C&W Networks, a wholesale telecommunications service provider, says it is leveraging the GeoMesh Extreme product from networking systems, services and software company Ciena to upgrade its CFX-1 (Colombia-Florida Express) and EWC (East West Cable) submarine cable networks to deliver advanced broadband and IP services of up to 400Gb/s.
These network upgrades will help address what are described as the soaring bandwidth needs of C&W Networks’ telco and internet service provider (ISP) customers.
C&W Networks operates the largest submarine multi-ring fibre optic network in the greater Caribbean, Central American and Andean regions, providing connectivity to approximately 40 countries. The 2400km CFX-1 express cable connects the US, Jamaica and Colombia with less than 25ms latency, while the 1,700km EWC cable links the British Virgin Islands, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic.
Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme, which utilizes the 6500 Packet-Optical Platform powered by WaveLogic 5 Extreme coherent optics, delivers C&W Networks’ new increased capacity with scalable service speeds on existing undersea systems.
With Ciena’s latest technology, the CFX-1 cable connecting the US with Colombia and Jamaica is described as ‘transformed to provide a ten-fold capacity increase of over 32Tb/s with 100Gb/s–400Gb/s services’.
Visibility and end-to-end management of the cable network is possible with Ciena’s Manage, Control and Plan (MCP) domain controller. The company adds that Ciena Services provides deployment and reconfiguration services to accelerate time to revenue and ensure project success.