Positioned for growth
By leveraging Ciena’s WL6e, Southern Cross has positioned itself to deliver high-capacity digital pathways between Australia, New Zealand and the U.S.
Southern Cross’ eco-system provides a vital gateway between Australia and the United States by connecting over 20 key nodes located across Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands and the US West Coast to global digital markets.
The submarine cable operator will begin volume deployment of WL6e in the first calendar quarter of 2025 across various segments of its network, including its Southern Cross NEXT cable, which supports the lowest latency connectivity between Sydney/Auckland and Los Angeles.
Eying 400, 800G opportunities
As part of the trial, Southern Cross connected two key centers via Ciena’s WL6e in a 1 Tbps implementation across the Pacific, including Southern Cross’ NEXT network.
Leveraging WL6e’s coherent optical technology, Southern Cross will be able to provide a connectivity solution across higher capacity wavelengths, using less space and power and delivering capability in support of 400GbE and future 800GbE client services.
Southern Cross is using Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme solution, which includes the 6500 Packet-Optical Platform powered by WL6e, to upgrade capacity by more than 100 times the original design potential. This upgrade utilizes the same infrastructure that was originally designed to transport 2.5 Gbps wavelengths.
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