Infinera, a BFTP portfolio company in Fogelsville, has developed a new type of fiber-optic telecommunication equipment called a Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC). The circuit, small as a pencil eraser, packages as many as 10 lasers and other components and is capable of transmitting 100 billion bits of information per second.
Infinera Corporation's DTN optical equipment will be installed across a substantial portion of Level 3 Communications, Inc.'s 23,000-mile fiber-optic network, the company announced in late May. Level 3 is one of the largest telecommunications service providers in the world.
Infinera's technology creates the first optical telecommunications system based on PICs. This represents a significant milestone for the telecom industry because it enables multiple wavelengths of light, carrying hundreds of gigabits per second of telecommunications traffic, to be managed digitally, rather than as analog waves.
In addition to providing $150,000 in capital in both 2003 and 2004, BFTP helped Infinera identify resources for equipment and professional services. By connecting Infinera with the faculty of the Center for Optical Technologies at Lehigh University and the engineering team of the Enterprise Systems Center, BFTP helped the company develop and enhance its product and processes.
Enabled by Infinera's DTN, the optical network joins the voice, video and mobile wireless networks as having shifted from an analog to a digital operational model. Its optical transport layer provides the basic light-based transmission systems that carry higher-level services such as Internet Protocol and Voice over IP.
The company announced earlier this year that German IP-based service provider FreeNet would upgrade its nationwide backbone with Infinera's Digital Optical Networking Technology. Infinera also announced on June 14 that OnFiber, a leading provider of high-bandwidth metro connectivity, is using Infinera DTN in multiple metro networks.
"Infinera systems really are easier and faster to deploy than other vendors," says Andreas J¸rgensen, head of networks for FreeNet. "The Digital Optical Networking architecture makes the Infinera DTN very plug-and-play."
From the July/August 2005 issue
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