Chinese provider of submarine-network solutions HMN Tech said the first 16-fiber pair repeatered submarine cable system, the Hainan to Hong Kong Express (H2HE), has completed the system commissioning and testing, and is now ready for service.
H2HE connects Hainan Province, Guangdong Province, and Hong Kong SAR with a total length of 675 kilometers. The network facilitates a direct connection between Hainan and Hong Kong, underpinning Hainan as an emerging interconnection hub in the Asia-Pacific region.
According to a press release, the 16 fibre pair network design incorporates HMN Tech’s next-generation space-division multiplexing (SDM) technology to achieve a system capacity of over 300Tbps, sufficient to transmit 57,000 high-definition movies every second.
"This is a milestone in technological innovation, as constraints associated with submersible plants have historically limited systems to eight or twelve fibre pairs," it said. HMN Tech’s R&D team has achieved this significant breakthrough by improving circuit conversion efficiency, optimising submersible plant structures, and component integration techniques, the release added.
"Overcoming a multitude of challenges throughout the entire turnkey delivery process, from design to product manufacturing, system integration to marine installation is critical to bring the concept of a repeatered 16 fibre pair solution to reality. This success further strengthens HMN Tech’s position to achieve greater technological advances shortly," said the release.