Optical & Fixed Networks

Ciena helps ACE cable system to strengthen connectivity

The Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) cable system consortium has selected high-speed connectivity specialist Ciena to upgrade one of the key routes in the system that links Western Europe, West Africa and South Africa.

Stretching approximately 17,000 kilometres across 18 landing stations, the system now uses Ciena’s 6500 family of packet-optical platforms powered by the WaveLogic 6 Extreme optical solution to deliver more than 30 Tb/s. 

Philippe Recco, President, ACE Management Committee, explains: “International routes drive economic growth, digital inclusion, and cloud adoption across Africa, and this upgrade gives regional service providers a high-capacity path that reaches more than 500 million people.”

He adds: “Ciena’s coherent optical technology and proven services team give us confidence that we can keep customers connected while meeting expanding bandwidth needs.”

Ciena says that this deployment expands bandwidth over current infrastructure while limiting disruption to live traffic. In addition, enhanced automation and visibility help operators plan future scale and manage services more efficiently.

The company’s Ciena Services division is deploying WL6e over ACE’s existing submarine line terminal equipment to scale the system while reducing the need for complex traffic migrations. The team also manages ongoing maintenance and transformation as ACE prepares for greater demand for resilient connectivity across Africa and between Africa and Europe.

The consortium uses Ciena’s Navigator Network Control Suite to gain complete visualisation and management of its services, while Liquid Spectrum apps such as Channel Margin Gauge provide real-time visibility into the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) margin for wavelengths, helping ACE identify opportunities to add capacity.



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