Cloud and AI: Opportunities that must be grabbed

The founder of Cloud Light, Dennis Tong, talks about the company, how its sale to Lumentum came about, and the promise of cloud and AI markets for optics.

For Dennis Tong (pictured), Hong Kong is a unique place that has a perfect blend of the East and West.

Tong, the founder and CEO of optical module specialist Cloud Light, should know. The company is headquartered in Hong Kong and has R&D offices in Hong Kong and Taipei, Taiwan. Cloud Light also has manufacturing sites in Asia: in the Chinese city of Dongguan—two hours by car north of Hong Kong—and in the Philippines.

Now, Cloud Light is part of Lumentum. The U.S. photonics firm bought the optical module maker for $750 million in November 2023.

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Infinera’s ICE flow

Infinera’s newest Infinite Capacity Engine 5 (ICE5) doubles capacity to 2.4 terabits. The ICE, which comprises a coherent DSP and a photonic integrated circuit (PIC), is being demonstrated this week at the OFC show being held in San Diego. 

Infinera has also detailed its ICE6, being developed in tandem with the ICE5. The two designs represent a fork in Infinera’s coherent engine roadmap in terms of the end markets they will address.

Geoff BennettThe ICE5 is targeted at data centre interconnect and applications where fibre in being added towards the network edge. The next-generation access network of cable operators is one such example. Another is mobile operators deploying fibre in preparation for 5G.

First platforms using the ICE5 will be unveiled later this year and will ship early next year.

Infinera’s ICE6 is set to appear two years after the ICE5. Like the ICE4, Infinera’s current Infinite Capacity Engine, the ICE6 will be used across all of Infinera’s product portfolio.

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Infinera inches closer to cognitive networking

Part 2: Infinera’s Instant Network

The second and final part as to how optical networking is becoming smarter

Infinera says it has made it easier for operators to deploy optical links to accommodate traffic growth.

The system vendor says its latest capability, known as Instant Network, also paves the way for autonomous networks that will predict traffic trends and enable capacity as required.

The latest announcement builds on Infinera’s existing Instant Bandwidth feature, introduced in 2012, that uses its photonic integrated circuit (PIC) technology.

Instant Bandwidth exploits the fact that all five 100-gigabit wavelengths of a line card hosting Infinera’s 500-gigabit PIC are lit even though an operator may only need a subset of the 100-gigabit wavelengths. Using Instant Bandwidth, extra capacity can be added to a link - until all five wavelengths are used - in a matter of hours.

The technology allows 100-gigabit wavelengths to be activated in minutes, says Geoff Bennett, director, solutions and technology at Infinera (pictured). It takes several hours due to the processing time for the operator to raise a purchasing order for the new capacity and get it signed off.

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Infinera unveils first platforms using its latest PIC & DSP

• The Cloud Xpress 2 platform for data centre interconnects packs 1.2 terabits in a 1 rack unit (1RU) box.  
• Infinera has also unveiled two DTN-X XT 'meshponder' platforms that aggregate client signals and offer sliceable transponder functionality that delivers wavelengths to multiple destinations. 
• The company also announced an open flexible grid line system that supports the C and L bands 
• Three of the top four US internet content providers are Infinera customers.

Infinera has started to unveil its platform portfolio based on its Infinite Capacity Engine that combines the company's latest-generation photonic integrated circuit (PIC) and coherent DSP-ASIC technology.

Geoff Bennett

The first platform using the technology is the Cloud Xpress 2, Infinera second-generation data centre interconnect platform, was unveiled in September. More recently, it has added two DTN-X meshponder platforms - the XT-3300 and the XT-3600 - as well as upgrading two of its existing DTN-X platforms.

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Infinera goes multi-terabit with its latest photonic IC

In his new book, The Great Acceleration, Robert Colvile discusses how things we do are speeding up.

In 1845 it took U.S. President James Polk six months to send a message to California. Just 15 years later Abraham Lincoln's inaugural address could travel the same distance in under eight days, using the Pony Express. But the use of ponies for transcontinental communications was shortlived once the electrical telegraph took hold. [1]

The relentless progress in information transfer, enabled by chip advances and Moore's law, is taken largely for granted. Less noticed is the progress being made in integrated photonic chips, most notably by Infinera.    

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Next-generation coherent adds sub-carriers to capabilities

Briefing: DWDM developments

Part 2: Infinera's coherent toolkit 

Source: Infinera

Infinera has detailed coherent technology enhancements implemented using its latest-generation optical transmission technology. The system vendor is still to launch its newest  photonic integrated circuit (PIC) and FlexCoherent DSP-ASIC but has detailed features the CMOS and indium phosphide ICs support.

The techniques highlight the increasing sophistication of coherent technology and an ever tighter coupling between electronics and photonics.    

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Ovum Q&A: Infinera as an end-to-end systems vendor

Infinera hosted an Insight analyst day on October 6th to highlight its plans now that it has acquired metro equipment player, Transmode. Gazettabyte interviewed Ron Kline, principal analyst, intelligent networks at market research firm, Ovum, who attended the event.    

Q. Infinera’s CEO Tom Fallon referred to this period as a once-in-a-decade transition as metro moves from 10 Gig to 100 Gig. The growth is attributed mainly to the uptake of cloud services and he expects this transition to last for a while. Is this Ovum’s take?  

Ron Kline, OvumRK: It is a transition but it is more about coherent technology rather than 10 Gig to 100 Gig. Coherent enables that higher-speed change which is required because of the level of bandwidth going on in the metro.

We are going to see metro change from 10 Gig to 100 Gig, much like we saw it change from 2.5 Gig to 10 Gig. Economically, it is going to be more feasible for operators to deploy 100 Gig and get more bang for their buck.

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