Infinera Introduces Instant Network and Leads the Way to Cognitive Networking
March 20 2017 - 8:00AM
Infinera, a provider of Intelligent Transport Networks, introduced
Infinera Instant Network, the next generation of software defined
capacity (SDC) for cloud scale networks and a necessary
foundation for cognitive networking. Emerging 5G mobile services,
the Internet of Things (IoT), streaming video, Carrier Ethernet and
cloud-based on-demand business services require increased optical
network agility. With Instant Network, service providers activate
SDC when revenue-generating services demand it, reducing capital
expenditures by diminishing idle optical network capacity and
lowering business risk by shrinking the time between paying for
capacity and activating revenue-generating services. Instant
Network also enables service providers to accelerate service
delivery and lower operational expenditures by automating optical
capacity engineering and by reducing truck rolls to install
additional hardware.
While the industry has made major strides in software-defined
networking (SDN) to date, advancements have been around
virtualizing and controlling Layer 1/2/3 services inside a fixed
amount of optical capacity. Increasing optical capacity on
conventional hardware-based transport systems can take months
between forecasting and activating the optical capacity needed to
deliver new services, which drives service providers to
overprovision optical capacity by as much as 50 percent to ensure
service delivery. Instant Network enables service providers to
automate optical capacity engineering and scale optical capacity in
minutes by using Infinera’s Xceed and Digital Node Administrator
(DNA) software. This allows service providers to closely match
capacity deployment to the activation of revenue-generating
services and to eliminate multiple planning and provisioning steps
that previously required numerous manual tasks.
Instant Network builds on the success of Infinera Instant
Bandwidth, the industry’s first solution for SDC, providing the
foundation required to deliver cognitive networking. Infinera
introduced Instant Bandwidth in 2012, enabling for the first time
software activation of service-ready optical capacity in a few
hours on networks powered by the DTN-X platform and equipped with
Infinera’s unique photonic integrated circuits (PICs). Infinera
introduced Time-based Instant Bandwidth in 2015, enabling software
activation of bandwidth licenses for a limited duration. To date,
more than 70 of Infinera’s customers use Instant Bandwidth,
including half of DTN-X XTC customers, the top three subsea
customers and over 60 percent of data center interconnect
customers.
Instant Network amplifies the power of Instant Bandwidth by
adding Bandwidth License Pools, Moveable Licenses and Automated
Capacity Engineering (ACE), and by extending SDC to new Infinera
platforms. These new platforms support flexible grid and sliceable
2.4 terabit super-channels powered by the Infinera Infinite
Capacity Engine.
- Bandwidth License Pools: The new Bandwidth
License Pool functionality enables service providers to activate
capacity at the same time as an invoice is issued for that
capacity, reducing capital expenditures for idle capacity. This new
capability enables capacity to be deployed in minutes, while
previously, service providers would purchase a license before the
capacity was software-activated, which resulted in deployment
taking a few hours.
- Moveable Licenses: New Movable Licenses enable
service providers to use software to move bandwidth licenses across
the network as traffic conditions change or fiber cuts occur.
Previously, licenses were fixed to a specific line module or
platform. Moveable licenses reduce capital expenses by reducing
idle capacity provisioned specifically for network resiliency and
increase agility when responding to customer demands for new
services.
- Automated Capacity Engineering (ACE): The new
ACE application takes previously manual offline route and capacity
planning processes and implements those algorithms in a
microservices-based path computation element (PCE). ACE understands
optical impairments and computes optimal Layer 0 routes between
nodes across multiple paths, including automatic routing and
wavelength assignment with multiple path constraints such as
traffic engineering cost, distance and latency.
The future of the Intelligent Transport Network is cognitive
networking, which includes advanced analytics, machine learning
from streams of network telemetry data, autonomous operation of
routine tasks, predictive analysis of network problems before they
occur and proactive recommendations for network optimization to
further reduce operational expense and improve service reliability.
Instant Network builds a critical foundation for cognitive
networking, including implementing and advancing the industry’s
only software defined capacity offering.
