Infinera Stock

Infinera Corporation operates as a semiconductor manufacturer and global supplier of networking solutions consisted of networking equipment, optical semiconductors, software and services.

The company’s portfolio of solutions includes optical transport platforms, converged packet-optical transport platforms, compact modular platforms, optical line systems, coherent optical engines and subsystems, a suite of automation software offerings, and support and professional services. Leveraging the company’s U.S.-based compound semiconductor fabrication plant (fab) and in-house packaging capabilities, it designs, develops, and manufactures industry-leading indium phosphide-based photonic integrated circuits (PICs) for use in Infinera’s vertically integrated, high-capacity optical communications products.

The company’s customers include operators of fixed line and mobile networks, including telecommunications service providers, internet content providers (ICPs), cable providers, wholesale carriers, research and education institutions, large enterprises, utilities and government entities. The company’s networking solutions enable its customers to deliver high-bandwidth business and consumer communications services. The company’s comprehensive portfolio of networking solutions also enables its customers to scale their transport networks as end-user services and applications continue to drive growth in demand for network bandwidth. These end-user services and applications include, but are not limited to, high-speed internet access, 4G/5G mobile broadband, cloud-based services, high-definition video streaming services, virtual and augmented reality, the Internet of Things (IoT), business Ethernet services and data center interconnect (DCI).

As an optical semiconductor manufacturer, the company specializes in the manufacturing of optical compound semiconductors using indium phosphide (InP). This technology is used in telecommunications networks to transmit massive amounts of data and power critical communications services like 5G, enhanced broadband, and high-capacity data center connectivity.

The company has grown its solutions portfolio through internal development, as well as acquisitions, including the acquisition of Telecom Holding Parent LLC (Coriant), a privately held global supplier of open network solutions for the largest global network operators (the Acquisition). In 2021, the company announced an expansion of its portfolio with the introduction of a suite of coherent optical pluggables designed to seamlessly address the rapidly growing market for point-to-point solutions, as well as create a new category of point-to-multipoint solutions that can enable a dramatically more cost-efficient network architecture. Based on the company’s XR optics technology, this suite of pluggables builds on its history of delivering innovative, highly differentiated, and vertically integrated coherent optical engines.

The company’s high-speed optical transport platforms are differentiated by its Infinite Capacity Engine (ICE) coherent optical engine technology. The company’s latest generation of coherent optical engine technology delivers multi-terabit opto-electronic subsystems powered by its fifth-generation PIC and latest generation digital signal processor (DSP) (the combination of which it markets as ICE6). ICE6 is capable of delivering 1.6Tb/s (2x 800G Gb/s wavelengths) in a single optical engine. ICE6 will be integrated into various networking platforms in the company’s product portfolio.

The company’s products are designed to be managed by a suite of software solutions that enable simplified network management, and automated operations. It also provides software-enabled programmability that offers differentiated capabilities, such as Instant Bandwidth. Combined with the company’s differentiated hardware solutions, Instant Bandwidth enables the company’s customers to purchase and activate bandwidth as needed through its unique software licensing feature set.

Customers, Products and Services

The company’s customer verticals include Tier 1 carriers for domestic and international networks; Tier 2 and Tier 3 carriers; ICP and cloud providers; cable providers and Multiple System Operators (MSOs); wholesale carriers; submarine network operators; utilities; large enterprise customers; research and education institutions; government entities; and third-party network equipment manufacturers.

In the markets the company serves, its customers seek various solutions to meet growing bandwidth needs, increase their revenue, expand their service offerings, such as high-bandwidth solutions that scale optical transmission capacity to meet increasing bandwidth demand while providing efficiency through service granularity; flexible, efficient and easy to deploy core-to-edge coherent optical solutions that optimize performance and increase reliability while reducing physical space and power consumption, leading to lower operational and capital expenses; easy-to-use solutions that are highly programmable, open, and automated, which help reduce the time and complexity of deploying new transmission bandwidth; and strong encryption at the transport layer.

The company sells its products to end-user customers and third-party network equipment manufacturers via a direct sales force and through indirect channel partners.

