There’s no denying that Open Submarine Cables are gaining traction, and for very good reasons, such as purchasing Submarine Line Terminal Equipment (SLTE) and wet plants from different vendors. This provides benefits such as the ability to build best-in-breed submarine networks, faster innovation and improved economics via increased competition, and a more secure vendor supply chain. However, with benefits come challenges, such as multi-vendor network management and more involved link engineering.

Benefits far outweigh the challenges

To overcome challenges associated with open, multi-vendor submarine networks, the industry has formed Working Groups and developed new standards aimed at facilitating this vastly improved business model. We’re doing our part here at Ciena by help wholesalers and Internet Content Providers better understand this more flexible business model by creating four free handbooks covering the following topics, which are now available in one easy download:

Open Submarine Cables: Covers the key technical considerations related to designing or purchasing a new submarine cable, open or otherwise.

Open Submarine Cable Management: Covers how to simplify and facilitate the management of a multi-vendor submarine network.

Simplifying Open Submarine Cable Link Engineering: Covers a new and better open submarine cable link engineering approach.

Ciena Spectrum Sharing: Covers the technical and operational concepts required to enable virtual fiber pairs on an open submarine cable.

“At Ciena, we believe openness, overland and undersea, is the networking future that unleashes rapid innovation via increased competition within a broader and more secure vendor supply chain. As such, we’ve created this bundle of free handbooks created by our submarine networking experts to help operators navigate the Open Submarine Cables business model.” – Thomas Soerensen, Senior Director of Global Submarine Sales

These four great resources are FREE—and available via a single download available here.