November 9, 2011

Huawei, Hibernia Atlantic Trial 100G Transatlantic Connection

Hibernia Atlantic and Huawei have successfully completed a 100G transatlantic connection between Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada to Southport, England. The success of this trial is allowing the companies to move forward on their deployment schedule, including 100 Gbps connections between Halifax and Montreal and between Amsterdam and London by the first quarter of 2012, followed by other key routes later in the year.


The trial involved Huawei’s latest 100 Gbps single wavelength coherent technology. This Optical Interoperability Forum (OIF) standards compliant technology utilizes Digital Signal Processing (DSP) algorithms and next generation Forward Error Correction (FEC) enabling high capacity transport across transatlantic distances. In addition to performing across distances greater than 5,000 km, the trial has successfully demonstrated long-term, error-free transmission at 100 Gbps.

Additionally, transmission with existing Huawei 40 Gbps wavelengths at 50 GHz spacing was achieved, allowing for a smooth and seamless bandwidth upgrade. Huawei also demonstrated co-propagation of 100 Gbps wavelengths at 50 GHz spacing which enables future upgrades of subsea capacities up to 5 Tbps.

This 100 Gbps technology is available on Huawei’s OptiX, which is a next generation Optical Transport Network (OTN) platform scalable to over 6 Tbps of switching capacity. Hibernia Atlantic is using this equipment to upgrade its existing cable system.