The company has a team of scientists and engineers that is responsible for driving the opto-electronic innovations that are integrated into its coherent transport solutions. Core engineering disciplines include coherent application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC)/DSP design, PIC (photonic integrated circuit) design and manufacture, analog ASIC design, advanced packaging design and manufacture, and holistic co-design, including the RF interconnect. The company’s experts have achieved many industry firsts, including the first large-scale PIC, the first coherent PIC, the first commercial super-channels, the first Nyquist subcarriers, and the first point-to-multipoint coherent technology. Additional innovation highlights include soft-decision forward error correction gain sharing techniques and long-codeword probabilistic constellation shaping. These innovations are the foundation for the superior reach performance of the company’s 1.6 Terabit per second (Tb/s)-capable ICE6 optical engine and its industry-first point-to-multipoint technology. They have resulted in Infinera setting numerous industry records for optical transmission.

Product Portfolio

The company’s hardware product portfolio consists of compact modular platforms, packet-optical platforms, optical line systems, and optical subsystems. Software products include the Infinera Transcend Software Suite, which includes automation and network management software. These products address multiple market segments in the end-to-end transport infrastructure, including metro, long-haul and subsea. DCI is a subset of these markets. The company also provides customer support services, including professional service offerings designed to help customers optimize their network assets and migrate legacy services.

Compact Modular Platforms

Infinera Cloud Xpress Family

The Infinera Cloud Xpress Family is designed to meet the varying needs of ICPs, communication service providers, internet exchange service providers, enterprises and other large-scale data center operators. The first generation of the Cloud Xpress has a 500 Gb/s DWDM (dense wavelength division multiplexing) super-channel output in 2 rack units (RUs). The company’s second generation, the Cloud Xpress 2, released in June 2017, leverages the ICE4 optical engine, and has a 1.2 Tb/s super-channel output in 1RU. These platforms are designed with a rack-and-stack form factor and utilize a software approach that enables them to easily plug into existing cloud provisioning systems using open software defined networking (SDN) APIs, an approach similar to the server and storage infrastructure deployed in the cloud.

Infinera Groove (GX) Series

The Infinera Groove (GX) Series of highly compact, modular, and sled-based platforms includes integrated muxponder and optical line system capabilities optimized to support a variety of transport network applications. With a compact and flexible architectural design, the GX Series supports up to 800 Gb/s per wavelength (via ICE6) to deliver cost-optimized optical reach in metro and long-haul applications, enabling rapid capacity increases as network traffic grows. The GX muxponder solution supports deployment over virtually any optical line system, enabling network operators to easily introduce the company’s best-of-breed, high-performance transmission capabilities over existing infrastructure.

Infinera XT Series

The Infinera XT Series of compact, open and disaggregated platforms, powered by the company’s ICE4 optical engine, delivers up to 2.4 Tb/s of line-side capacity for metro, DCI, regional and long-haul networks in compact 1RU and 4RU form factors, with ultra-long-haul and submarine reach. These platforms are designed to power cloud scale network services over metro, DCI, long-haul and subsea networks.

Optical Line Systems

Infinera Groove (GX) Series

In addition to muxponder functionality, the Infinera Groove (GX) Series supports a variety of multi-haul optical line system capabilities. From compact plug-and-play optical function to comprehensive multi-degree reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer (ROADM) capabilities, the GX Series provides a single configurable system to address virtually any optical networking application. With natively open interfaces, the GX Series supports seamless integration into a variety of networks and open optical applications.

Infinera 7300 Series

The Infinera 7300 Series is an SDN-ready coherent optical transport system. Supporting the latest optical technology, the 7300 Series addresses the needs of regional, long-haul, and ultra-long-haul optical networking, including long, unrepeatered single-span and festoon subsea networks. The 7300 enables network operators to achieve the highest network resiliency with fast optical protection switching and the use of autonomous and SDN-controlled restoration capabilities.