“Our international customers expect on-demand capacity across
our global network,” said Darrin Webb, Executive Director of
International Operations and Services at Telstra, a leading
telecommunications and technology company. “The scale and diversity
of our subsea cable network in the Asia Pacific region puts us in a
strong position to invest in technologies that deliver on this
requirement, such as our new ‘Always On’ service guarantee, which
provides world-first assured availability across Asia’s busiest
subsea cable routes, and aligns with Infinera’s vision for its
Instant Network.”
“Many vendors are trialing new software licensing models in the
router/switch world, and my observation is that they have seen only
limited success,” stated Michael Howard, senior research analyst
and advisor, carrier networks, at IHS Markit. “In the optical
transport world, Infinera seems to be the one vendor that has been
quite successful in implementing software-based licensing and
delivering on-demand, software defined capacity, with a large
number of their customers actively deploying it today.”
“Capacity engineering is now a major challenge for network
operators as demands for more agile connectivity increase,” said
Andrew Schmitt, founder at Cignal AI. “Infinera’s Instant Network
evolves its existing solutions to automate capacity engineering in
a way that no other architecture can match by combining
high-capacity integrated photonics and a unique software
approach.”
“Carriers are looking for ways to reduce the time to recognize
revenue for services,” said Don Frey, principal analyst at Ovum.
“Infinera’s first step was Instant Bandwidth. Now Infinera’s
Instant Network, Xceed Software Suite, and Infinite Capacity Engine
create a killer combination to uniquely address carrier’s
requirement to quickly address a customer’s bandwidth need.”
“Infinera is committed to providing our customers with
innovative solutions to help them win in the markets they serve,”
said Dr. Dave Welch, Infinera co-founder and president. “Software
defined capacity is a requirement to realize the benefits
envisioned by SDN and network functions virtualization. Infinera
Instant Network extends our success with Instant Bandwidth, leading
the market for software defined capacity while lighting the way to
cognitive networking.”
Infinera Instant Network capabilities are planned across the
Infinera DNA software and the Xceed Software Suite. Instant Network
Bandwidth License Pool and Moveable Licenses are available now. ACE
is planned for 2018.
Additional Resources
- Instant Network web page
- ACG Market Impact Report: Infinera Instant Network
- Infinera Instant Network brochure
- Infinera Instant Bandwidth brochure
- The Five Steps to Cognitive Networking (Part 1 of 2)
- The Five Steps to Cognitive Networking (Part 2 of 2)
About InfineraInfinera (NASDAQ:INFN) provides
Intelligent Transport Networks, enabling carriers, cloud operators,
governments and enterprises to scale network bandwidth, accelerate
service innovation and automate optical network operations.
Infinera’s end-to-end packet-optical portfolio is designed for
long-haul, subsea, data center interconnect and metro applications.
Infinera’s unique large scale photonic integrated circuits enable
innovative optical networking solutions for the most demanding
networks. To learn more about Infinera visit www.infinera.com,
follow us on Twitter @Infinera and read our latest blog posts at
www.infinera.com/blog.
Infinera and the Infinera logo are registered trademarks of
Infinera Corporation.
This press release contains forward-looking statements relating
to: the economic, operational and technical benefits provided by
deploying Infinera products and solutions; the timing of products
becoming generally available; and the potential growth in
Infinera’s addressable market. These statements are not guarantees
of results and should not be considered as an indication of future
activity or future performance. Actual results may vary materially
from these expectations as a result of various risks and
uncertainties. Information about these risks and uncertainties, and
other risks and uncertainties that affect Infinera’s business, is
contained in the risk factors section and other sections of
Infinera’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December
31, 2016 as filed with the SEC on February 23, 2017, as well
subsequent reports filed with or furnished to the SEC. These
reports are available on Infinera’s 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.
Contacts:
Media:
Anna Vue
Tel. +1 (916) 595-8157
avue@infinera.com
Investors:
Jeff Hustis
Tel: + 1 (408) 213-7150
jhustis@infinera.com
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