EASSy, the 10,000-kilometre submarine cable system traversing Africa’s east and south coasts, is leveraging Ciena's GeoMesh Extreme to increase capacity and performance in sub-Saharan Africa.
Powered by WaveLogic 5 Extreme coherent optical technology, the upgrade will help EASSy satisfy surging digital demands regionally, as well as cost-effectively improve connectivity to Europe, the Americas, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
With this deployment, EASSy is doubling network capacity from 18Tb/s to 36Tb/s across the system to maintain pace with voracious and ongoing bandwidth growth. By using Ciena’s latest coherent technology, EASSy is adding intelligence and efficiency to its cable system, maximising fibre capacity and substantially reducing the transported cost per bit.
The network is managed by Ciena’s Manage, Control and Plan (MCP) domain controller. By adopting a software-driven, automated approach, EASSy gains maximum operational proficiency and service agility while reducing OPEX. EASSy is also utilising Ciena Services to implement the hardware upgrade, including migration of legacy traffic, as well as to manage and support its network operations centre (NOC) in South Africa.
“There’s a great need for affordable and reliable international connectivity in East Africa. We worked with Ciena to make our submarine cable network simpler and higher speed, allowing us to scale to unprecedented capacities at a lower overall cost. This places EASSy in a better position to expedite the closing of the Digital Divide for Africans who are increasingly dependent on cloud-based services,” said Jacques Van Der Walt, Procurement Group Chair at Telkom South Africa.
