Ciena’s WL6e integrates new coherent DSP innovations to provide capacity over fibre. It supports 1.6Tb/s single-carrier wavelengths for metro networks, 800Gb/s services across the longest links, a 50% reduction in watts per bit, and requires less space compared to the previous generation for similar capacities.

WL6e’s deployment in Next will enable 800Gb/s wavelengths across 12,500km+ distance, providing bandwidth connection to support Southern Cross’ 400GbE services.

The 400GbE service was launched last year on Southern Cross Next cable between Australia, New Zealand, and the United States.

It runs on Ciena’s 6500 Packet-Optical Platform powered by WaveLogic 5 Extreme coherent optics and is managed by the manage, control and plan (MCP) domain controller.

“Today, we’re once again announcing what is expected to be another networking world first, implementing Ciena WaveLogic 6 on SX Next to help us push the envelope in terms of high-speed bandwidth connectivity and energy efficiency,” said Southern Cross president and CEO Laurie Miller.

“The Southern Cross Next cable is key to the transpacific cable ecosystem, contributing to improved network performance across the Pacific region – all on top of Ciena GeoMesh Extreme technology. With this upgrade to WL6, Southern Cross will be able to provide customers with unrivalled connectivity, allowing them to enjoy applications and services of up to 800GbE,” claimed Ciena senior vice president global research and development Dino DiPerna.