Vodacom South Africa and Nokia are working together to bolster the transmission capacity of the operator’s national optical transmission network.

According to the companies, with the application of Nokia’s Photonic Service Engine 3 (PSE-3) chipset hardware, the results of a recent field trial showed a significant increase in transmission network capacity for Vodacom South Africa.

The live network trial successfully established a high-capacity 500Gbps link between regional datacentres in Midrand and a 300Gbps link over a long-distance route between Cape Town and Midrand.

The companies point out that this was achieved without any electrical regeneration on a route that spans more than 1600 kilometres.

The optical transmission network allows the transference of data on different light frequencies in an optic fibre cable.

Vodacom and Nokia explain that the deployment of the Nokia 1830 Photonic Service Switch will assist Vodacom South Africa in maintaining high quality data services across the country, to address the ongoing surge in data traffic during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

Beverly Ngwenya, Technology Director at Vodacom South Africa.

It will also ensure that the optical network is ready for the higher peak network speeds which will result from the expansion of 5G services, amongst others.The nationwide optical network will connect all major South African cities, large datacentres and network hubs, the companies add.

Beverly Ngwenya, Technology Director at Vodacom South Africa, said: “Initiatives such as these will ensure that our customers continue to enjoy a high quality network service while also allowing Vodacom to optimise its network resources to support the increase in demand for data connectivity services and for the expansion of our 5G network in future."

Roque Lozano, Vice President of IP and Optics for the Middle East and Africa market at Nokia.

Roque Lozano, Vice President of IP and Optics for the Middle East and Africa market at Nokia, said:"We are pleased with the results of our trial that comes from our continued strategic partnership with Vodacom South Africa. Our solution will support the operator in meeting the ever-growing demand for more capacity that comes with 5G, Fibre-to-the-Home and Enterprise DCI, maximising its optical network's performance with highly reliable and flexible new services."