Hawaiki Clocks New Speed Record with Ciena’s WaveLogic 6 Extreme

BW Digital announced that it has hit a major new performance milestone, achieving data transmission of 1.2 Tb/s per wavelength over a 4,300km stretch of the Hawaiki Transpacific Cable system.

This marks a significant step towards meeting increasing demand for high-capacity, energy-efficient transpacific connectivity amongst organisations across Australasia and the US.

The field trial leveraged Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme, powered by WaveLogic 6 Extreme coherent technology, running on Waveserver compact interconnect platforms, over Ciena’s Reconfigurable Line System submarine line terminating equipment.

Ciena’s WL6e offers a major improvement in spectral efficiency and reductions in space and power per bit compared to the previous generation, meaning that future capacity upgrades can be achieved more sustainably.

In commercial service since 2018, the 15,000 km Hawaiki cable provides critical datacentre-to-datacentre connectivity between Australia, New Zealand, The Pacific and the US, playing a pivotal role in the regional and transpacific network ecosystem.

"The trial results announced today validate our strategy to focus on innovation to offer scalable, high-capacity solutions to our customers while constantly improving sustainability,” said Virginie Frouin, Chief Business Officer at BW Digital. "By integrating cutting-edge technology into our cable infrastructure, we further strengthen our digital ecosystem and create opportunities for our customers to leverage spectrum sharing and maximise their investment as the pace of innovation increases,” she added.

"BW Digital’s WL6e trial underscores the readiness of advanced coherent optics in improving the sustainability and operational economics of managing submarine networks today,” said Ivan Polizzi, Regional Managing Director, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, Ciena. "Our long-standing collaboration with BW Digital continues to deliver technical and operational milestones, demonstrating the value of innovation in long-haul subsea cable systems.”

Source: BW Digital media announcement