Wednesday, November 4, 2020

INDIGO subsea cable to deploy Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme

Ciena has been selected by SUB.CO and its Australian entity APX Partners to upgrade the INDIGO subsea cable system, which connects Sydney, Perth, Jakarta and Singapore.

The Indigo submarine cable network spans approximately 9,000 kilometers, has two fiber pairs, and features new spectrum-sharing technology that allows consortium members to independently upgrade their networks and increase capacity, as needed and on-demand. 

This upgrade will use Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme, powered by WaveLogic 5 Extreme on the 6500 platform, to deliver 500 Gbps single-wavelength channels speeds across the submarine cable network. SUB.CO and APX Partners will leverage Ciena’s Hosted Manage, Control and Plan (MCP) software via Ciena Services. The deployment of the Hosted MCP Software-as-a-Service is a first in the Asia Pacific region. Ciena Services will also be used for site engineering, installation, testing and end-to-end project management.

“Looking to where the industry is heading SUB.CO is focused on building and operating hyperscale and software defined submarine cable capacity by fusing dedicated spectrum/fiber infrastructure ownership economics with optical platforms that will allow us to maximize spectral efficiency, yet be flexible in configuration for all our different customer demands. Deploying both Ciena’s latest coherent optical solution over a shared spectrum cable and its hosted network management software in the Southeast Asia region is a key piece of our long-term strategy,” states Bevan Slattery, CEO, SUB.CO and APX Partners.

INDIGO subsea cable is ready for service

The INDIGO subsea cable system, which connects Australia and Southeast Asia, is officially ready for use.

INDIGO features two-fibre pairs with a design capacity for up to 36 terabits per second. The cable system will utilise new spectrum sharing technology so each consortium member will have the ability to independently take advantage of technology advancements for future upgrades and capacity increases on demand.

INDIGO is backed by AARNet, Google, Indosat Ooredoo, Singtel, SubPartners and Telstra.