ACE Deploys Ciena’s Wavelogic 6 Extreme to Strengthen Connectivity between Africa and Europe

The Africa to Europe (ACE) Submarine Cable System Alliance has chosen Ciena to upgrade one of the key routes connecting Western Europe, West Africa, and South Africa. The system is approximately 17000 kilometers long and passes through 18 landing stations. It is powered by the WaveLogic 6 Extreme (WL6e) Ciena 6500 and provides a transmission capacity of over 30 Tb/s.

Philippe Recco, Chair of the ACE Management Committee, stated, “International routing drives economic growth, digital inclusion, and cloud adoption across Africa, and this upgrade provides a high-capacity path for regional service providers that can cover over 500 million people. Ciena’s coherent optical technology and proven service team give us confidence to meet expanding bandwidth demands while maintaining customer connectivity.”

Ciena Services is deploying WL6e on ACE’s existing submarine line terminal equipment to expand the system while reducing the need for complex traffic migration. As ACE prepares for the growing demand for resilient connectivity across Africa and between Africa and Europe, the team is also responsible for ongoing maintenance and transformation.

Thomas Soerenson, Vice President of Global Subsea Business at Ciena, stated, “With our expertise in underwater deployment and innovation in coherent optical technology, Ciena supports this important connection between Africa and the rest of the world. We are jointly expanding the existing fiber optic infrastructure and developing a long-term technology roadmap to achieve future growth with minimal impact on operations.”

The alliance also utilizes Ciena’s Navigator Network Control Suite to achieve comprehensive visualization and management of its services. Liquid Spectrum applications, such as Channel Margin Gauge, can provide real-time visibility of the wavelength signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) margin, helping ACE discover opportunities to increase capacity.