Xtera products

Xtera® have an innovative portfolio of subsea and telecoms technology. Submarine cable solution design, deep sea cables, deployment and commissioning are at the heart of our expertise.

Xtera’s core team is made up of industry experts each with 20 to 30 years’ experience in the design and installation of submarine cable systems.

The systems design team includes specialists in the simulation of undersea optical systems who have developed highly specialized modelling tools and a dedicated optical test-bed, allowing us to optimize transmission solutions to individual networks. Xtera has deployed its optical networking solutions in over sixty countries across five continents. 

We are creative and agile, supplying custom-built unrepeatered and repeatered systems that utilise our exclusive range of high-performance optical amplifiers to deliver traffic directly inland. Through continuous investment in research and development, Xtera have a state-of-the-art reliable range of submarine cable technologies.

Xtera shore end
Submarine System Technology

Submarine System Technology

  • Innovative SDM Hybrid Raman / EDFA Repeater
  • Advanced C band Repeater allowing for long span low-cost designs
  • Open System and Virtual Fibre Gateway Product family for fibre pair access and spectrum sharing
  • In-land extension products for Data Centre to Date Centre connectivity
  • Advanced Raman amplifiers for industry leading unrepeatered systems
  • Branching Units for highly resilient power-switching
  • Nu-wave Optima™ terminal equipment for subsea and terrestrial applications
  • User friendly Network Management Systems

For more information, please use the button below to request details via email.

Repeater Units

Our advanced submarine repeater unit has been designed with reliability and performance foremost, allowing us to deliver a highly optimised and robust transmission system. Our hybrid repeater uses Raman technology to reduce line noise, which allows us to offer long-span, high-bandwidth systems. The repeater features a light-weight and compact titanium design that can be plough-buried. Simple and rapid monitoring of repeater optical levels, pump health, internal temperature, etc., is provided via the Line Monitoring Equipment.

Our repeaters also have an in-built accelerometer that allows us to monitor repeater handling during marine operations, and the system owner to track any unexpected movement after installation.

Key features:

  • C and C+L band variants with optical bandwidth up to 70nm
  • Depth capability qualified to 8,000m
  • 2 – 24 fibre pair variants
  • High reliability design, with redundancy in pumps and controllers
  • Per amplifier tilt control, removing the need for separate tilt equalisers
  • Active supervisory & C-OTDR compatibility
Repeater Units
Branching Units

Branching Units

Our branching unit leverages many of the advanced mechanical features of the repeater. The current release supports fibre routing and fixed OADM. The branching unit power switching is controlled via the supervisory, which has the following advantages:

  • Simpler to configure than current-steering
  • More stable; only changes state when a command is sent
  • Can be locked for safety
  • Can be powered up from a single leg
  • Can isolate a leg for insulation testing

The branching unit has been designed to have high resistant power and optical switching. Maximum deployment depth, using standard Light Weight cable, is >5,000m.

For more information, please use the button below to request details via email.

Open Systems

A number of our products are designed to support Open systems, facilitating separate supply of terminal, power feeding and wet plant equipment.

Our Open system family provides active supervisory of the submerged plant and allows monitoring of the PFE via the NMS. In the Open System Gateway (OSG) fibre pairs are independently controlled and isolated from each other.

Additionally, units may be fitted to allow the bandwidth of a fibre to be shared, effectively creating virtual fibre pairs with users completely isolated from each other. High reliability amplifiers control power levels and loading modules fill unused bandwidth, avoiding the problems that would occur if a terminal were to fail or be disconnected. The OSG is fully managed by the NMS.

Deep sea cable open systems
Open Systems Gateway

Open System Gateway

Xtera’s Open System Gateway provides a complete solution for submerged plant implementing either ‘active’ or ‘passive’ monitoring. The ability to interrogate Xtera submerged plant, both repeaters and BU, together with legacy submerged plant available from other Suppliers. Open System Gateway provides the means for monitoring submerged plant from other suppliers who implement only a ‘passive’ plant monitoring scheme.

Open System technology enables the monitoring and control of submerged plants based upon low-frequency optical signalling to the submerged plant. The modulation schemes implemented handled both Xtera submerged plant – which is binary PSK-based, and competitor submerged plant – which varies between OOK and binary PSK, which depends upon the system in question.

All submerged plant is provided with a unique address, during manufacture, which allows each repeater/BU to be interrogated or controlled on an individual basis, using a command and response protocol.

Network Management System

Our NMS manages the wet-plant, Nu-wave™ Optima and PFE, automatically logging alarms, events and performance data and allowing an operator to monitor and control these units. Users’ login via a secure password system and their access is controlled by a profile set by the System Administrator.

The system can limit users to access only certain equipment, or give the ability to monitor, but not control/change system parameters. The NMS is a Client-Server architecture, based on a LINUX/ SUN server and PCs as clients. The NMS manages the equipment in several sites and supports multiple clients.

Network Management System
Optima Terminal Equipment

Optima Terminal Equipment

Our Nu-wave™ Optima platform provides a common, modular platform that can serve terrestrial, unrepeatered and ultra-long span submarine applications. The Optima employs the latest technology, supporting software selectable QPSK/8QAM/16QAM/32QAM and hybrid modulation schemes with variable baud-rates. The Optima offers high equipment density, low power consumption and a responsive, easy-to-use Management System that manages all Xtera products.

Key features:

  • Extended reach through Raman amplification
  • Common, integrated set of plug-and-play modules
  • Fully tuneable line units over the entire bandwidth
  • High power Raman and ROPA for industry-leading spans without repeaters
  • End-to-end unified network management system
  • A range of simple and cost-effective protection schemes
  • Repeater LME supervisory
  • Data Communications facilities
  • Reconfigurable Optical Add Drop Multiplexer (ROADM)

The branching unit has been designed to allow hot switching without damage. Maximum deployment depth, using standard Light Weight cable, is >5,000m.

Optical Amplifiers

These product details are currently being updated. Please use the button below to request information from our team. Thank you.

Xtera Repeater
Unrepeatered Systems

Unrepeatered Systems

We are the industry leader in unrepeatered applications, experienced in both equipping existing links and complete build systems. We use combinations of forward and backwards Raman pumping and ROPAs for maximum unrepeatered reach. The Nu-waveTM Optima has demonstrated 100Gbit/s transmission over a 627km fibre span.