Infinera FlexILS Open Optical Line System

The Infinera FlexILS open optical line system connects various Infinera and third-party terminal equipment platforms over long-distance fiber optic cable while providing switching, multiplexing, amplification and management channels. The FlexILS solution is designed to support over 50 Tb/s of fiber capacity when used with the Infinera platforms over extended C-band and L-band. The FlexILS supports ROADM functionality with a flexible grid architecture and provides unconstrained optical switching by eliminating the restrictions of fixed wavelengths by port or direction. This platform is designed to provide open APIs (application programming interfaces) interfacing with SDN control for multi-layer switching when combined with other platforms featuring DWDM, optical transport network (OTN) and packet switching.

Packet-Optical Platforms

Infinera 7090 Series

The Infinera 7090 Packet Transport Platforms provide both Multiprotocol Label Switching Transport Profile (MPLS-TP) and Carrier Ethernet-based options, addressing applications, including business Ethernet services, migration from TDM to packet, and residential and mobile backhaul. The 7090 Series includes MPLS-TP platforms with capacities ranging from 5 Gb/s (gigabits per second) to 960 Gb/s and Carrier Ethernet-based platforms that provide a range of compact gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and 10 GbE access devices.

Infinera XTM Series

The Infinera XTM Series packet-optical transport platform enables high-performance metro connectivity solutions with service-aware capabilities optimized for 5G, Fiber Deep, business services and other metro transport applications. The XTM Series offers superior density, lower power consumption and higher scalability for multi-service metro access and aggregation networks, including integrated Layer 1 and Layer 2 support and Time Sensitive Networking features required for 5G mobile x-haul applications. The platform is designed for application-rich packet-optical metro networks providing cable, mobile, broadband and business services that require 10 Gb/s, 100 Gb/s or 200 Gb/s wavelengths with differentiated performance. This offering includes Auto-Lambda, a feature that provides a unique solution for deploying access and aggregation networks. Auto-Lambda enables network operators to simply plug DWDM optics into aggregation and access nodes, which allows the packet-optical network element to automatically tune each of the optical signals to the appropriate wavelength.

Infinera 7100 Series

Infinera 7100 Series of packet-optical transport platforms are right-sized and support a flexible mix of transponders, muxponders, packet switching, OTN switching, SONET/SDH switching, and ROADM-based optical line systems, providing compact and flexible transport for metro networks. The 7100 Series includes the 7100 Nano, a 5RU platform optimized for metro transport and the 7100 Pico, a 2RU platform that extends services to the metro edge and enables metro access applications. The 7100 Series also includes the PSX-3S, a 1RU 376 Gb/s packet switch optimized for aggregation and access applications.

Infinera mTera Series

The Infinera mTera Universal Transport Platform is a flexible and efficient network transport solution supporting scalable grooming and an innovative protocol-agnostic switch fabric in which each and every port on virtually every card can be software-configured between OTN and Ethernet. The mTera Series includes a compact 8-slot, 4 Tb/s shelf and a higher capacity 14-slot, 7 Tb/s shelf, with paired 14-slot shelves able to deliver 12 Tb/s of electrical switching. The mTera Series combines SDN-ready, advanced ROADM capabilities and support for the universal switching of OTN, packet and SONET/SDH traffic at the electrical layer.

Infinera XTC Series

The Infinera XTC Series includes multi-terabit packet optical transport platforms that integrate digital OTN switching and optical DWDM transmission. The XTC Series delivers converged packet, OTN, and DWDM for metro core, regional, long-haul, and subsea applications. The XTC Series features ICE4, Instant Bandwidth, and massively simple operations to drive speed time to revenue. These platforms also support a broad range of Ethernet and OTN client interfaces for flexibility and are designed for metro, long-haul and subsea networks.

