Southern Cross Solidifies 800G Path with Ciena’s WaveLogic 6
By Sean Buckley, Lightwave Online
January 23, 2024
Southern Cross, a Trans-Pacific submarine cable network provider, plans to incorporate Ciena’s WaveLogic 6 Extreme (WL6e) technology as a vital part of the Southern Cross (SX) NEXT expansion plans from Sydney to Los Angeles.
Using Ciena’s WL6e technology in NEXT will enable the submarine cable provider to implement 800 Gbps wavelengths across the single 12,500+km span, allowing it to support new offerings like its recently launched 400 GbE services.
Ciena’s WL6e integrates coherent DSP innovations to provide what it claims is the highest capacity over fiber. WL6e supports 1.6 Tbps single-carrier wavelengths for metro networks, 800 Gbps services across the most extended links, and a 50% reduction in watts per bit. It requires less space compared to the previous generation for similar capacities.
Ciena’s technology enables Southern Cross’s network to respond more quickly to fluctuating and often unforeseen network demands driven by cloud-based services, content, and emerging applications that use artificial intelligence.
“SX NEXT cable is a high-performance system and the first phase of the replacement of the original systems by 2030,” said Laurie Miller, President and CEO of Southern Cross. “Today, we’re once again announcing what is expected to be another networking world first, implementing Ciena WaveLogic 6 on SX NEXT to help us push the envelope in terms of high-speed bandwidth connectivity and energy efficiency.”
