Contact Information: For further information: For Finisar: Victoria McDonald Tel. +1 (408) 542-4261 Email Contact For Infinera: Jeff Ferry Tel. +1 (650) 273-2100 Email Contact For Internet2: Lauren Rotman Email Contact Tel. +1-202-331-5345
Ground-Breaking 100 Gigabit Ethernet Demonstration Across 4,000 Km Live Network
Higher-Speed Ethernet Required to Support IP Network Growth
| Source: Infinera
SUNNYVALE, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- November 13, 2006 -- A first-ever demonstration of 100 Gigabit
Ethernet (100GbE) technology by a team of industry leaders, including
Finisar, Infinera, Internet2, Level 3 Communications, and University of
California at Santa Cruz, shows that 100GbE technology is viable and
capable of implementation in existing optical networks with 10
Gigabit/second (Gb/s) wavelengths. This breakthrough trial also highlights
how next-generation technology can address the emerging bandwidth needs of
network providers and their users as advanced Internet-based applications
continue to proliferate.
The system successfully transmitted a 100GbE signal from Tampa, Florida to
Houston, Texas, and back again, over ten 10 Gb/s channels through the Level
3 network. This is the first time a 100GbE signal has been successfully
transmitted through a live production network. The 100GbE system will be on
display from November 14th to the 16th at the Infinera booth (Booth no.
1157) at the SC06 International Conference in Tampa. The system will be
transmitting a 100GbE signal to the Internet2 booth (Booth no. 1451) during
the show.
"This successful demonstration shows that this concept of 100GbE over 10x10
Gb/s DWDM works and provides a near future implementation path," said Dr.
Daryl Inniss, vice president of Ovum-RHK's Communication Components
research.
"100 Gigabit Ethernet will be a critical technology to accommodate
bandwidth growth, and this demonstration shows that we have the capability
to implement this as a super-lambda service over today's networks," said
Infinera co-founder and CTO Drew Perkins. "The Infinera DTN, which is the
only DWDM system that supports 100 Gb/s on a line card, is capable today of
handling 100GbE services simply and cost-effectively."
"The research and education community continues to be the key driver for
the development of extreme bandwidth services like 100GbE," said Steve
Cotter, Internet2's director of network services. "We are very interested
in investigating this breakthrough technology, in collaboration with our
network partners, to ensure that our network not only keeps pace but also
anticipates the future demands of our members as they pursue increasingly
bandwidth-intensive applications, from telemedicine to high-energy physics
to high-performance grid computing, among many others."
"This new approach to providing 100 Gig Ethernet service over long
distances enables LAN Ethernet protocols in the WAN environment," said Jack
Waters, CTO of Level 3. "Compared to other methods that have been
demonstrated, this is a practical, economical solution that operates over
the wide area using existing DWDM technologies. We're pleased to have been
involved with developing and testing this solution, and will be watching
closely as it is commercialized."
Super-Lambda Services
The largest IP backbones are currently using multiple 10 Gb/s links between
core sites, and will soon demand 100 Gb/s connections to increase their
capacity to keep up with fast-growing bandwidth demand. Many service
providers prefer to support 100 Gigabit Ethernet links using their current
transport network infrastructures. This demonstration shows that today's
10 Gb/s transport networks can support 100GbE services. The system
developed and displayed this week relies on a single-chip 100GbE network
interface that implements a lane alignment and packet resequencing scheme
to bond 10 parallel 10 Gb/s channels into one logical flow while
maintaining packet ordering at the receiver. This eliminates the
performance issues that can arise with the use of the existing link
aggregation techniques for combining multiple data channels. Services that
combine multiple wavelengths to offer a single service are referred to as
super-lambda services.
Finisar provided the optical transceivers for this demonstration, Infinera
provided the DWDM system and project management, Internet2 was involved in
developing the methodology and supporting the demonstration, Level 3
Communications provided the ten 10 Gb/s channels from Tampa to Houston, and
UCSC designed and implemented the network interface including the packet
resequencing scheme.