Coherent Optical Subsystems

ICE-X Coherent Pluggable Optics

ICE-X is a suite of coherent pluggable optics designed to seamlessly address point-to-point (including ZR+) and point-to-multipoint transport applications from the network edge to the core. The suite of vertically integrated ICE-X coherent optical pluggables will offer network operators the performance, scale, efficiency, and manageability critical to infrastructure support for the delivery of differentiated 5G, enhanced broadband, and next-generation cloud and business services. ICE-X coherent optical pluggables will support a range of transport rates, including 800 Gb/s, 400 Gb/s and 100 Gb/s, and utilize industry-standard form factors to enable ease of deployment in a wide variety of networking elements. These networking elements include optical transport platforms, compact modular platforms, routers, switches, servers and mobile radio units. Customers for Infinera’s suite of ICE-X coherent optical pluggables include communications service providers, ICPs, enterprises and third-party network equipment manufacturers.

Software

Transcend Software Suite

Leveraging cloud-native technologies and SDN principles, the Infinera Transcend Software Suite is a comprehensive software platform that provides automation capabilities designed to help network operators reduce operational costs, optimize network assets, speed time to revenue, and maximize network and service availability. The company’s programmable Transcend Network Management System (NMS) provides full end-to-end network and service management across multiple technologies and equipment vendors, while the Transcend Controller enables new, efficient, and innovative applications for network control and automation, extracting the most value out of packet optical networks.

Open Optical Networking Software

The Transcend Software Suite also includes software tools and applications that enable network operators to simplify the management of multi-vendor optical networks and leverage best-in-class technology from any number of suppliers in an open network environment. As part of this toolkit, Transcend Open Wave Manager makes it operationally simple to deploy, operate, and troubleshoot open wavelengths and the company’s Intelligent Pluggables Manager brings the holistic, end-to-end optical networking operational capabilities of DWDM transponders to intelligent pluggable optics in any network platform.

System Software

The company’s networking platforms and ICE-X coherent optical pluggable solutions include system software designed to maximize reliability and streamline automation. This software controls all aspects of system operations, including command processing, system security, policy management, fault monitoring, and alarm reporting. The company’s system software is designed to be field upgradable, with minimal impact on customer traffic.

Services

In connection with the company’s product offerings, it provides a comprehensive range of professional, support and training services for all Infinera hardware and software products. These services cover all phases of network ownership, from the initial installation through ongoing operations and maintenance activities. Professional services extend to network optimization, expansion and modernization, including migration of legacy transport services. The company’s global services organization is experienced and prepared to efficiently manage complex projects and assist with customer network operations in the face of today's ever-increasing demands for lower operational costs and minimized downtime.

Strategy

The key aspects of the company’s strategy include leveraging its vertically integrated solutions to deliver network solutions; building open optical networking solutions; delivering a superior customer experience; and utilizing software-driven automation to deliver differentiated solutions.

Sales and Marketing

The company markets and sells its products and related support services primarily through its direct sales force, supported by marketing and product management personnel. It also uses distribution or support partners to enter new markets or when requested by a potential customer.

Direct Sales Force. The company’s sales team sells directly to service providers worldwide and is organized geographically around the following markets, such as the United States and Canada (North America); Latin America and South America (LATAM); Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA); and the Asia Pacific and Japan (APAC). Within each geographic area, the company maintains specific teams or personnel that focus on a particular region, country, customer or market vertical.

Indirect Sales Force. The company employs business consultants and resale and logistics partners to assist in its sales efforts.

Intellectual Property

As of December 31, 2022, the company held 1,054 U.S. patents and 497 international patents expiring between 2023 and 2042, and held 177 U.S. and 116 foreign pending patent applications.

Governmental Regulations

Environmental Laws and Regulations

The company’s business and operations are subject to various federal, state, local and foreign laws and regulations that have been adopted with respect to the environment, including the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE), Directive on the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (RoHS), and Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulations adopted by the European Union.

Competition

In the long-haul market, the company’s main competitors include DWDM systems suppliers, such as Ciena Corporation; Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd; Nokia; and ZTE.

In the metro market, the company faces the same competitors as in long-haul, in addition to Cisco Systems, ADVA Optical Networking, Ribbon Communications Inc, and Fujitsu, among others. The company also competes with Lumentum, Marvell, and II-IV.

History

Infinera Corporation was founded in 2000. The company was incorporated in 2000 in the state of Delaware.