Pacnet, Infinera display 500G superchannel transmission
Pacnet, the operator of the EAC-C2C submarine cable system in Asia, in conjunction with Infinera (Nasdaq: INFN), transmitted over 3 Tbps of capacity over its 4,500 km network, the company announced Monday.
During the trial, Pacnet tested the capabilities of the vendor's Ultra-Long Haul subsea super-channels based on its 500 Gbps Photonic Integrated Circuit technology and its FlexCoherent technology on Infinera's DTN-X platform.
Flexcoherent technology allows service providers to use software to select the right modulation format to optimize fiber capacity and increase network reach, two major concerns of long-haul submarine cable operators.
One of the key innovations used in the test was optical super-channels, which creates a large unit of optical capacity by combining multiple optical carriers into one managed entity. Infinera said that have super channels based on PICs enables service providers like Pacnet to provision 500 Gbps of capacity quicker.
At a time when a number of Infinera's main competitors such as Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) and Ciena (Nasdaq: CIEN) are racking up various 100G optical wins this trial with Pacnet and its earlier win with Cable & Wireless Worldwide for its Europe Persia Express Gateway (EPEG) network, illustrates that the vendor is a growing competitive threat in the submarine cable space.