XO Communications, Infinera Demonstrate 100 Gigabit Ethernet at NXTcomm08
Thursday June 12, 1:02 pm ET
100 GbE Traffic to Be Carried Over Live XO Network
HERNDON, VA and SUNNYVALE, CA--(MARKET WIRE)--Jun 12, 2008 -- XO Communications (OTC BB:XOHO.OB - News) and Infinera (NasdaqGM:INFN - News) will team up to deliver the first demonstration of 100 Gigabit Ethernet traffic in production-ready form over a live network. The demonstration, at Infinera's booth number SU5607 at NXTcomm08 from June 17th through the 19th in Las Vegas, will show how 100 GbE services can be delivered today over existing network infrastructures.
The demonstration will consist of an Ixia proof-of-concept 100 GbE test set generating and handing off a pre-standard IEEE 802.3ba 100 GbE signal to a 100 GbE interface on the Infinera DTN DWDM transport system. The 100 GbE signal will then be switched and transported by the Infinera DTN system from the show floor through XO Communications' long-haul DWDM network to Los Angeles. The 100GbE signal will then be looped and transported back to the Infinera booth in Las Vegas, where performance metrics will be monitored and viewable on the Ixia XM2 chassis.
100 GbE Next Major Step for Telecom Networks
Ethernet has emerged as the protocol of choice for many next-generation telecom networks for its superior economics and widespread use in local area networks. With aggressive growth in Internet traffic worldwide, networks and networking equipment need to scale beyond 10 Gigabit Ethernet and the IEEE 802.3ba Task Force is working to develop 100 Gigabit Ethernet as the next important standard for telecom networks. Many industry participants believe that 100 Gigabit Ethernet interfaces and services will enable simplified, cost-effective connectivity for telecom customers, including Internet content providers, Internet service providers, telecom companies, enterprises, and other large users of bandwidth. This demonstration shows that progress has been made on several important fronts and the technology exists today to deliver 100 GbE services on existing networks.
XO Communications supports customers on its nationwide network today with services including 10 Gigabit/second (Gb/s) wavelengths and 10 GbE. Demonstrating the power and scalability of XO's advanced optical network, XO Communications has pioneered a new rapid service delivery model with its "10 Gigs in 10 Days" guarantee, offering customers the ability to have 10 Gb network services provisioned in 10 business days. XO Communications is committed to bringing 100 GbE services to market as soon as the technology reaches a state where it is deployable and economic. This demonstration shows that XO is focused on playing an active role in the development of this important technology.
"Not everything that happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. This pioneering demonstration of 100 GbE traffic will leave Vegas and visit Los Angeles over the XO network, for just a fraction of a second, before returning to Vegas, for the enjoyment and education of NXTcomm visitors," said Randy Nicklas, chief technology officer at XO Communications. "XO is determined to be a leader in developing new capabilities and optical services to meet our customers' growing need for bandwidth."
Infinera's Bandwidth Virtualization Enables 100 GbE Today
In the NXTcomm08 demonstration, the 100 GbE signal is received from the Ixia test set and striped across ten 10 Gb/s wavelengths using Infinera's Digital Virtual Concatenation protocol, and then transmitted over the long-haul network by Infinera's Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC)-enabled DTN platform, before being reassembled by the Infinera system at the other end. The Tributary Adapter Module (TAM) in this demonstration, which fits into today's Infinera 100 Gb/s Digital Line Module (DLM), is in a commercially suitable form-factor and ready for development into a commercial product.
100 GbE services will be supported by Infinera's new 160-channel ILS2 line system unveiled last week, which delivers 1.6 Tb/s of optical capacity with Infinera's market-leading 100 Gb/s DTN line cards. With the future introduction of Infinera's next-generation line cards, the ILS2 line system will be scalable up to 8 Tb/s of capacity. In all cases, Infinera's Bandwidth Virtualization(TM) ensures that 100 GbE services will be delivered seamlessly, independent of whether the underlying optical infrastructure is based on 10G, 40G, or 100G channels, or a mix-and-match combination thereof.
Bandwidth Virtualization facilitates the decoupling of bandwidth services such as 100GbE from the underlying optical transport infrastructure, enabling improved flexibility, improved wavelength utilization, and rapid service activation without optical re-engineering of the line system. The optical capacity is available to be deployed in any rate from 1 Gb/s to 100 Gb/s and in a variety of protocols including Ethernet, SONET/SDH, or wavelengths. An Infinera network helps customers consolidate any mix of 1 Gb/s, 2.5 Gb/s, 10 Gb/s, 40 Gb/s, and future 100 Gb/s services simultaneously over the same network infrastructure -- with no additional investment or upgrade necessary for the line system.
"Infinera is a leader in the introduction of 100 GbE technology and services," said Infinera Chief Technology Officer Drew Perkins. "Our Bandwidth Virtualization architecture makes it possible to deliver 100 GbE services over today's networks and the scalability and intelligence of the Infinera platform makes it the best suited to deliver these new high-capacity services. We are also actively involved in the standards bodies and working to reach agreement on standards that can foster the development of practical, cost-effective, and widely deployable 100 GbE solutions."
NXTcomm08 takes place at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Visitors to the show are invited to stop by the Infinera booth to see this demonstration or contact their representatives to arrange an appointment. Press and analysts can arrange a meeting via the contacts listed below.
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