Hibernia and Huawei Complete First 100 Gbps Transatlantic Trial Between Canada and UK

Hibernia Atlantic, the only US owned, diverse transatlantic high bandwidth connectivity provider, Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, and Huawei Marine, a global submarine solutions supplier, announce today they have successfully completed the first 100G transatlantic connection between Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada to Southport, England.

This test was historic in nature; this is the highest capacity connection ever transmitted across the Atlantic Ocean. The success of this trial is allowing the companies to move forward on their aggressive deployment schedule, including 100 Gbps connections between Halifax and Montreal and between Amsterdam and London by Q1 2012, followed by other key routes later in the year.

The trial involved Huawei’s latest 100 Gbps single wavelength coherent technology. This Optical Interoperability Forum (OIF) standards compliant technology utilizes innovative Digital Signal Processing (DSP) algorithms and next generation Forward Error Correction (FEC) enabling high capacity transport across transatlantic distances. In addition to performing across distances greater than 5,000 km, the trial has successfully demonstrated long-term, error-free transmission at 100 Gbps. Additionally, transmission with existing Huawei 40 Gbps wavelengths at 50 GHz spacing was achieved, allowing for a smooth and seamless bandwidth upgrade. Huawei also successfully demonstrated co-propagation of 100 Gbps wavelengths at 50 GHz spacing which enables future upgrades of subsea capacities up to 5 Tbps.

This 100 Gbps technology is available on Huawei’s OptiX product series which is a next generation, intelligent, Optical Transport Network (OTN) platform scalable to over 6 Tbps of switching capacity. Hibernia Atlantic is using this equipment to upgrade their existing secure and diverse cable system. “In partnership with Hibernia Atlantic, Huawei has developed the OptiX products with 100 Gbps capability to address exponentially increasing bandwidth demand driven by cutting-edge data services and high definition video,” states Charlie Chen, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Huawei Technologies USA.

“Additional capacity to our existing network system will provide the ability to meet the growing service needs of our clients,” continues Bjarni Thorvardarson, Chief Executive Officer for Hibernia Atlantic. “The carrier, multi-media and enterprise industries all require high capacity at the 100 Gbps level to ensure high performance data transmissions. In addition, we are deploying Project Express, the first transatlantic, fiber optic cable with the shortest latency in history at sub 60 milliseconds roundtrip. With this innovative cable link, as well as our existing, diverse cable assets, our clients will now be able to access secure and diverse connectivity at the highest-performance capacity currently available.”

Both companies have a long history of partnering together for successful industry-first milestones. From providing the first 40 Gbps capacity over a subsea span to offering commercially native 40 Gbps wavelengths between Europe and North America, the two organizations are committed to presenting clients with cutting-edge advancements. Additionally, the companies were the first to offer 10 Gbps Ethernet LAN-PHY capacity across the Atlantic Ocean as early as 2006. The companies look to continue their history of cutting-edge, industry firsts through the deployment of Project Express in 2013.

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Source:  Hibernia Atlantic, November 08 , 2011