Ciena to upgrade Japan-US Cable trans-Pacific network with 100G

Ciena Corp. (NASDAQ: CIEN) says the Japan-US Cable consortium is upgrading its trans-Pacific submarine network, which spans nearly 23,000 km between the US and Japan, with Ciena’s Wavelogic 3 coherent 100G technology.

Expected to be in service in early 2013, the upgraded network will bring 5 Tbps of additional capacity to a crucial global network route connecting North America and northern Asia. As the first direct coast-to-coast 100G trans-Pacific submarine network, this will allow Japan-U.S. Cable customers to enjoy the benefits of increased bandwidth and support rapidly increasing capacity demands.

[UPDATED] The Japan-US Cable is made up of more than 35 consortium members, including global service providers such as Verizon, AT&T, CenturyLink, KDDI, NTT, Cable & Wireless Worldwide, and Softbank Telecom.

The Japan-US Cable Network includes two landing stations in California, one in Hawaii, and three in Japan. To provide the 100G service, Ciena’s 6500 packet-optical platform with WaveLogic 3 coherent optical processors will replace existing 10G optical equipment at each landing station.

Ciena says its WaveLogic coherent technology enables unobtrusive 40G/100G upgrades to existing submarine networks with only the addition of new terminal equipment, significantly extending the life of existing cable plants and further lengthening its lifespan. As well as scaling bandwidth and lowering costs, WaveLogic-powered networks can be programmed to respond and adapt to changing requirements for capacity, reach, and latency.

“Previously, equipment and service companies who installed and maintained these cables were the sole source for submarine landing terminal equipment hardware,” said Andrew Schmitt, directing analyst for optical, Infonetics Research. “But now vendors such as Ciena, who have made large investments in advanced coherent technology for a wide range of carrier applications, are disrupting the economics of the submarine networking industry. With their packet-optical technology, they can retrofit existing plants, increasing capacity and extending the life of submarine carriers’ large capital investments. In return, submarine carriers get access to advanced technology and can elicit true competitive bids for networking hardware.”

Ciena says it has now shipped over 14,000 coherent 40G/100G line interfaces shipped to more than 100 customer deployments over land and undersea across the globe, including deployments in eight countries across the Asia Pacific region.

For more information on high-speed transmission systems and suppliers, visit the Lightwave Buyer’s Guide.