PCCW Global partners with Ciena for submarine cable upgrade

HONG KONG & LINTHICUM, USA: PCCW Global, an operating division of HKT, Hong Kong’s premier telecom provider, network specialist, Ciena Corp. announced an upgrade to the carrier’s subsea network with Ciena’s industry-leading WaveLogic coherent optical 100G networking solutions.

This upgrade will significantly increase the capacity beyond the original design of PCCW Global’s North Asia subsea routes, which span approximately 9,800 kilometers to connect Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan. This will help PCCW Global meet growing demand from its wholesale and retail customers for high-bandwidth services and applications such as Internet, video and cloud computing, and better serve the many countries that it interconnects globally.

Following a rigorous selection procedure, PCCW Global will deploy Ciena platforms equipped with 100G submarine-cable-grade coherent line interfaces, which are designed to significantly and cost-effectively increase submarine cable network capacity without disrupting existing customer traffic or adding cost or complexity to the network.

Using Ciena’s WaveLogic coherent optical 100G networking processors, PCCW Global will light a ring of dark fibers on the RNAL Cable System so that it can support significantly more than its original design capacity. The network will deliver path-resilient cable capacity and interconnectivity with other regional and transpacific submarine cable systems terminating in or transiting through the most popular Asian traffic hubs in Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.

In addition to the existing network monitoring system, Ciena’s intelligent submarine network solution will allow PCCW Global to actively monitor the health and performance of its existing wet plant, including optical repeaters from third-party vendors, while continuously optimizing traffic-carrying signals in real time to ensure optimal transmission performance is achieved. The Ciena Specialist Services team will work closely with PCCW Global for accurate and timely completion of the design and implementation of the cable capacity upgrade.

Marc Halbfinger, CEO, PCCW Global, said: “With this deployment, we are pleased to be the Asia-based early adopter in deploying coherent 100G technology on a submarine cable system. The network expansion will significantly enhance the capacity of our network, allowing us to better serve our customers and support the delivery of high-performance data networking services and traffic growth driven by smartphones, high definition video, and sophisticated enterprise connectivity applications such as cloud computing.”

Philippe Morin, senior VP, Global Field Organization, Ciena, added: “Ciena’s technology provides resilience in the world’s most demanding networks and enables the most cost-effective undersea capacity upgrades without having to install new undersea cables. Bringing this technology innovation in coherent optical processing to PCCW Global’s network will boost capacity and improve performance to maintain competitive advantage in the marketplace.”