Local undersea cable company Seacom has successfully trialled a 500Gbps transmission over its newly-built network between KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
The company says this is a global first and was done in partnership with US-based digital optical networking equipment supplier Infinera.
Seacom announced yesterday that the partnership successfully tested five 100Gbps channels of coherent optical transmission, over a distance of 1 732km.
It explains that the 500Gbps trial was run over and looped back across Seacom's newly-built 930km Dark Fibre Africa fibre route, which links the Seacom Mtunzini cable landing station in KwaZulu-Natal to the Teraco data centre in Johannesburg.
Marine expansion
“The live demonstration, news of which has generated huge excitement in the industry, was witnessed by members of the scientific, research and development community at Teraco's data centre, in Johannesburg,” says the company.
Seacom adds that the trial used Infinera's 500Gbps Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs), each of which integrates five 100Gbps coherent channels onto a single chip.
“The PICs were used for both transmitting and receiving the five 100Gbps signals during the trial, the first time the PICs have been used to send and provide real-time coherent processing for all 500Gbps simultaneously on a production network.”
Infinera plans to deliver the 500Gbps PICs as part of a system which integrates 5Tbps OTN switching and 100Gbps coherent optical transmission in early 2012.
“Enabling seamless upgrades from existing 10Gbps networks without having to upgrade the underlying fibre infrastructure, this technology provides Seacom's land-based network in SA with a total capacity of over 8Tbps per fibre, which is an effective 10-fold increase on its current capacity,” says Seacom.
It adds that this is in line with and in support of its plans to expand the marine portion of the cable to over 4.8Tbps.
HD downloads
Fibre-optic transmission technologies have been developing considerably to satisfy demand for large-capacity digital transmission in public telecommunication networks worldwide, says the company.
“At the consumer level, the 500Gbps PIC technology enables the download of 2 400 high-definition Blu-ray movie files in 60 seconds, or supports the streaming of 320 000 simultaneous high-definition video channels over a single fibre pair.”
It adds that at the network level, 100G systems based on PIC technology will have important implications for the economics of future networks.
“Infinera's 500G PICs incorporate more than 600 optical functions on a pair of indium phosphide chips, enabling cost-effective 100Gbps coherent transmission, as well as integrated OTN switching to deliver the digital optical network.
“These capabilities provide an effective means for network operators to scale network capacity, while lowering operational costs, increasing reliability and providing for superior network economics.”
Infinera CEO Tom Fallon says with Internet traffic growing at exponential rates, driven by video, cloud computing, and mobility, the 500G PIC technology is designed to support the required growth in network capacity, while reducing the per-bit cost, space, and power consumption.
Network evolution
Head of product strategy at Seacom Suveer Ramdhani says this achievement is a positive indicator around how SA's industry is changing.
He adds that previous service between Johannesburg and Mtunzini was only offered by Telkom and Broadband Infraco.
“Cape Town is the next move everyone is trying to break the stranglehold on.”
Ramdhani says this achievement is part of Seacom's evolution from a single cable on the East Coast of Africa to a network running through Africa.
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