Kordia completes 9.6Tbps fibre backhaul network
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Kordia completes 9.6Tbps fibre backhaul network

New Zealand’s Kordia has completed a major upgrade to its North Island fibre backhaul networks, boosting its carrying capacity.

Kordia signed a multimillion dollar contract in Ciena Networks’ dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) optical solutions, which enables multiple data streams to be carried over a fibre optic network, to take its core infrastructure to a potential capacity of 9.6Tbps.

“This represents the completion of a project for which the business case was established some years back in anticipation of a coming bandwidth tsunami driven by the ultrafast broadband rollout,” said Aaron Olphert, chief technology officer of the state-owned company.

“That tsunami is breaking now and Kordia has more than enough capacity to meet customer demand in the foreseeable future.

Olphert says the selection of Ciena Networks equipment was driven by its converged packet optical technology as well as software-defined network (SDN) capabilities. It also helps to address any problem of running out of transmission capability on an optical fibre.

An initial 100Gbps of dedicated capacity has been released between service nodes in Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Napier, Palmerston North and Wellington hubs. Olphert says the dark fibre connections between the main centres of the North Island will break out into additional towns as required, with the ability to add a further 95 sets of 100Gbps allocations before the company reaches 9.6Tbps of capacity.

Olphert credits the progress of the Government’s UFB rollout in the North Island for bandwidth uptake from its wholesale customers. He believes 10Gb is today’s capacity standard, but adds: “In another 24 months, we’re expecting 100Gb connections to become standard and it will keep scaling from there, particularly as more local fibre companies start rolling out 1Gb connections to residential users.”

With the introduction of its DWDM fibre services, Kordia says it has extended its product portfolio to cover broadcast, telco, security services and now ultra-high speed packet optical services.





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