Pacific Crossing and Infinera Complete World’s First Transpacific 100 Gigabit Subsea Trial
Connection from Japan to California spans more than 9,500 kilometers
Sunnyvale, CA on 14 October 2011
Infinera (NASDAQ: INFN) and Pacific Crossing, a wholly owned subsidiary of NTT Communications Corporation and operator of the transpacific submarine cable system PC-1, announced today the successful completion of a 100 Gigabit per second (Gb/s) subsea trial. The subsea trial spanned more than 9,500 kilometers on Pacific Crossing’s PC-1 fiber from California to Japan. This is the first and longest successful 100 Gb/s trial performed across the Pacific delivering digital coherent transmission.
This trial demonstrates the unique ability to deliver two industry firsts. The 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) demonstration was the first transmission of a 100 GbE client service carried across the Pacific using 40 Gb/s optical channels with Infinera’s FlexCoherent transmission. The success of this trial was based on Infinera’s commercially available 40 Gb/s optical line module and 100 GbE client interface on Infinera’s DTN platform. The second demonstration was the first realization of a 100 Gb/s optical channel using binary phase shift keying (BPSK) with soft decision forward error correction (SD FEC) that will be available in the future on Infinera’s DTN-X platform. Infinera’s FlexCoherent technology enables service providers to optimize transmission performance across a range of applications using multiple software-programmable modulation formats. Infinera recently announced the availability of new DTN capabilities and the new DTN-X platform featuring both photonic integrated circuit (PIC) based super-channels and FlexCoherent transmission.
The Asia Pacific region has been experiencing exponential growth in Internet bandwidth demand. According to Internet World Stats, the number of Internet users in Asia grew from 114 million to 922 million from 2000 to 2011. The growth is forecast to continue, thereby driving the need for subsea networking equipment that can deliver the required capacity.
“Customer demand for transpacific bandwidth continues to grow,” said Takahiro Sumimoto, Chief Executive Officer at Pacific Crossing. “We are delighted to work with Infinera to demonstrate 100 Gigabit transmission on our existing subsea fiber plant. We are also pleased that our leading transpacific network capabilities contributed to the successful demonstration of this new technology.”
“Infinera is pleased to partner with Pacific Crossing in conducting this trial as it marks a major milestone for the delivery of next-generation optical systems in the Asia Pacific region,” said Deryck Robinson, Vice President, Subsea Business Unit at Infinera. “We are committed to support the Asia Pacific region and believe this trial demonstrates the scale, simplicity and efficiency of Infinera’s solutions to provide a glimpse of what the network will be.”
Infinera has completed successful trials of 100 Gb/s and 500 Gb/s super-channels across the globe, recently with SEACOM in Africa and Interoute in Europe. To underscore its commitment to provide enhanced levels of service and support for customers in the Asia Pacific region, Infinera recently opened an office in Hong Kong with a customer demonstration center and a training center for its growing client base in the region.
About Infinera
Infinera specializes in Digital Optical Networking systems that are designed to continually improve the economics of optical networking by combining the speed of optics with the simplicity of digital. Infinera is unique in its use of breakthrough semiconductor technology: Large Scale Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC). Infinera’s systems leverage PIC technology to provide customers with a service-ready architecture that enables faster time-to-revenue and greater profitability through network efficiency and the ability to rapidly deliver differentiated services without reengineering their optical infrastructure. For more information, please visit http://www.infinera.com/.
About Pacific Crossing
Pacific Crossing owns and operates the transpacific, subsea fiber-optic network ring, PC-1, connecting the United States and Japan. The 21,000km PC-1 submarine cable system offers the highest reliability and the lowest latency across the Pacific. Supported by extensive backhaul into major U.S. and Japanese cities, Pacific Crossing’s infrastructure offers seamless interconnection to virtually every major international network operator for onward global access. The company delivers state-of-the-art capacity and managed network services at competitive prices to a growing customer base of carriers and media and information transport-intensive enterprise customers. The company is registered in the United States and Japan, with principal offices in San Francisco, California, and Tokyo, Japan. For more information, please visit www.pc1.com or contact Sales@pc1.com.
About NTT Communications Corporation
NTT Communications provides a broad range of global networks, management solutions and IT services to customers worldwide. The company is renowned for reliable, high-quality security, hosting, voice, data and IP services, as well as expertise in managed networks and leadership in IPv6 transit technology. NTT Communications’ extensive infrastructure includes Arcstar Global IP-VPN and Global e-VLAN, as well as a Tier 1 IP backbone reaching more than 150 countries in partnership with major Internet service providers, and secure data centers in Asia, North America and Europe. NTT Communications is the wholly-owned subsidiary of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, one of the world’s largest telecoms with listings on the Tokyo, London and New York stock exchanges. Please visit http://www.ntt.com/index-e.html.
This press release contains forward-looking statements including, among other things, statements relating to future capabilities of the DTN-X; that the demonstration was the first realization of a 100 GbE client service carried over a trans-pacific distance using 40 Gb/s optical channels with digital flex-coherent transmission; that this was the first realization of 100 Gb/s optical channel using BPSK with soft decision FEC that will be available in the future on the DTN-X platform that utilizes both PIC based super-channels and flex coherent modulation; and that Infinera has completed successful trials of 100 Gb/s and 500 Gb/s super-channels across the globe. These forward looking statements are based on our current expectations. Actual results may vary materially from these expectations as a result of various risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, aggressive business tactics by our competitors, our dependence on a single product, our reliance on single-source suppliers, and our ability to respond to rapid technological changes. Further information about these risks and uncertainties, and other risks and uncertainties that affect our business, is contained in the risk factors section and other sections of our annual report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities Exchange Commission on March 1, 2011, as well subsequent reports filed with or furnished to the SEC. These reports are available on our website at www.infinera.com and the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Infinera assumes no obligation to, and does not currently intend to, update any such forward-looking statements.
