In what is believed to be another world first for the longest single span 400GbE services yet achieved on a submarine cable network , Southern Cross in collaboration with Ciena was able to successfully commission and test the services error-free as part of the NEXT commissioning processes , paving the way for the introduction of 400GbE services between Sydney , Auckland and Los Angeles .

The NEXT cable will support Southern Cross ’ continuing mission to enable reliable connectivity between the people and communities of Australia , New Zealand and the Pacific Islands to the rest of the world .

The NEXT cable will provide the first international submarine fibre connections to Tokelau and Kiribati and reinforce Fiji ’ s growing role as a digital hub for the Pacific Islands .

The NEXT cable has taken just over two years to complete during the global pandemic and will become the third route in the Southern Cross network ecosystem between Australasia and the US .

The NEXT system will boost the capacity of the ecosystem by approximately 500 %, to around 100 Terabits / second , effectively more than doubling Australia and New Zealand ’ s direct international connectivity capability to the US .

To put this in perspective , this would allow the transfer of the half petabyte of data generated from the approximate 7,500 F1 2022 car wind-tunnel model tests in 111 seconds , or just over 300 seconds to transfer the estimated 10 billion photos on Facebook .

Southern Cross NEXT leverages Ciena ’ s GeoMesh Extreme , powered by WaveLogic 5 Extreme ( WL5e ) coherent optical technology , to seamlessly mesh the new system into the current Southern Cross eco-system network fabric . Ciena ’ s WL5e technology also helps underpin Southern Cross ’ sustainable upgrade path by reducing power costs and inefficiencies by more than 600 % on a per bit basis .

Laurie Miller , CEO of Southern Cross Cable Network , said : “ The Southern Cross NEXT cable system is up and running and the new technology and capability will support the rising demand for hyperscale bandwidth driven by cloud adoption and digitisation along with changing needs of our customers and the industry .

“ As part of our future strategy , not only is NEXT the first of the replacement cables for our existing systems when they retire in 2030 , it also completes a trifecta for us . Southern Cross is currently the provider of the lowest latency routes between Sydney and Auckland , along with Auckland to Los Angeles and will now add the lowest latency route between Sydney and Los Angeles to our portfolio . intelligent INFRASTRUCTURE

“ Collaborating with Ciena , we are thrilled to continue to offer the latest in subsea technology that will provide enhanced reliability and network connectivity from Los Angeles to Sydney and Auckland , Fiji , Tokelau and Kiribati . Southern Cross and Ciena have a long heritage of working together to push the envelope for what is possible in subsea technology . We are already seeing incredible interest from the market in 400GbE services and you can expect to see more announcements from us in the near future .” �

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