Submarine fiber optic cables form the backbone of the global internet, connecting countries and continents across vast transoceanic distances. The new services leverage the interconnection of two existing submarine cable systems: SACS (South Atlantic Cable System) and MONET. SACS, owned and operated by Angola Cables, runs between Fortaleza, Brazil, and Luanda, Angola, and is connected to the AngoNAP Datacenter. MONET, owned by the consortium, connects Santos/Fortaleza with Florida/United States.
The combination of the SACS and MONET submarine systems in this joint test allows for the first time 300 Gbps of traffic between Miami and Luanda.
The trial adds more capacity to a low-latency network. According to the ITU, sub-Saharan Africa has seen the fastest growth in internet usage globally over the past decade, from less than 10% of the population in 2010 to more than 28% in 2019. Improved submarine connectivity is crucial for this growing user base to access global content and services.
The submarine wavelengths were deployed using Nokia’s Photonic Services Interconnect (PSI) 1830 Data Center Interconnect (DCI) platform with the PSE-3. The 1830 PSI provided optical wavelengths at 300 Gbps using probabilistic constellation shaping (PCS) to optimally shape the signals according to the specific characteristics of the 12,635 km cable, achieving performance close to the system’s theoretical limits.
