Azea Networks, a start-up based in London, unveiled an upgrade solution for undersea cable systems that are nearing the "glass ceiling" of their original design capacity limits.
Cable systems deployed in the mid to late 1990s were designed for relatively low bandwidth -- typically between one and eight wavelengths at 2.5 Gbps per channel, yielding no more than 20 Gbps total capacity per fiber pair.
Azea said that because these cables employ no electrical regeneration, in principle higher capacities could be achieved by using more sophisticated terminal equipment. In practice, however, the legacy wet plant imposes significant transmission penalties when compared with state-of-the-art multi-terabit cables.
Azea said its advanced electronic and optical technologies, including forward error correction and dispersion management, overcomes these limitations to deliver multiple 10 Gbps channels over existing cables, enabling undersea cables to achieve upgrade capacities more than 10 times the original design. Azea's solution comprises the following elements:
- the Azea NX10 Submarine Line Terminal Equipment (SLTE), which leverages modulation techniques, Forward Error Correction (FEC) coding, and end-to-end control loop optimization
- the Azea Element Manager (EM) and Craft Terminal (CT) that integrate with existing Operational Support Systems; and
- a set of pre- and post-deployment services.
- Investors in Azea include Accel Partners, Atlas Venture and Quester.
