Coral Sea Cable System
The 4700 km Coral Sea Cable System is a 40Tbps submarine fibre optic cable that brings next-generation connectivity to the people of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. It directly connects Port Moresby in PNG and Honiara in the Solomon Islands to the global internet hub of Sydney Australia.
The Coral Sea Cable System will play and ongoing role in supporting the economic and social development of both countries.
Faster, more affordable and reliable communications infrastructure is now available to Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, with construction of the CS2 and SIDN projects now complete.
Cable System Details
The Coral Sea Cable System is based on repeated 100G technology using Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) in the 1550nm window.
Cable System
The cable system has been supplied and installed by Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) and includes:
Submarine cable featuring strong protection against external aggression via a steel vault structure and armoured protection
High performance fibre with large core area
Highly reliable repeaters designed for wide-band WDM applications.
Terminal Equipment
CS² utilises ASN's proven 1620 SOFTNODE Submarine Line Terminal Equipment (SLTE) providing:
High traffic availability through redundancy of key components
Large capacity and compact size
High performance 100Gb/s advanced coherent line interfaces
Software configurable client interfaces supporting various services.
Other Details
The CS² system also uses:
Highly reliable and duplicated DC power feeding equipment with single end feeding capability
State-of-the-art Submarine Network management accessible from all terminal stations and the Network Operations Centre for preventive and corrective maintenance, including wet plant fault localisation
A robust Data Communication Network (DCN) featuring protection against wavelength failure and cable break.
The Ile de Bréhat Cable Laying Ship
Construction Project
The Coral Sea Cable System (CS2) is a 4,700km long fibre optic submarine cable system linking Sydney, Australia, to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea and Honiara, Solomon Islands. It was constructed by Vocus Communications and Alcatel Submarine Networks over an 18 month period to December 2019. The construction project also included the 730km Solomon Islands Domestic Network connecting Honiara to Auki (Malaita Island), Noro (New Georgia Island) and Taro Island.
The four fibre-pair international system can deliver up to 20Tbps capacity to Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands respectively, a total capacity of up to 40Tbps. This significantly augments Papua New Guinea’s existing submarine cable capacity. The Solomon Islands previously relied solely on satellite for international voice and data communications.
The Coral Sea Cable System delivers faster, cheaper and more reliable communications infrastructure, affording both countries significant economic and development benefits.
Australia provided the majority funding for this cable, with PNG and Solomon Islands Governments jointly contributing up to one third of project costs.
World Bank research estimates that improved internet access and connectivity could translate into additional GDP of more than USD5 billion and close to 300,000 additional jobs in the Pacific by 2040.
