Hawaiki opens up optical 400GbE subsea services

Following an earlier milestone when the company’s cable connection achieved 500Gbps channel wavelengths, BW Digital has now announced the availability of commercial 400GbE services on the Hawaiki Transpacific Cable.

BW Digital develops, funds and operates digital infrastructures in the Asia-Pacific region. Powered by Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme and undersea end-to-end network architecture, its 13,540km Hawaiki cable connects Australia, New Zealand, American Samoa, Hawaii and the US west coast.

It is supported by the Waveserver 5 compact interconnect platform, powered by WaveLogic 5 Extreme programmable 800G technology, running over the 6500 Packet-Optical Platform Submarine Line Terminal Equipment (SLTE).

With Ciena’s Waveserver 5, the Hawaiki cable is designed to scale to meet the surging capacity needs of the most demanding cloud applications and data services, improve reliability and availability, and deliver lower latency connectivity between Oregon and Hawaii.

Hawaiki also deploys Ciena’s Manage, Control and Plan (MCP) domain controller, which is said to be able to deliver greater control and visibility of the network, making it easier to pre-empt and prevent service disruptions.

Being carrier-neutral and independently owned, Hawaiki is claimed to offer a number of service and cost benefits for content and cloud service providers, telcos, internet service providers and other firms. Amazon, Vodafone and REANNZ are already using Hawaiki, which has 67Tbps of design capacity.

“Our recent upgrades with Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme put us in good stead to respond to ever-growing market requirements for international connectivity,” said Ludovic Hutier, CEO of BW Digital. “Ciena and BW Digital have a long-standing relationship, and this is but one of many connectivity highlights that we hope to continue to bring to our customers.”

“Cable operators globally are always looking for ways to upgrade their cables to be faster, smarter, safer and more open. Our GeoMesh Extreme is providing BW Digital an end-to-end network architecture, enabling the Hawaiki cable to deliver 400GbE services on its network, which is crucial in meeting the needs of today’s digital consumers, enterprises and content providers,” said Thomas Soerensen, vice-president of global submarine solutions at Ciena.

Hawaiki Transpacific Cable’s 400GbE service, deployed using Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme, was validated using EXFO’s multi-technology 400G Test Set, offering an innovative Open Transceiver System and Intelligent Pluggable Optics test application. Results were said to have demonstrated smooth traffic and no latency impact across the Sydney to Hillsboro segment. BW Digital was supported by WWG Comtest, the EXFO partner in New Zealand, for the loan and technical support on the EXFO Test Set.

Hawaiki, in addition to Manatua submarine cables, is currently seeing use in enabling schools in the Cook Islands to gain access to wired broadband to support teaching and learning over the next three years, paving the way for a better and more stable user experience across all education premises in the South Pacific nation.