Hawaiki launching 400Gbps Ethernet services

The Hawaiki Australia-US cable is now offering 400Gbps Ethernet services.

The cable switched on the high-speed services, which target transpacific data centre and hyperscaler connectivity, a year after the Southern Cross Cable Network entered the 400GbE market.

The two cables have in common Ciena kit as the basis of their high-capacity service, with the vendor’s WaveLogic 5 Extreme programmable 800G technology as the coherent optics platform, and the 6500 Packet-Optical Platform providing line termination, both as part of the GeoMesh Extreme architecture.

Ludovic Hutier, CEO of cable owner BW Digital, described the upgrade as “but one of many connectivity highlights that we hope to continue to bring to our customers.”

The cable also uses Ciena’s Waveserver 5 interconnect platform to provide lower latency connections between Oregon and Hawaii, as well as improving reliability and availability.

The 13,540km cable connects Australia, New Zealand, American Samoa, Hawaii and the US west coast.

The other key participant in the upgrade was test equipment vendor Exfo, which provided optical tests across the Sydney-US cable segment to validate the performance of the 400GbE service.