The Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) submarine cable consortium has chosen Ciena to upgrade one of the main routes connecting Western Europe with West and South Africa.
As a result, the the 17,000-kilometre cable system links 18 landing stations and will use Ciena’s 6500 platform, powered by WaveLogic 6 Extreme (WL6e), to increase capacity to more than 30 Tb/s.
Rather than replacing the existing infrastructure, Ciena will deploy its WL6e technology over ACE’s current submarine line terminal equipment, adding capacity without having to carry out complicated traffic migrations.
Meanwhile, the company will also support the network with ongoing maintence and upgrades as ACE prepares for further growth in traffic between Africa and Europe.
ACE Management Committee, President, Philippe Recco, said “International routes drive economic growth, digital inclusion, and cloud adoption across Africa, and this upgrade gives regional service providers a high-capacity path that reaches more than 500 million people.
“Ciena’s coherent optical technology and proven Services team give us confidence that we can keep customers connected while meeting expanding bandwidth needs.”
Ciena VP of Global Subsea, Thomas Soerenson, added: “Ciena supports this vital link between Africa and the rest of the world with our subsea deployment expertise and coherent optical innovations.
“Together, we are expanding existing cable infrastructure and developing a long-term technology roadmap for future growth with minimal operational impact.”
Source: https://www.mobileeurope.co.uk/ciena-subsea-africa-europe/
