Industry Thought Leadership

Following an extensive and successful technology evaluation and application analysis, PEACE Cable International Network Co., Limited and PCCW Global, the leading telecommunications service provider, have chosen to deploy the Infinera ICE6 optical engine solution on the Mediterranean Segment of the new Pakistan East Africa Cable Express (PEACE) submarine cable system, providing the ability to transmit record-breaking capacity of nearly 25 terabits per fiber pair, while laying the foundation for enhanced service scalability, flexibility, and future differentiation.

Infinera’s ICE6 solution was selected based on its outstanding capabilities, including the ability to achieve industry-leading, commercially deployable performance with a combination of ultra-high baud rates and an advanced modulation technique known as Long Codeword Probabilistic Constellation Shaping. Both capabilities are using the latest 7nm ASIC technology, highly optimised algorithms, and Infinera’s second-generation Nyquist subcarriers.

Nick Walden, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales, Infinera, says: “ICE6 enables PCCW Global and PEACE Cable to offer industry-leading, open, scalable, and flexible services to their customers over the PEACE submarine cable system, as demand across these regions continues to grow dramatically.”

The PEACE cable system is a 15 000km-long privately owned cable system connecting three of the largest and most populous continents in the world - Asia, Africa and Europe. When complete, the PEACE system will provide the shortest and most direct data route from Asia to Europe, combined with exceptionally low latency, which is vitally important for people and organisations to connect through the innovative use of ICT.

The backbone of the project interconnects Pakistan, Djibouti, Egypt, Kenya and France, also providing critical access for Africa to key growing economic corridors and provides a massive bandwidth capacity via multiple fibre pairs.

Traditionally under-served, Africa has the fastest-growing youth population in the world, a rapidly growing number of Internet users and a corresponding increased demand for connectivity. PEACE will provide fast and reliable submarine connectivity, enabling African online collaboration, knowledge and outreach.

Haitham Zahran, Vice President, EMEA Subsea Cable Systems, PCCW Global, says: “The PEACE submarine cable system is specifically optimised for maximum capacity per fiber pair and our advanced network design enables us to continue to embrace new technologies in order to meet growing bandwidth demand over these important routes. We are hopeful that it will soon be the highest-performing open cable system connecting Asia, Europe and Africa.”