TIM Brasil, Xtera deploy 100G over challenging G.653 DSF route

Xtera Communications, Inc. has bagged some repeat business with TIM Brasil, the Brazilian subsidiary of Telecom Italia Mobile.

TIM Brazil selected and deployed 100G optical networking equipment supplied by Xtera on a long-haul optical transmission infrastructure in northeast Brazil. The infrastructure links Salvador and Fortaleza, the capital cities of the Bahia and Ceará states, respectively, using a terrestrial dispersion-shifted fiber (DSF) spanning more than 1,000 km. Fortaleza is also the landing point for several high-capacity submarine cables connecting Brazil with North America and Europe.

“The investments … reinforce TIM’s commitment to improve and expand its networks throughout Brazil,” said Cicero Olivieri, director of fixed and transport network of TIM Brasil. “This benefits not only our customers but also our international partners, who, with the approach of the World Cup and Olympics, require reliable and robust terrestrial connections for their traffic passing through the submarine cables in Fortaleza.”

DSF is a fiber type that was standardized (ITU-T G.653) to enable single-wavelength transmission in the 1550-nm region wavelengths where optical fiber attenuation is minimal. However, DSF turned out to be a poor choice for high-capacity links based on DWDM.

Xtera says its 100G approach has enabled TIM Brasil to achieve a tenfold capacity increase from the previous implementation on this route. In addition to 100G coherent technology with soft-decision forward error correction, Xtera’s Nu-Wave Optima platform features advanced Raman distributed optical amplification, which minimizes the nonlinearities and maximizes the capacity carried by the DSF fiber, the company says.

“Our advanced, integrated, and field-proven Raman optical amplification technology, based on distributed optical gain inside the line fiber, has enabled TIM Brasil to increase capacity tenfold. This was achieved over a fiber plant that was originally designed for a single wavelength carrying a STM-16 signal,” said Manuel Andrade, senior vice president, sales, Americas, at Xtera.

Xtera says the 100G system was deployed and traffic migrated in record time, in close cooperation with TIM Brasil and the local implementation partner Tellabs do Brasil.

Xtera’s Nu-Wave Optima platform is a modular optical transport system using a common, integrated set of modules for long-haul, unrepeatered and regional repeatered submarine applications. The platform supports Xtera’s XWDM solution for high-capacity, long-haul optical networking in real-world network conditions (see “Xtera tests XWDM optical transmission technology on Verizon network”).

In October, TIM Brazil selected and deployed 100G optical networking equipment supplied by Xtera on a long-haul network connecting three states in the Amazon region (see “TIM Brasil, Xtera deploy 100G optical network over 2400 km”).

For more information on high-speed transmission systems and suppliers, visit the Lightwave Buyer’s Guide.