JULY 2, 2008 -- Southern Cross Cables (search for Southern Cross) has selected Nortel's (search for Nortel) 40G optical technology to help meet demand for bandwidth from service provider customers in Asia Pacific looking to deliver high-speed services and applications like IPTV and HD video. The Southern Cross network provides the major link for Internet traffic from Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji to the U.S. and links Hawaii to the U.S. mainland.
Southern Cross is upgrading its terrestrial optical network in the U.S. from its current 10G technology to 40G to give its customers the means to serve bandwidth-intensive applications like high-definition video conferencing.
Nortel says its offering enables Southern Cross to provide four times the bandwidth with a simple card upgrade, removing the need for costly and complex infrastructure changes. In addition, Nortel's 40G/100G Adaptive Optical Engine will, in the future, be able to deliver speeds of up to 100G or 10 times the current offering--all with the same ease and simplicity of today's 10G networks, say Nortel representatives. The same 40G platform can be extended on to Southern Cross' submarine segments.
"We've been using Nortel's optical solutions on our long haul terrestrial segments to build a fast, secure platform for Internet-based services for customers and end-users," reports Dean Veverka, vice president of operations for Southern Cross.
"As demand grows for more bandwidth-sapping services like streaming high-definition video, we needed to increase our capacity without compromising the reliability of the network," Veverka continues. "Nortel's technology gives us a simple, cost-effective upgrade to 40G and an equally simple upgrade path to 100G in the future. We are also looking at the potential for this 40G technology to be deployed on our longer distance submarine segments. This ensures our service provider customers are guaranteed high levels of service as they continue to meet demand for innovative services in their respective markets."
"The need for faster, high-bandwidth services is growing, particularly in the large corporate and enterprise sectors where applications like HD video conferencing are gaining in popularity," adds Anthony Mclachlan, vice president of Carrier Networks, Nortel Asia. "At the same time, the Australian government has committed to build a high-speed, fiber-based broadband network for the majority of the population over the next four years, meaning consumer demand will also increase as the shackles of the country's slower fixed line services are broken in the coming years."
"Nortel's 40G technology provides the region's major broadband providers like Southern Cross the means to supply their customers with the network scalability they need well into the future," Mclachlan contends. "Most importantly, our 40G technology provides simple upgrade to 40G and beyond without reinvesting in or modifying their core infrastructure--retaining their networks' reliability--and creating additional revenue streams by fast tracking their ability to on-sell additional bandwidth."
Southern Cross has selected Nortel's flagship OME 6500, an optical convergence platform that supports transponding, TDM, and Ethernet switching on a single device, allowing service providers a smooth migration to a reliable and scalable Ethernet infrastructure while maintaining minimal infrastructure costs, Nortel representatives claim. The OME 6500 features the company's electronic dynamically compensating optics (eDCO) technology that enables fiber spans of up to 2,000 kilometers without the need for costly regeneration equipment. Nortel confirms that its OME 6500 has been deployed in over 200 networks globally, including with Verizon Business across Europe and Asia.
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