Infinera Demonstrates its 100GigE Solutions

For Infinera (NASDAQ:INFN, news, filings), OFC/NFOEC 2010 is always one of the bigger events of the year and they can always be counted on to demonstrate their latest progress – though perhaps not necessarily to drive an 18 wheeler onto the show floor in the process.  This time, unsurprisingly, they were focused strongly on 100 Gigabit Ethernet, and they showed a 100 GigE transmission over their current DTN gear using a prototype 100 GigE tributary interface module.  It should be noted of course that Infinera’s 100G is a different beast than other such demonstrations lately, as the underlying transport uses 10x10Gbps channels rather than a native 100G.  Which flavor of 100G will win out depends on the economics, which will remain unknown until the technology is commercially available.

They also were part of a multi-vendor 100GE test.  Juniper brought its T1600 core router, Finisar and Opnext supplied pluggable 100G CFP optical transceiver modules, signals were generated by Exfo and Ixia, and Infinera of course offered its DTN.  There were also some Reflex Photonics’ 100GBASE-SR10 CFP modules in the mix.  Interoperability is of course very important to 100G’s commercial viability, and therefore this sort of cooperative demonstration is quite encouraging.  Each of these companies will be more comfortable if the commercial 100G world is more horizontal than vertical, so I’m sure they will continue to work together.  

That being said, I think the market is just about ready for commercial availability of 100G, rather than another step forward beyond which there are yet more steps before we’re done with the demonstrations.

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