NEC has been contracted by Facebook to build an ultra-high performance transatlantic subsea fiber-optic cable connecting the USA and Europe. The project will use NEC’s newly developed 24 fiber pair cable and repeater, enabling the system to deliver a maximum transmission capacity of a half Petabit per second, the highest to date for a long-distance repeatered optical subsea cable system.
Facebook confirmed its first-ever transatlantic, 24-fiber-pair subsea cable system will connect Europe to the United States, buiding on its recent news about 2Africa Pearls, the subsea cable connecting Africa, Asia, and Europe.
Facebook also announced a second generation of its Bombyx robot, which climbs and then install fiber over medium-voltage power lines. The updated design is lighter, faster, and more agile.
In addition, Facebook's Terragraph radios are now being used to deliver high-speed internet to more than 6,500 homes in Anchorage, Alaska, and deployment has started in Perth, Australia. Facebook licenses Terragraph for free to OEMs who have collectively shipped more than 30,000 Terragraph units to more than 100 service providers and system integrators around the world.
NEC targets subsea cables to 24 fiber pairs and beyond
NEC and its subsidiary OCC Corporation completed full qualification of subsea repeaters and optical cable containing up to 20 fiber pairs (40 fibers). This represents a 25% improvement in fiber count over 16 fiber pair systems previously built by NEC.
NEC said it achieved this milestone with only minor modifications to its proven repeater and cable designs. This was done by optimizing key repeater components, and by proving that its existing cable design could easily accommodate more fibers. The 20 fiber pair repeaters continue to use quadruple pump sharing technology, first introduced by NEC in 2010, for high optical and electrical efficiency.
OCC’s 20 fiber pair cable can be manufactured using a wide range of existing optical fibers, according to the needs of each new cable system. Furthermore, OCC has demonstrated to its customers that they can visually identify individual fibers using a combination of ring marking and conventional fiber coloring. This allows the potential number of fibers in a cable to be greatly expanded. Significantly, in OCC cable, the fiber’s transmission performance is completely unaffected, either by the fiber coloring or cabling processes.
“As global capacity demand continues to soar, NEC is committed to helping our customers scale up their networks in a cost-effective way,” said Takaaki Ogata, Executive Technical Manager of NEC’s Submarine Network Division. “Further significant increases in the fiber pair count of NEC’s wet plant are coming soon,” he added.
Mass production of the newly-qualified subsea repeaters and optical cable has already started.
2Africa will be longest subsea cable system in the world
The 2Africa cable system will add an extension to the Arabian Gulf, India, and Pakistan, bringing its total length to over 45,000 kilometers, making it the longest subsea cable system ever deployed.
The 2Africa consortium includes China Mobile International, Facebook, MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, stc, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone and WIOCC.
Now connecting three continents, Africa, Europe and Asia terrestrially through Egypt, 2Africa creates unique connectivity by adding vital landing locations in Oman (Barka), UAE (Abu Dhabi and Kalba), Qatar (Doha), Bahrain (Manama), Kuwait (Kuwait), Iraq (Al-Faw), Pakistan (Karachi), India (Mumbai), and a fourth landing in Saudi Arabia (Al Khobar). The new 2Africa branch joins recently announced extensions to the Canary Islands, the Seychelles, Comoros Islands, Angola, and a new landing to south-east Nigeria.
As with other 2Africa cable landings, capacity will be available in PEARLS landings at carrier-neutral facilities or open-access cable landing stations on a fair and equitable basis, encouraging and supporting the development of a healthy internet ecosystem.
Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) will deploy the new system utilizing new technologies such as SDM that allow the deployment of up to 16 fiber pairs.
2Africa subsea cable boasts design capacity up to 180 Tbps
2Africa, a new subsea cable to serve the African continent and Middle East region, promises to deliver more than the total combined capacity of all subsea cables serving Africa today, with a design capacity of up to 180Tbps on key parts of the system.
Consortium partners include China Mobile International, Facebook, MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, stc, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone and WIOCC.
Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) has been selected to build the fully-funded cable. The project will leverage SDM1 (space division multiplexing) technology from ASN, allowing deployment of up to 16 fiber pairs instead of the eight fiber pairs supported by older technologies. The cable will incorporate optical switching technology to enable flexible management of bandwidth. Cable burial depth has also been increased by 50% compared to older systems, and cable routing will avoid locations of known subsea disturbance, all helping to ensure the highest levels of availability.
The 2Africa subsea cable will span 37,000km long, interconnect Europe (eastward via Egypt), the Middle East (via Saudi Arabia), and 21 landings in 16 countries in Africa. The system is expected to go live in 2023/4. Each of the cable landing sites will offer carrier-neutral data centers or open-access cable landing stations on a fair and equitable basis.
In addition, the 2Africa parties and Airtel have signed an agreement with Telecom Egypt to provide a completely new crossing linking the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, the first in over a decade. This includes new cable landing stations and deployment of next-generation fiber on two new, diverse terrestrial routes parallel to the Suez Canal from Ras Ghareb to Port Said, and a new subsea link that will provide a third path between Ras Ghareb and Suez.
