This new fiber-optic terrestrial cable system will enhance regional and international connectivity in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
Spanning over 1,400km in length, KNOT will deliver a capacity of 12.8Tbps and with low latency connectivity to the MENA region.
Also, due to the cable being carried over an optical ground wire associated with a regional high-tension electricity network (GCCIA), it provides added resiliency and reduced risk of cable cuts.
“Kalaam chose to invest in this multi-million-dollar network expansion project to sustain the ever-growing demand for data connectivity and business applications to and from the MENA region,” said Veer Passi, group CEO of Kalaam and Tawasul Telecom.
“This new state-of-the-art, upgradeable optical transport network is fully owned and operated by Kalaam Telecom Group.”
The KNOT cable system is powered by Ciena’s 6500 packet-optical platform equipped with WaveLogic coherent technology, to offer flexible bandwidth capacities.
Additionally, the whole infrastructure is managed by the micro-services based Manage, Control and Plan SDN domain controller using open APIs, to provide 10G, 100G, 200G services and beyond over an Optical Transport Network .
“With the launch of KNOT, an open cable system, Kalaam will continue its legacy of being an innovative & disruptive solution provider, which aims to make connectivity in the MENA region more competitive,” added Passi.
“This will provide a highly scalable alternative to carriers, CDNs, OTTs, cloud providers, data centers and enterprises to benefit from innovative solutions and enhanced communications experience.”
The new cable system provides route diversity across the Middle East by connecting Kalaam’s meshed transmission network across 12 countries, homing 16 points of presence (PoP) and further connecting the MENA region as a gateway through its PoPs in Europe and Asia.
The cable has a tentative RSF date of Q4 2020.
