OFC/NFOEC 2008

Infinera Unveils Roadmap to 400G PICs, Cornerstone of 40G Channels

| Feb 28, 2008 | Optical Infrastructure | Show Update

| Analyst: Jason Marcheck

Current Perspective: Positive/Neutral Vendor Importance: Very High Market Impact: Moderate/High

Event Summary

February 22, 2008 – Infinera announced that it anticipates making photonic integrated circuits (PICs) capable of supporting 400 Gbps of optical transport capacity available in 2009. 400G PICs represent an important milestone for Infinera because it will allow the vendor’s DTN platform to support 40 Gbps worth of traffic on a single wavelength. Infinera also pointed out that it expects to be able to double PIC capacity, beyond 400 Gbps, every three years.

Analytical Summary

• Current Perspective: Slightly positive on Infinera’s outlining of a roadmap to commercial availability of photonic integrated circuits (PICs) capable of supporting 400 Gbps of optical transport capacity. The move essentially prescribes Infinera’s plans to support 40G services over a single wavelength, which will be a critical step in preparing its DTN DWDM optical transport platform to meet the evolving needs of network operators. At the same time, the vendor noted that the 400G Digital Line Modules (DLMs) cards will not be commercially available until sometime in 2009. With at least a year to go before G.A., it can be reasonably assumed that Infinera has a significant amount of work remaining before its first “roadmap” milestone comes to fruition.

• Vendor Importance: Very high to Infinera, because the vendor needs to begin showing demonstrable progress on technology that will enable the DTN to support serial 40G wavelengths. However, looking beyond 40G support, Infinera’s assertion that it expects to be able to double PIC capacity every three years indicates that the vendor should be able to support 1 Tbps on a single chip within approximately five years (assuming 400G PICs are ready in 2009). This argues that the DTN will be able to support serial 100G wavelengths in approximately the timeframe when widespread demand for 100G wavelengths is predicted to occur.

• Market Impact: Moderate to high on the optical infrastructure market because Infinera’s roadmap (and corresponding demonstration of a 400G PIC) state that the vendor will be offering 400G DLMs that can support serial 40G wavelengths, thereby meeting a critical milestone in the near term develop of optical transport networks. However, 40G is already widely available from Infinera’s competitors, meaning waiting until next year to offer 40 Gbps of capacity on a single wavelength will by no means be a shock to the market. Nevertheless, if Infinera is able to reduce the cost delivering 40G wavelengths via its 400G DLMs dramatically the vendor could gain a significant competitive advantage over rival 40G suppliers.

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