Deep-tech fibre sensing company FiberSense and subsea cable provider Southern Cross Cable Network (SX) have announced an expansion of their relationship with the implementation of FiberSense’s Digital Marine subsea cable monitoring capability across SX’s New Zealand shore-end infrastructure.
The state-of-the-art implementation provides 24×7 monitoring of both shore-ends (from cable landing station to first repeater) and the terrestrial network connecting the two landing stations, providing total “always on” coverage.
“We are extremely pleased to collaborate with FiberSense and integrate the distributed fibre sensing service into a live traffic carrying fibre via the proprietary FiberSense Marine Interface Unit where sensing occurs outside the frequencies used for data traffic wavelengths,” said SX’s Dean Veverka. “The integration was executed seamlessly, and our network is seeing the benefit of the real-time asset protection capability against potential external threats.”
The Southern Cross Cable Network comprises three diverse submarine communications cables from Oceania to the US West Coast where global Internet hubs are located. The Southern Cross NEXT cable is the latest high-performance express route in the Southern Cross ecosystem, providing data centre connectivity between Sydney, Auckland, and Los Angeles.
Operation of the sensing service via the Marine Interface Unit means that cable operators no longer need to reserve an unused or dark fibre core exclusively for monitoring. FiberSense has developed a proprietary coupling methodology to ensure that the sensing signal does not interfere with the operation of the communications traffic, including fault states, providing peace of mind to cable owners and stakeholders.
“Subsea networks are an increasingly vital part of the modern digital and AI era,” said FiberSense Founder and CEO Mark Englund. “We continue to be very grateful for the partnership we have with the exceptional team at SX as we continue to innovate and push the boundaries of what is possible in improved awareness and resilience for submarine cable systems. In partnership with SX, we now have delivered a series of world firsts in subsea networks. We are looking forward to further innovations in subsea that balance increased resilience and situational awareness with industry-leading fail-safe architectures.”
The integration of the FiberSense DigitalMarine service in New Zealand is the first stage of the SX rollout plan of the new technology. By the end of September, the new generation technology will be installed on all critical terrestrial links and out to first repeaters of the SX network in Australia, New Zealand and the United States West Coast. With the improved algorithms and techniques to detect seabed interaction events (such as anchoring and fishing), greater accuracy in detecting cable exposures, along with better integration with AIS for vessel identification, the SX Network will benefit from class-leading levels of protection monitoring assisting in threat detection, prevention, and rectification time.
