To address the capacity demands arising in the trans-Pacific region, next-generation communications solutions provider Alcatel-Lucent (News 
- Alert) is carrying out a significant upgrade of its submarine cable system using advanced coherent technology.
The upgrade, which uses Alcatel-Lucent’s submarine technology, is a strategic move to expand the overall capabilities of trans-Pacific communication infrastructures to benefit from a time-to-market advantage, improved performance and better scalability, the company said.
The capacity upgrade of the 9,600km trans-Pacific digital submarine cable system provides direct connectivity from the Japanese east coast to California. The cable network is owned by five major carriers.
The first phase of the upgrade will increase the system capacity by 1 Terabit/s. Recent research by TeleGeography (News - Alert) predicted the trans-Pacific capacity will increase at a compound annual rate of 36 percent between now and 2018.
The upgrade, according to company officials, will deliver the multiterabit capability required to cope with the explosion of data traffic generated by the next-generation applications and mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.
The system was originally designed for an ultimate capacity of 960 Gigabits-per-second (Gbit/s) per fiber pair. With the upgrade, the capacity is expected to quadruple its original design capacity thanks to Alcatel-Lucent’s advanced coherent technology.
The latest coherent technology from Alcatel-Lucent delivers an ultimate capacity of up to 4 Terabits per second (Tbit/s) per fiber pair, which is equivalent to approximately 500,000 HDTV channels simultaneously broadcasting a live major sporting event.
“Carriers, service providers, multimedia and content providers all are expanding their networks to support Internet and data center applications, while protecting their existing investments,” said Philippe Dumont, president of Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks, in a statement. “Alcatel-Lucent’s unique submarine solution delivers ease of upgrade and scalability to multiterabit capacity, offering a staged migration combining technological and economic benefits.”
“This upgrade will allow quicker service turn-up to meet customers’ expectations for anywhere, anytime access to broadband applications, storage and computing,” Dumont added.
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Edited by
Rachel Ramsey
