FEATURE : SUBMARINE NETWORKS
MAKING A DEEP IMPACT
The latest developments in submarine networks, and the issues and trends shaping the market
KEELY PORTWAY T
he submarine cable industry is reportedly booming, with latest figures from Research and Markets puting the global market at $10.3bn
in 2017 – with it expected to rise to $30.8bn by 2026. Some of the driving factors, according to the
report, Te Submarine Cable System – Global Market Outlook (2017-2026), include the increasing need for network capabilities, the growing number of telecom subscriptions and rising internet traffic. Tere are also a number of new geographical opportunities presenting themselves, with Africa of particular note. Recently Google announced its investment in
this market, with a private subsea cable that will connect Africa with Europe. Once complete, Equiano will start in western Europe and run along Africa’s west coast, from Portugal to South Africa, with branching units that can extend connectivity to additional African countries. Te first is expected to land in Nigeria. Te cable is funded by Google, making it the firm’s third private international cable aſter Dunant and Curie, and its 14th subsea cable investment.
18 FiBRE SYSTEMS n Issue 25 n Autumn 2019
Into Africa According to Ian Clarke, VP of global submarine solutions at network strategy and technology company, Ciena, which supplies transmission equipment into subsea networks, this is just the beginning. ‘Africa is the hotbed of many discussions. From the Googles and the Facebooks of this world, there are markers for success and there are certain countries that have got many eyeballs that remain unconnected. Tey are very keen to go and atract those areas. Tere’s a huge amount of industry chat about “how do we connect to Africa?”’ Built in conjunction with Alcatel Submarine
Networks, Equiano will operate differently than traditional cables. Instead of wavelength- level switching, it will incorporate optical switching at the fibre-pair level. Tis simplifies the allocation of cable capacity, allowing the flexibility to add and reallocate it in different locations as needed. Te first phase of the project, connecting South Africa with Portugal, is expected to be completed in 2021. Tis manner of operation looks set to shape the submarine networks landscape, Clarke
explained: ‘We are now seeing new cables being built with a different technology that carries more traffic. One obvious scenario is the emergence of spatial division multiplexing (SDM). It’s puting more fibres in a cable. Around four years ago, you had eight fibre pairs on a cable. People asked: “Why have you only got eight?” Well, when you put the amplifiers on the sea bed you’ve got to put them all in on day one. When puting amplifiers every 50 to 60km across the ocean, it was very expensive to go and equip multiple fibre pairs and power them that you might not need for a certain amount of time, so we stayed at between four and eight fibre pairs. But now we can put in more fibres, for the total capacity of the cable. We’re changing our design, per fibre pair to be lower, but the total of passes to be higher.’
High time SubCom has acted as an undersea data transport partner for a number of networks, including the Google-funded Curie cable, which links Chile and California. Georg Mohs, VP R&D and CTO agrees that technology is
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