Cisco has achieved a remarkable transmission of 800Gbps across the Amitié transatlantic cable, which stretches over 6,234 kilometers from Boston, Massachusetts, to Bordeaux, France. This achievement marks a significant advancement in subsea network technology, driven by the burgeoning demand for enhanced cloud services and the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.
The Amitié cable, distinguished by its use of Space Division Multiplexing (SDM) technology, incorporates 16 fiber pairs – surpassing the number found in traditional subsea cables. This technological innovation enables the sharing of repeater power across fiber pairs, optimizing the cable’s capacity to unprecedented levels.
During a real-time field trial that set new industry benchmarks, Cisco utilized Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) to achieve 800G transmission within a 150GHz channel spacing. This operation showcased a spectrum efficiency of 5.33bit/s/Hz, peaking at a maximum spectral efficiency of 5.6bit/s/Hz.
Additionally, the trial achieved a 600G transmission over a remarkable distance of 12,469 kilometers using a trans-Atlantic loopback configuration. According to Cisco, this marks the first-ever demonstration of a 140Gbaud single carrier signal in a live environment and establishing a record for the longest distance achieved at single carrier 600G DWDM transmission on an SDM cable.
Amitié cable system, vital to connect the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, is now part of Microsoft’s worldwide network, boosting support for all Microsoft services. This exhibits the alliance between Cisco and Microsoft and establishes the significance of fast and trustworthy network connections in this AI-driven age.
Bill Gartner, Cisco’s Senior Vice President of Optical Systems and Optics, stressed the importance of the trial, stating its potential to immensely increase network capacity over such distances.
Jamie Gaudette, General Manager of Cloud Network Engineering at Microsoft, mirrored this sentiment, emphasizing the role of the trial in displaying what is now a practical technology for subsea routes. The successful transmission is not only a significant advancement in network capacity but also holds potential to accelerate digital transformation across global sectors.
The trial utilized Cisco‘s NCS 1014 platform, driven by Acacia’s Coherent Interconnect Module 8 (CIM 8), including the advanced Jannu digital signal processor and frontier silicon photonics. Both products are presently on the market and being deployed across many networks, signalling a new epoch of subsea communication that caters to rising demands for performance and capacity in the digital landscape.
