MTN South Africa and Huawei Deploy Ultra-Long-Haul 400G Optical Backbone, Leaping Towards the F5.5G

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Recently, South Africa MTN and Huawei jointly launched the Ultra-Long-Haul (ULH) 400G optical transport backbone project, aiming to establish high-bandwidth, low-latency, and high-reliability connections between cities in the country, laying a solid foundation for South Africa’s digital and sustainable development, and Leaping towards the F5.5G era.

MTN South Africa, in collaboration with Huawei, has successfully achieved the first ULH 400G commercial link from Cape Town to Bloemfontein. In 2024, it will further expand the deployment of ULH 400G in the backbone links to create ultra-high-speed connections between cities, in order to meet the escalating capacity demands of 5G, home broadband, and enterprise users. Meanwhile, the high-dimensional backbone sites in the network will be transformed into the latest Optical Cross-Connect (OXC) solution, which not only supports the evolution of the existing network to the 400G+ generation, but also enhances energy efficiency to meet the future capacity requirements of the massive data demand in Africa and accelerate the achievement of the goal of a complete average reduction of 50% in carbon emissions by 2030.

ULH 400G and 800G are the critical technologies of the F5.5G industry. The ULH 400G solution employed in this project adopts built-in high baud modulators and QPSK modulation. With the unique Channel-Matched Shaping (CMS) 2.0 algorithm, the transmission distance is increased by 20%, meeting the large capacity and ultra-long-distance transmission requirements of national backbone networks and transnational backbones.

Takalani Ligudu, Senior Specialist in Core Fibre and Transmission at MTN SA, said: “The Ultra-Long-Haul 400G deployment with Huawei is a result of MTN’s purpose to enable the benefits of a modern connected life for everyone. MTN has been committed to leading digital solutions for South Africa’s progress by using industry leading technologies to deliver superior network services”.

“400G solutions can not only bring more bandwidth, but also bring lower per-bit power consumption. ”Victor Zhou, president of optical transmission domain at Huawei, pointed out: “We will continue to support MTN to build a F5.5G All-Optical Premium Transmission Network, laying a foundation for the country’s digital economy and ensuring optimal user experience.”

This joint effort by MTN in South Africa and Huawei has set a new standard for the development of the communication industry in the African region and also injected new momentum into the global push towards the F5.5G generation.

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