XO and Equinox Launch Bandwidth Virtualization with Infinera
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Infinera Launches Bandwidth Virtualization
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Infinera (Nasdaq: INFN) has launched Bandwidth VirtualizationTMto meet the needs of the Internet for a faster, more responsive Internet today and in the future. Implemented using an Infinera Digital Optical Network, Bandwidth Virtualization enables service providers to respond quickly and flexibly to market demand with a wide range of services over one optical infrastructure. Bandwidth Virtualization also enables service providers to differentiate themselves by offering innovative new services to their customers.
In a new video entitled Bandwidth Virtualization: An Architecture for Today’s Internet, produced in high-definition TV format and posted on the Internet, Infinera customers Equinix and XO Communications and Infinera CEO Jagdeep Singh explain the benefits of this new technology.
Speed, Flexibility, and Service Differentiation
In a traditional optical network using Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM), each service that a service provider sells is typically linked to a specific wavelength, which is installed and turned up after a customer commits to purchase that service. Each service to be sold typically requires pre-planning, engineering activities and testing at time of installation, and there is often a significant delay between customer commitment to purchase and turn-up of the corresponding service. Service providers introducing new services, such as 40 Gigabit/second (Gb/s) and 100Gb/s services, must frequently re-engineer or overbuild their WDM networks to support the new services, creating long cycles between end-user service requests and service delivery, as well as inefficient network utilization, operational complexity, and the need for additional capital outlays.
Bandwidth Virtualization overcomes these challenges and accelerates operators’ speed of service provisioning by decoupling the service layer in the network from the underlying optical transmission layer. Bandwidth Virtualization is enabled by an Infinera Digital Optical Network using high-capacity photonic integrated circuit technology on every route in the optical network, and integrates sub-wavelength digital switching with end-to-end software intelligence. This provides operators with a readily available pool of WDM bandwidth to meet immediate service requests, and allows new services to be deployed over the same infrastructure. The transmission layer can be configured to support any service simply by installing a service interface module at each of the two service endpoints and activating new end-to-end services using software rather than via hardware-based re-engineering of network resources.
Bandwidth Virtualization also yields significant operational benefits for service providers. By deploying hundreds of Gigabits of capacity at initial installation and being able to turn up additional services with digital plug-and-play ease, service providers can operate their network with smaller skilled engineering teams and at lower cost than on traditional WDM networks.
Equinix Corp. (Nasdaq: EQIX), a leading global provider of network-neutral data center and interconnection services for customers including many of the world’s largest websites, selected Infinera for the speed and flexibility benefits of Infinera’s Bandwidth Virtualization. “In today’s environment, our customers can say to us, we will need 20 or 30 Gigs of additional capacity this month, and by the way, can you give them to us next week,” said Equinix Chief Technologist Lane Patterson. “With Infinera’s Bandwidth Virtualization we can meet that demand with no problem.”
Last week, XO Communications(OTCBB: XOHO), a leading provider of 21stcentury communications and operator of a nationwide Infinera Digital Optical Network, renewed its attention-getting guarantee to deliver its customers “10 Gigs in 10 Days,” a service commitment supported by Infinera’s Bandwidth Virtualization combined with Infinera’s Just-in-TAMTMguarantee, a commitment to ship 10 Gigabit client modules anywhere in the world within ten days of receipt of order. In addition, XO Communications Chief Technology Officer Randy Nicklas comments in today’s Infinera video that he is investigating the opportunity to offer XO customers a Layer 1 virtual private network on XO’s Infinera network. “The Bandwidth Virtualization technology lends itself to these innovative, software-managed services,” commented Randy Nicklas. “The greatest advantage from XO’s point of view of Infinera’s Bandwidth Virtualization is the flexibility it gives XO, flexibility to meet our customer’s needs quickly, reliably, and economically,” he added.
“Infinera’s Bandwidth Virtualization is an important innovation in optical networking,” commented Infonetics Research principal analyst Michael Howard. “Virtualization technologies like storage and server virtualization have delivered benefits in those realms including increased flexibility, adaptability, and better resource utilization, and Infinera’s Bandwidth Virtualization delivers similar benefits for the optical network.” |
