Southern Cross Cable Networks Selects CALIENT FiberConnect 320X For Remote Reconfiguration of Network

Photonic Switching to Enable Significant Time and Cost Savings

SANTA BARBARA, Calif.--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--CALIENT Technologies, Inc., the global leader in photonic switching technology, today announced that Southern Cross Cable Networks, a trans-Pacific bandwidth wholesaler, has deployed the FiberConnect 320X photonic switch to give it the capability to remotely reconfigure its fiber network in seconds, adding further protection in the event of fiber breaks or repeater/transponder failures.

“After reviewing the vendors in the photonic switching space, we came to the conclusion that CALIENT offered the best port density, price, and overall reputation and as a result we have now acquired and deployed their switches at all 11 sites in our network”

The announcement was jointly made during the PTC’12 Conference in Honolulu, Hawaii, where CALIENT is a Bronze Sponsor.

The Southern Cross Cable Network is a fully protected fiber-optic cable network linking Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Hawaii directly to the U.S. west coast. The network has 28,900 km of submarine and 1,600 km of terrestrial fiber optic cables, operated in a figure eight configuration. The network has a total of 11 landing points, including sites in Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji; as well as Hawaii, California, and Oregon in the U.S.

Southern Cross delivers the fastest and most direct route for all types of applications and maintains strict customer commitment agreements on bandwidth delivered. Southern Cross turned to CALIENT to install FiberConnect 320X photonic switches to provide it with the ability to remotely configure optical connections in a timely manner.

“Even though 90% of capacity on the Southern Cross Cable Network is configured for automatic protection on self-healing rings, there is always a small chance of multiple failures that require redirection of traffic to maintain service,” said Fiona Beck, Southern Cross CEO. “Until now this has been a manual intervention that would take time to implement. Because service availability is our top priority, we wanted to take advantage of photonic switching technology to eliminate delays when restoring traffic.”

“After reviewing the vendors in the photonic switching space, we came to the conclusion that CALIENT offered the best port density, price, and overall reputation and as a result we have now acquired and deployed their switches at all 11 sites in our network,” Beck said.

CALIENT’s FiberConnect 320X is based on the company’s patented 3D MEMS technology and uses a three-dimensional array of silicon micro mirrors to switch light paths. The FiberConnect 320X platform offers the industry’s highest density photonic switch with 640 total fiber terminations consisting of 320 transmit ports and 320 receive ports. The FiberConnect 320X is built with high reliability and redundancy for mission-critical carrier applications. The power supplies and all key electronics cards are hot swappable to eliminate a single point of failure.

“In a network like Southern Cross Cable Networks, each fiber on the network is carrying approximately 40 DWDM wavelengths, so every minute wasted during an outage could cost thousand of dollars,” said Atiq Raza, Chairman & CEO of CALIENT. “Our FiberConnect 320X has proven itself at three of the Tier 1 carriers here in the U.S. I believe Southern Cross will be very pleased with the CALIENT solution.”

About CALIENT Technologies, Inc.

Headquartered in Santa Barbara, Calif., CALIENT Technologies is the global leader in adaptive photonic switching with systems that build service providers, cloud computing, content delivery and government networks for today’s content explosion. CALIENT’s 3D MEMS switches have demonstrated years of reliability, with eight years of successful continuous operation at large companies in diverse markets. With more than 80,000 optical terminations shipped, CALIENT has one of the largest installed bases of photonic switches worldwide. For more information visit us at http://www.calient.net or contact us at [e-mail].

About Southern Cross

Southern Cross Cable Network provides fast, direct, and secure international bandwidth from Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii to the heart of the Internet in the USA. The Southern Cross Cable Network comprises two submarine communications cables, which were first commissioned in November 2000 and January 2001 at a cost of USD$1.3 billion. They provide Australasian broadband users with international connections to the US west coast where global Internet hubs are located. The Southern Cross Network has been engineered until 2025. In 2001, total installed capacity was 80 Gbps, and in January 2003 the total network was expanded to 480 Gbps. After the upgrade in December 2008, total installed capacity had increased to 780 Gbps with the last (G3) upgrade in Q1 2010 increasing capacity to 1.2 Tbps. This current upgrade will increase total lit capacity to 2 Tbps by Q2 2012. The Southern Cross Cable Network is owned by Telecom NZ (50%), Singtel-Optus (40%) and Verizon Business (10%). Southern Cross Cable Network has offices in Bermuda, Sydney, Auckland and Wellington. For more information visit Southern Cross at: http://www.southerncrosscables.com.