Telecom Lead Africa: Unitel’s 100G WDM network will be powered by Huawei.

Africa’s first 100G WDM network marks the start of commercial applications of 100G networks on the African continent.

Leveraging Huawei optical transport technology, including coherent transmission and ASON technologies, the 100G WDM network will offer Unitel a future-ready intelligent and infinite Bandwidth Cloud.

Unitel faces challenges including bandwidth needs as new services such as HSPA+, LTE, and FTTX, continue to grow, and accidental damage to fiber optic cables, which frequently occurs due to fast-paced construction in urban areas.

Huawei’s 100G ASON achieves a future-proof capacity of up to 8 Tbit/s per fiber over an ultra-long reach.

Moreover, Huawei’s ASON technology supports resilient protection against multiple fiber cuts and thus significantly enhances network reliability. ASON technology enables management bandwidths by offering a variety of service classes. Huawei’s 100G OTN technology enhances network efficiency and flexibility, by virtue of its support for multi-service access, multiplexing, and cross-connections.

“Huawei has served the communications sector on the African continent for a long time. Huawei is about to use the cutting-edge 100G technology to link the African continent together, and to enrich people’s lives in Africa by offering faster and more efficient communications. Huawei hopes that it can make its own contribution to the take-off of the African economy,” said Jack Wang, president of Huawei’s transport product line.

Huawei claims that its 100G networks are serving more than 40 carriers in over 30 countries and regions across Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia Pacific. Huawei’s 100G networks span over 50,000 kilometers.

According to Ovum, Huawei ranks first in the global optical network, WDM/OTN, and 40G/100G markets, as of Q2 2012.

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