SEPTEMBER 2, 2009 -- Infinera has launched a Submarine Line Module (SLM) for its DTN platform to address undersea network applications. The SLM is designed to provide enhanced capacity, new services, and rapid speed of deployment.
DTNs with the SLM, which is designed to enable the DTN to operate as a land-based submarine line terminal equipment (SLTE) platform, are already shipping to customers and carrying live traffic today for Global Crossing, Infinera says.
The Infinera SLM is designed to offer submarine network operators a highly cost-effective way to protect their investment in their subsea infrastructure while adding new capacity to the network and taking advantage of other features of Infinera’s Digital Optical Networks architecture. For example, Infinera says its SLM-enabled platform enables carriers to double the number of wavelengths typically found on subsea networks while enjoying greater speed of deployment, ease of operation, and flexibility. The SLM provides 100 Gbps of DWDM capacity on every line card. With up to 16 SLM modules multiplexed onto a single fiber, the Infinera submarine offering can provide up to 160 wavelengths on existing submarine optical networks.
The ability to use one optical platform for their subsea networks and their terrestrial networks, which enables network operators to deploy an end-to-end network with significant savings in capital and operating cost and simplified operation, the company further asserts.
The SLM takes advantage of new technology Infinera developed for submarine applications. Infinera’s large-scale photonic integrated circuits (PICs) have been enhanced with the addition of semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) to provide trans-oceanic optical reach. In addition, Infinera developed a single-card optical dispersion compensation approach that obviates the need for multiple dispersion compensating fibers.
Pan-American deployment with Global Crossing
Infinera says its news submarine offering has already been deployed by global carriers including Global Crossing, for a total of almost 50,000 subsea route-km. Infinera asserts it won these large contracts despite intense competition from a number of international vendors of submarine networking systems.
Global Crossing has deployed Infinera’s new equipment on its Mid-Atlantic Crossing (MAC) and its South American Crossing (SAC) networks, for a total of 26,000 route-km. Global Crossing chose Infinera to achieve increased capacity on its submarine routes without the need to deploy a completely new subsea network.
Global Crossing deployed an Infinera equipment in its terrestrial network in 2006.
“We are pleased with our new Infinera subsea network. It extends the reach of our existing highly reliable terrestrial digital optical architecture over Global Crossing subsea facilities enabling single key stroke optical network provisioning end to end to on-net cities between continents. The world just got a little smaller,” said Jim Watts vice president of transport engineering of Global Crossing.