Southern Cross offers 400GbE services on NEXT submarine cable
Southern Cross Cables Ltd. says it now offers commercial 400 Gigabit Ethernet (400GbE) services on its new Southern Cross NEXT submarine cable. The availability comes after successful 400GbE tests this past July on the NEXT system, which connects Australia, New Zealand, and the United States (see “Southern Cross NEXT ready for service, demonstrates 400GbE readiness”). The services are available via Southern Cross and through its participating resale channel partners.
The offering is Australasia’s first international 400GbE service and the longest such single-system data-center-to-data-center service worldwide, Southern Cross believes. “With the Southern Cross NEXT cable system, the new technology and capability has been designed to support the rising demand for bandwidth driven by cloud adoption and digitization. We are now thrilled to be able to offer 400GbE Layer 1 services as the first of several planned innovations taking advantage of the Southern Cross eco-system, and the new NEXT cable,” commented Laurie Miller, CEO of Southern Cross.
“The availability of 400GbE services will allow customers hyperscale low-latency connectivity directly between data centers in Sydney and Los Angeles, and with a new Auckland DC PoP due for implementation in 2023,” Miller continued. “Demand for 100G+ high-capacity links has been booming in recent years, particularly for data-center-to-data-center GCN connectivity, where extremely large and resilient volumes of data are required to traverse core network infrastructure for data replication, data storage connectivity, and disaster recovery – an application where the Southern Cross multi-path ecosystem excels.”
Southern Cross NEXT leverages Ciena’s WaveLogic 5 Extreme-enabled 6500 Packet-Optical Platform (see "Southern Cross to use Ciena GeoMesh Extreme on NEXT submarine cable system"). The submarine cable system operator also uses Ciena’s Manage, Control and Plan (MCP) domain controller for network management. Ciena’s 5400 and 8700 platforms also are part of the Southern Cross communications ecosystem.
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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.
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