The news follows the previously reached milestone in which Telstra leveraged Infinera’s ICE6 800G coherent technology on its GX Series Compact Modular Platform over its 2,940km dispersion-managed subsea cable between Hong Kong and Singapore.
Using Infinera’s ICE6 solution, Telstra can achieve a 45% increase in capacity over previous-generation technology and 20 times the original design capacity of the cable.
“Telstra designed and deployed its dispersion-managed cable, EAC-2A1, long before coherent transmission was developed. The success of our ICE6 trial illustrates that we can successfully upgrade our existing cable systems to meet growing bandwidth demands,” said David Robertson (pictured), executive international networks & it at Telstra.
“This success was the driving force behind selecting ICE6. With Infinera’s 800G solution, we can significantly increase capacity on all segments of our network across our new modern and legacy cables globally. Building new cables is expensive so getting the most out of them using the latest technology means we can meet our customers’ ever-increasing capacity and resilience needs at the right price point.”
As bandwidth demand continues to rise, there is more pressure on older subsea cables, potentially shortening their economic lifespan, despite being designed for a 25-year operational life. At the same time, network operators like Telstra are tasked with scaling and delivering capacity in the Asia-Pacific region, one of the fastest growing regions for subsea network capacity.
Using Infinera’s ICE6 solution, network providers are equipped to get the most out of their dispersion-managed subsea cables with the unique features of highly granular baud rate configuration, long-codeword probabilistic constellation shaping (LC-PCS), and Nyquist subcarriers, which according to the company, "Infinera has a five-year implementation lead".
“The success of this trial with Telstra and its decision to deploy ICE6 emphasize the innovative technology, capability, and value of ICE6, which demonstrated its ability to deliver scalable capacity across a challenging legacy cable,” added Nick Walden, senior vice president of worldwide sales at Infinera.
“As subsea operators look to protect their subsea network infrastructure investment, deploying proven solutions that quickly and cost-effectively enable accelerated service turn-up will be critical to meet increasing customer demands.
