Infinera Boosts CapacityInfinera Boosts Capacity

SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- Infinera (Nasdaq: INFN) will introduce the ILS2, its next-generation optical line system at next week’s NXTcomm08 trade show. The new line system, based on a new passive photonic integrated circuit (PIC) platform, represents a breakthrough in optical system design. It packs up to 160 DWDM (or dense wavelength division multiplexing) channels into the C-band, increases the optical reach of the system to 2500 kilometers, and enables greater capacity, with future scalability up to 8 Terabits/second (Tb/s) on a single fiber, supporting bandwidth growth and 10 Gigabit/second (Gb/s), 40 Gb/s and 100 Gb/s service delivery.

Improvements in Capacity and Density—without Sacrificing Digital Ease of Use

The ILS2 system, which begins shipping this summer, employs a 25 Gigahertz (GHz) grid, twice the density of Infinera’s previous line system. This allows transmission of 160 DWDM channels of light within the C-band. Extremely dense channel spacing is achieved by high-performance optical filters and multiplexers integrated into a new passive PIC designed by Infinera and manufactured at Infinera’s Annapolis Junction, Maryland semiconductor fabrication facility. [See related news release: Infinera Unveils New Passive PIC Platform.]

Infinera believes that the ILS2 system is an ideal platform for network operators offering large volumes of 10G, 40G, and future 100G services. With Infinera’s market-leading DTN line cards, the ILS2 delivers up to 1.6 Tb/s of optical capacity. Once Infinera introduces its next-generation line cards, the ILS2 system will deliver 160 DWDM channels each operating at 40 Gb/s, for total capacity of 6.4 Tb/s, entirely in the C-band. In an 8 Tb/s configuration, Infinera line cards will deliver 80 channels at 100 Gb/s each, for a new industry standard in optical capacity on a fiber.

In a separate release:

SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- Infinera (Nasdaq: INFN) is introducing two new passive photonic integrated circuits (PICs) with the launch of its ILS2 line system today. Infinera’s passive PICs are designed to deliver benefits similar to Infinera’s existing PICs, including greater density of functionality in a smaller space, reduced power consumption, simplified manufacturing, and enhanced reliability. The introduction of these additional PICs should increase the importance and the value of photonic integration as a key enabling technology for service providers facing the growing challenge of meeting escalating bandwidth demand while keeping a grip on network cost.

Infinera’s optoelectronic or “active” PICs will continue to sit at the heart of Infinera’s DTN system. The active PICs, offering 100 Gigabits/second of DWDM capacity on every Infinera line card, have integrated active devices such as lasers, modulators, and photodiodes. These active PICs are now in their second generation of development and include additional functionality not present on the first generation of active PICs. Future generations of active PICs are planned to scale to higher capacities and to add additional functionality. In March, independent analyst firm Heavy Reading labeled Infinera the world leader in photonic integration technology and estimated Infinera had a four-year lead over the rest of the industry in photonic integration technology.

Infinera’s new passive PICs integrate passive devices such as multiplexers, interleavers, variable optical attenuators and waveguides, and play key roles in routing and filtering DWDM wavelengths in the ILS2 system, which enables up to160 DWDM channels on a single fiber. [See related news release, Infinera Introduces New Line System, Sets New Standard for Capacity for further information on ILS2.] Infinera’s passive PIC technology is based on the use of a proprietary glass, Hydex®, which enables a reduction in the size of the planar lightwave circuits (PLCs) on the PICs by roughly 90% compared to conventional material technologies. Hydex is manufactured at Infinera’s semiconductor fabrication facility in Annapolis Junction, Maryland, which is also where the passive PICs are produced. Hydex supports waveguides with far tighter bends than conventional PLCs, enabling dense integration of devices on Hydex-based PICs, yielding chips far smaller with significantly more functionality than conventional PLC devices.

In a separate release:

SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- Infinera (Nasdaq: INFN) today announced that it has completed a high bandwidth, regional optical network in California for SAVVIS, Inc., a global leader in IT infrastructure services for business applications, which will augment its Application Transport Network (ATN) (announced separately on December 6, 2007) in California.

Based in St. Louis, Missouri, SAVVIS Communications Corporation (NYSE: SVVS) operates a global IT services platform and 29 data centers spanning North America, Europe and Asia. SAVVIS uses this infrastructure to deliver a wide variety of dedicated, managed and virtualized hosting, network and security services to its customers. SAVVIS’ ATN, a Tier 1 Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) network, enables SAVVIS to further virtualize and optimize the delivery of customer applications.

Driven by the performance requirements of customer applications hosted in its data centers, SAVVIS turned to Infinera to expand and enhance the flexibility of its California network capacity to meet customer expectations for reduced latency and increased bandwidth. SAVVIS will upgrade its California network to Infinera’s new ILS2 line system, which becomes available this summer, to take advantage of the scalability, extended optical reach, and other advanced features in ILS2.

“In order to meet the demands of the market and our customers, we needed to enhance our network services in California with a highly scalable, technologically advanced optical transport network. Infinera has enabled SAVVIS to quickly install new network capacity, and with Infinera’s world class capabilities we are able to grow our data centers and our business in an environmentally responsible manner,” said Dennis Brouwer, Vice President of Network Business Line Management for SAVVIS.

Infinera Corp. (Nasdaq: INFN)

Savvis (Nasdaq: SVVS)