wiredInUSA - December 2011
Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd and Furukawa
Electric Co Ltd have developed optical
interconnect technology for the
high-speed, large-bandwidth internal
data transmissions demanded by the
next generation of high-performance
servers.
Transmissions via the currently used
copper wire present limitations with
increasing speed and bandwidth.
However, with optical transmission over
fiber optic lines issues arise concerning
required space.
Now Fujitsu Laboratories and Furukawa
Electric have developed optical
interconnect technology that increases
the density of fiber optic lines while
enabling high-bandwidth internal
communications at speeds of 50Tbps,
ten times faster than is possible with
existing copper lines.
This technology promises to enable
high-bandwidth, high-performance
servers capable of a wide range
of services involving real-time analysis
of huge amounts of data from sensors,
such as forecasts of traffic congestion
and of electricity demand.
Japanese joint
development
Chinese telecoms equipment vendor
ZTE is among several international firms
planning to participate in Safaricom’s
recently-announced tender for firms to
install, operate and maintain a 4,000km
national fiber optic network. Business
Daily Africa reports that the cable,
provisionally priced at USD $50.5 million,
will become the second largest inland
network behind the 4,300km National
Optic Fibre Backbone Infrastructure
(NOFBI).
Three different equipment suppliers
were chosen to deploy NOFBI, with
each vendor responsible for one of the
three regional sections; Huawei deployed
networks in Nairobi and the central
region, ZTE covered the west, and Sagem
handled the coastal and north-eastern
zones.
ZTE is believed to be the fourth company
to declare its intention to participate,
following local firms Jamii Telecoms Ltd
(JTL), Kenya Data Networks (KDN) and
Soliton Telemec. Safaricom’s director
of corporate affairs, Nzioka Waita, has
confirmed that several other global
vendors have expressed interest,
commenting: “We are seeing a wide
range of interest from both local and
international vendor community and
which offers us with good ground for
negotiating the pricing.”
Fiber deal attracting
interest
31
ASIA / AFRICA NEWS
