Infinera Announces ICE-XR Pluggables Availability and a Suite of Open Optical Automation Solutions

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Infinera (NASDAQ: INFN) today announced availability dates for Infinera’s ICE-XR, the industry’s first suite of intelligent coherent optical pluggable solutions capable of supporting both point-to-point and point-to-multipoint applications. In addition to enabling dramatic network simplification, ICE-XR pluggables are designed to support a diverse set of network applications and can provide as much as 70% reduction in network costs. The company also announced the introduction of its Open Optical Toolkit, a new suite of open optical automation solutions designed to enable network operators to leverage the power of coherent optical technology in any platform across any optical infrastructure.

Infinera’s ICE-XR pluggables will initially include 400G, 200G, and 100G options in industry-standard CFP2 and QSFP-DD form factors to enable ease of deployment in a wide variety of networking devices. With 0 dBm launch power and low out-of-band noise, ICE-XR pluggables are optimized for seamless deployment over a wide variety of network infrastructures, including colorless/directionless fixed- and flexible-grid ROADM networks. Infinera’s ICE-XR also introduces a new level of intelligence into a pluggable solution, integrating system-level functionality onto a pluggable. This combination enables end-to-end visibility, accelerated service activation, and traditional optical system-level control even when deployed in non-traditional optical networking equipment.

ICE-XR pluggables are designed to support a diverse set of network applications from regional to metro, DCI, and access, including single-fiber bidirectional and PON overlays. Infinera will begin ICE-XR trials in the second half of this year, with general availability expected by the end of the year and volume ramping in the first half of 2023.

Infinera also announced today its Open Optical Toolkit, a suite of automation solutions that enable network operators to maintain a seamless operational experience as optical networks become increasingly open and heterogenous, with coherent optical engines from numerous suppliers deployed in a wider variety of network platforms such as routers, switches, compute platforms, and mobile radios.

The Open Optical Toolkit includes Open Wave Manager (OWM), a modular software application designed to enable network operators to seamlessly deploy and operate coherent optical engines from any supplier over any optical line system. OWM will expand the choices for network operators, ensuring that they can choose from the best-in-class coherent optical technology to meet their specific application needs.

Infinera’s Open Optical Toolkit also includes Infinera’s Intelligent Pluggables Manager (IPM). IPM is part of an open and collaborative approach to the management of coherent pluggable optics defined by the Open XR Forum. This approach decouples the management of optical engines from the host platform, ensuring a seamless operational experience with any optical engine deployed in any host platform. This approach also promotes independent innovation cycles between the host platform and the optical engine.

“Infinera’s suite of vertically integrated ICE-XR intelligent coherent pluggables and Open Optical Toolkit offer network operators both unique networking capabilities and innovative software applications to dramatically simplify their network and enable seamless operation,” said Tom Burns, General Manager of Optical Modules & Coherent Solutions Group at Infinera. “This type of holistic approach to coherent optical networking will play a critical role in enabling our customers to efficiently roll out next-generation services including 5G, enhanced broadband, and cloud-based services.”

Infinera’s Open Optical Toolkit’s suite of automation solutions is planned to be generally available the second half of the year.

ICE-XR and Infinera’s Open Optical Toolkit will be featured this week at OFC, held from March 6-10 in San Diego, California.