Infinera disclosed plans to release next-generation optical systems based on 100 Gbps coherent transmission in 2012. The company’s product development team has been working on both 40G and 100G solutions, including key optical and electrical enabling technologies. Recently, the engineering team demonstrated the transmission of a 100G signal over 1600 kilometers of fiber using coherent modulation technology. This milestone has enabled Infinera to accelerate its timetable for a 100G solution. 
The new 100G systems will be based on Infinera’s next-generation photonic integrated circuits (PICs), which integrate the functionality of hundreds of optical devices to provide 500 Gbps) of optical capacity on a single pair of chips (500G PICs). Infinera said these coherent detection systems will push ultra-long-haul fiber capacity to 8 Tbps.
Infinera is also planning to add non-PIC based coherent capability to its DTN system in 2011, to meet the needs of customers who require a 40G solution.
“We expect that Infinera’s 100G system will reach the market at a time that enables 100G mass adoption,” said Infinera CEO Tom Fallon. “In addition, Infinera 100G networks will offer very significant competitive advantages. Advanced features like digital bandwidth management and Bandwidth VirtualizationTM, which customers expect from Infinera, will continue to deliver valuable benefits in our intelligent networks. We believe that traditional muxponder-based DWDM systems become even more inefficient when carrying a wide range of lower-speed services over 100G wavelengths.”http://www.infinera.com
