UAE's integrated telecommunications company du said it has signed up Alcatel-Lucent to build the second phase of its high-speed 100G coherent optical transport network to be launched across the emirates.

 

The new optical transport network will enable du to dramatically boost the speed and capacity of its existing network, and thanks to the efficiency of OTN sub-wavelength grooming, it will support the booming explosion of data traffic generated by the proliferation of mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets in the most economical way, said a statement from du. 

 

As per the agreement, du will use Alcatel-Lucent’s 1830 Photonic Service Switch (PSS) to address the booming demand for high-bandwidth data services such as high-definition video streaming, next-generation mobile broadband applications and cloud services. 

 

Commenting on the deal, Saleem AlBalooshi, the executive VP, Customer Operations and acting executive VP for Network Development and Operations, du, said: "Customer experience is our priority. We constantly endeavour to develop our infrastructure, taking into consideration the digital age and the changing needs of our customers."

 

He pointed out that the demand for data services was growing by the second. "We selected Alcatel-Lucent’s solution to help boost the capabilities of our network in order to accommodate future needs. We are confident that Alcatel-Lucent’s global knowledge will contribute to delivering the best experience as a result of this project," he added.

 

According to him, the network capacity and performance will be significantly boosted by taking advantage of unique Bell Labs silicon innovations to support data speeds of 100 gigabits-per-second on each of the 88 wavelengths.

 

Amr K. El-Leithy, the president, Middle East, Turkey and Africa region, Alcatel-Lucent, said, "The new SD-FEC based 100G coherent optical transport network du is deploying will enable them to future differentiate themselves and meet the ever-growing broadband data needs of their customers."

 

Alcatel-Lucent, he said, will be supplying du with its soft decision forward error correction (SD-FEC) -based 100G coherent optical technology developed using the company’s recently introduced Photonic Service Engine (PSE), 400G chip.

 

SD-FEC is a method that can extend the reach of 100G signals to much longer, more usable distances, he added.-TradeArabia News Service