MTN South Africa and Huawei have
completed Africa's first scale deployment of an 800G optical network, marking a
significant step towards green and reliable networks that boost the digital and
sustainable development of Africa.
The 800G links were set up, with a single fiber capacity of 48Tbps, to connect data centres in Johannesburg,
Durban and Cape Town. This domestic backbone will meet MTN’s growing capacity
requirements for its cloud-based business services, enhanced home broadband,
and wireless networks. It also delivers optimal cost per bit and improved
energy efficiency. As a result, MTN SA has become the leading company with this
innovative transport technology. This achievement is another important
milestone to fulfill its promise to deliver best-in-class, energy-efficient and
robust networks in Africa.
MTN SA has utilized Huawei's leading
optical transport solutions, including 400G/800G per channel, Optical
Cross-Connect (OXC), and Automatically Switched Optical Network
(ASON). The OXC solution has been deployed in the backbone nodes, not only to
meet long-term capacity and degree-expansion requirements but also to improve the
network energy efficiency by reducing power consumption by 60% compared to
conventional ROADM technology. ASON solution delivers the reliability, flexibility, and robustness that next-generation optical transport requires while enabling service differentiation and reducing operations and maintenance
costs.
Takalani Ligudu, Senior Specialist
in Core Fibre and Transmission at MTN SA, said: “The 800G, OXC and ASON scale deployment with Huawei is a result of
MTN’s clear vision to lead the delivery of a bold new digital world to
customers. MTN is proud of having one of the world’s advanced networks and
using industry-leading technologies to deliver superior network services for
our customers across South Africa.”
Victor Zhou, president of the optical
transmission domain at Huawei, pointed out: “It
is a great honour to work with MTN SA to bring the leading and green optical
technologies into South Africa, building an advanced optical network for digital
development.”