Video: A High-Speed Application
The research and education community is a leader in creating very large
flows on the Internet, with some research institutions planning on flows in
multiple hundreds of Gigabits/second or even Terabits/second. In a related
demonstration at the Internet2 booth on the SC06 showfloor, Internet2 and
Infinera will also showcase an advanced two-way videoconferencing
application. Reliable, two-way video technology is quickly becoming a
critical and necessary component of many important research and education
initiatives including those in telemedicine, seismology and astronomy.
100GbE technology would enable more than 3000 DVTS (Digital Video Transport
System) or more than 60 uncompressed High-definition TV (HDTV) video
applications to operate simultaneously on a single interface.
Industry Standard is a Priority
The IEEE Higher Speed Study Group (HSSG) recently began working on
specifications for higher speed Ethernet. The partners in this
demonstration are actively supporting these efforts. The pre-standard
specification used in this demonstration was jointly developed by Infinera
and a UCSC team including Professor of Computer Engineering Anujan Varma
and his Ph.D. student Arvinderpal S. Wander.
The annual SC06 International Conference on High-Performance Computing,
Networking, Storage, and Analysis will be held at the Tampa Convention
Center in Tampa, Florida. For more show information, visit
http://sc06.supercomputing.org/.
About the Technical Demonstration
The demonstration encodes a 100GbE signal into ten 10 Gb/s streams using an
Infinera-proposed specification for 100GbE across multiple links. A single
Xilinx FPGA implements this packet numbering scheme and electrically
transmits all ten signals to ten of Finisar's 10 Gb/s XFP optical
transceivers which in turn convert the signals to optics. These signals are
then transmitted to an Infinera DTN DWDM system. For the long-distance
demonstration, conducted last week, the 100GbE signal was then handed off
to Infinera systems within the Level 3 network where it was transmitted
across the Level 3 network to Houston and back. This pre-standard
specification for 100GbE guarantees the ordering of the packets and quality
of the signal across 10 Gb/s wavelengths and demonstrates that it is
possible for carriers to offer 100GbE services across today's 10 Gb/s
infrastructure.
About Finisar
Finisar Corporation (NASDAQ : FNSR ) is a technology leader for fiber optic
components and subsystems and network test and monitoring systems. These
products enable high-speed data communications for networking and storage
applications over Gigabit Ethernet Local Area Networks (LANs), Fibre
Channel Storage Area Networks (SANs), and Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs)
using Fibre Channel, IP, SAS, SATA and SONET/SDH protocols. The Company's
headquarters is in Sunnyvale, California, USA. www.finisar.com.
About Infinera
Infinera provides Digital Optical Networking systems to telecommunications
carriers worldwide. Infinera's systems are unique in their use of a
breakthrough semiconductor technology: the Photonic Integrated Circuit
(PIC). Infinera's systems and PIC technology are designed to provide
optical networks with simpler engineering and operations, faster
time-to-service, and more flexible networking. For more information, please
visit www.infinera.com.
About Internet2
Internet2 is the foremost U.S. advanced networking consortium. Led by the
research and education community since 1996, Internet2 promotes the
missions of its members by providing both leading-edge network capabilities
and unique partnership opportunities that together facilitate the
development, deployment and use of revolutionary Internet technologies.
Internet2 brings the U.S. research and academic community together with
technology leaders from industry, government and the international
community to undertake collaborative efforts that have a fundamental impact
on tomorrow's Internet.
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements based on
current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and
uncertainties. These statements are based on information available to
Infinera as of the date hereof; and actual results could differ materially
from those stated or implied, due to risks and uncertainties.
Forward-looking statements include statements regarding Infinera's
expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future and
can be identified by forward-looking words such as "anticipated,"
"believed," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "should,"
"will," and "would" or similar words. Infinera assumes no obligation to
update the information included in this press release, whether as a result
of new information, future events or otherwise.