Global Marine’s First installation of New Repeater Following Successful Sea Trials

Global Marine Systems Limited, a UK-headquartered specialist in underwater cabling and engineering projects, has just completed a major fiber optic installation project in the Gulf of Guinea. Importantly, this major telecommunications project for customer Huawei Marine Networks (HMN), a Global Marine joint venture partner, will be the first installation of the R2 repeater following successful sea trials, which took place on Cable Innovator in November 2014.

The project, saw the installation of a 1,011 km repeatered fiber optic subsea cable system installed between Lagos in Nigeria and Kribi in Cameroon. It also encompassed a branching unit, for future connection, to Escravos and Qua Iboe in Nigeria’s southeast region.

Project activities included PLGR (post lay grapnel run) and route clearance, surface lay, cable burial, the supply and installation of pipeline crossing protection, PLIB (post lay inspection burial), and direct shore ends. Global Marine’s C.S. Sovereign, a multi-role DPS-2 vessel, capable of performing a diverse range of offshore engineering activities, undertook the project. Earlier this year, C.S. Sovereign successfully completed a platform-to-platform fiber optic system installation in the North Sea for oil & gas communications specialist Tampnet, complete with a Cable End Module (CEM) deployment.

A highlight of the project was the first deployment of HMN’s second-generation RPT 1660 R2 repeater. Which, provides an optical loop back facility for performance monitoring and accurate fault location. The upgraded product supports up to six fiber pairs and incorporates unique, 4x4 pump redundancy architecture. The new design, with its slim-line profile allows for simultaneous lay and burial of the product, increasing the efficiency of the installation process.

“We are very proud to successfully deliver this system for HMN,” says Andy Lloyd, Director, Installation at Global Marine. “Coupling our expertise and our long standing capability in subsea engineering with HMN’s advanced transmission technology, we are confident that this system will bring solid, high capacity data communications to Nigeria and Cameroon."