Apollo Submarine Cable System, in partnership with Alcatel-Lucent, has successfully transmitted approximately 3 Tbps of data using 40 Gbps channels over a fiber pair across the north Atlantic.
The test was performed over Apollo’s north cable system linking the US and the UK, a distance of 6,221 km, and almost quadrupled the original design capacity of the system (72 channels at 40 Gbps, all error-free).
Specifically, the Alcatel-Lucent 1620 Light Manager submarine line terminal used a phase shift keying (PSK)-based modulation format with next-generation coherent detection, over fully loaded with 72 working 40 Gbps channels.
The signal processing associated with coherent technology deal with the transmission impairments in the fiber in an automated manner and also allows performance tuning through the life of the system.
“Capacity upgrades of submarine networks using existing fiber are critical for operators as existing networks near full capacity and as terrestrial networks start supporting 40 Gbps. These two factors drive the need to increase the capacity of submarine networks, seamlessly handing-off traffic to keep the highest level of efficiency end-to-end,” said Richard Elliott, Managing Director of Apollo.
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- The Apollo Submarine Cable System provides two diverse paths connecting London to New York City and Paris to Washington D.C.
- Apollo Submarine Cable System Limited is owned by Cable & Wireless and Alcatel-Lucent.
