wiredInUSA February 2018

Image; www.te.com

North Atlantic crossing

A consortium of technology companies, including Facebook, Aqua Comms and Bulk Infrastructure, has awarded a contract to TE SubCom to supply undersea communications equipment for the new 108 TBps Havfrue cable system. Havfrue is the first new cable system in almost twenty years to connect mainland northern Europe to the US, crossing the North Atlantic. Route survey operations for the system have begun and the system is expected to be in service in late 2019. The system comprises a trunk cable connecting New Jersey to the Jutland Peninsula of Denmark, with a branch landing in County Mayo, Ireland. Optional branch extensions to northern and southern Norway are included in the design.

As supplier for the system, SubCom will incorporate its wavelength selective switching reconfigurable optical add drop multiplexer (WSS-ROADM) for flexible wavelength allocation. The Havfrue system will be optimized for coherent transmission, and will offer a cross-sectional cable capacity of 108 TBps, scalable to higher capacities utilizing future generation SLTE technology. The combination of these elements is said to make the Havfrue system a powerful and flexible solution for current use, while also providing an easy upgrade path to accommodate future advances in subsea connectivity technology. Aqua Comms will serve as the system operator and landing party in the US, Ireland and Denmark. Bulk Infrastructure of Norway will be the owner and landing party for the Norwegian branch options.

wiredInUSA - February 2018

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