Xtera Communications, a global provider of optical
networking solutions, and Kokusai Cable Ship Co, a provider of marine
operations services for cables, announced that AT&T contracted the two
companies to build the GOKI (Guam, Okinawa, Kyushu, Incheon) submarine cable
system.
Xtera will provide project management, system design, system
integration and the Submarine Line Terminal Equipment (SLTE). Kokusai Cable
Ship (KCS) will recover and re-lay portions of Transpacific-5 (TPC-5) and a
retired regional submarine cable, as well as supply new cable and submerged
equipment that will become part of the new solution.
Xtera and KCS will partner to build the 4200 km GOKI system
by combining approximately 1300 km of redeployed cable with remaining sections
of the TPC-5 and a retired regional submarine cable.
The new system will be fitted with Xtera’s Nu-Wave XLR
regional repeatered SLTE to maximize capacity.
TPC-5, an early first generation optically amplified
submarine cable system, uses dispersion-shifted fiber and had an original
design capacity of two 5 Gb/s channels per fiber pair.
The retired regional submarine cable system is a second
generation system utilizing wavelength division multiplexers (WDM) to offer a
maximum original capacity of 35 Gb/s (14 x 2.5 Gb/s).
Xtera
was selected because of its submarine engineering expertise in addressing the
design challenges associated with deploying a cable system that uses fibers
from existing systems with different optical characteristics.
With the Nu-wave XLR terminal equipment, the re-engineered
system will have a maximum capacity of at least 80 Gb/s (8 x 10 Gb/s). Combining
existing and new assets while providing a significant increase in capacity
enables AT&T to improve their return on the value of these submarine
assets.
The selection of Xtera to supply the SLTE and provide
redeployment services including: project management, system design and
integration services, demonstrates the company’s leadership and expertise in
the design of submarine systems and high-performance submarine optical
equipment.
The partnership with KCS demonstrates Xtera’s capability as
a provider of complete solutions for redeployment as well as new systems. The
partnership with KCS as the wet plant partner is a key building block for
Xtera’s turn-key offering. It leverages the core competencies of KCS and Xtera.
“KCS, a leading provider of marine operations services
for cables in Western Pacific and North/West Asia, enhances Xtera’s offering
with their exceptional marine skills,” said Jon Hopper, president and
chief executive officer of Xtera Communications.
“KCS is very pleased to work on the GOKI project in
partnership with Xtera, KCS had a successful experience on recovery and re-lay
work utilizing a retired cable system in the Japan Sea about 3 years ago. This
new project will prove KCS’s performance and capability on various marine
services and be another milestone for KCS,” said Ryoichi Yatabe, president
of Kokusai Cable Ship Company.
Recently, Xtera Communications announced
the demonstration of Raman + 100G coherent technologies to double the capacity
of long unrepeatered links. Raman + 100G coherent is an attractive and
effective solution to provide the highest capacity in the industry for new
networks or to provide significant capacity upgrades on unrepeatered submarine
links.
By Telecomlead.com Team
editor@telecomlead.com
