Crosslake Fibre's CrossChannel submarine cable between UK and France ready for service

Dec. 7, 2021
The CrossChannel cable network stretches 550 km, 149 km under the English Channel, and provides route diversity from existing systems.

Fiber network services provider Crosslake Fibre says its CrossChannel submarine cable is ready for service (RFS). As its name implies, the 96-pair submarine network links the UK with France.

The CrossChannel cable network stretches 550 km, 149 km under the English Channel, and provides route diversity from existing systems. It offers 2.4 Tbps of capacity between the Equinix LD4 data center in Slough and Interxion PAR3 and Equinix PA7 in Paris. The network features extensions to various points-of-presence in both cities.

CrossFibre says the CrossChannel network leverages Ciena 6500 packet-optical transport system to offer high capacity and less than 5.5-ms round trip delay (RTD). The service provider also will use Ciena's Manage, Control and Plan (MCP) management platform with Liquid Spectrum's Channel Margin Gauge app to allocate and scale capacity in real time, from 600 Gbps to 800 Gbps. CrossFibre also will offer dark fiber services.

"The CrossChannel system will provide critical internet backbone infrastructure across the English Channel for decades to come," states Mike Cunningham, CEO of Crosslake Fibre. "We are excited to launch the CrossChannel system, which is the culmination of years of development and incredible effort by the Crosslake Fibre team and its many suppliers."

In addition to CrossChannel Crosslake Fibre also operates a route between Toronto and New York that cross Lake Ontario (see “Crosslake Fibre fiber-optic network from Toronto to New York enters service”).

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About the Author

Stephen Hardy | Editorial Director and Associate Publisher, Lightwave

Stephen Hardy is editorial director and associate publisher of Lightwave and Broadband Technology Report, part of the Lighting & Technology Group at Endeavor Business Media. Stephen is responsible for establishing and executing editorial strategy across the both brands’ websites, email newsletters, events, and other information products. He has covered the fiber-optics space for more than 20 years, and communications and technology for more than 35 years. During his tenure, Lightwave has received awards from Folio: and the American Society of Business Press Editors (ASBPE) for editorial excellence. Prior to joining Lightwave in 1997, Stephen worked for Telecommunications magazine and the Journal of Electronic Defense.

Stephen has moderated panels at numerous events, including the Optica Executive Forum, ECOC, and SCTE Cable-Tec Expo. He also is program director for the Lightwave Innovation Reviews and the Diamond Technology Reviews.

He has written numerous articles in all aspects of optical communications and fiber-optic networks, including fiber to the home (FTTH), PON, optical components, DWDM, fiber cables, packet optical transport, optical transceivers, lasers, fiber optic testing, and more.

You can connect with Stephen on LinkedIn as well as Twitter.

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