , to seamlessly mesh the new system into the current Southern Cross eco-system network fabric . Ciena ’ s WL5e technology also helps underpin Southern Cross ’ sustainable upgrade path by reducing power costs and inefficiencies by more than 600 % on a per bit basis .

Laurie Miller , CEO of Southern Cross Cable Network , said : “ The Southern Cross NEXT cable system is up and running , and the new technology and capability will support the rising demand for hyperscale bandwidth driven by cloud adoption and digitization along with changing needs of our customers and the industry .

“ As part of our future strategy , not only is NEXT the first of the replacement cables for our existing systems when they retire in 2030 , it also completes a trifecta for us . Southern Cross is currently the provider of the lowest latency routes between Sydney and Auckland , along with Auckland to Los Angeles , and will now add the lowest latency route between Sydney and Los Angeles to our portfolio .

“ Collaborating with Ciena , we are thrilled to continue to offer the latest in subsea technology that will provide enhanced reliability and network connectivity from Los Angeles to Sydney and Auckland , Fiji , Tokelau and Kiribati . Southern Cross and Ciena have a long heritage of working together to push the envelope for what is possible in subsea technology . We are already seeing incredible interest from the market in 400GbE services , and you can expect to see more announcements from us in the near future .” p

64 INTELLIGENTCIO APAC www . intelligentcio . com