Infinera Launches Bandwidth Virtualization for Industry-Leading Speed and Flexibility

SUNNYVALE, CA--(Marketwire - January 29, 2008) - Infinera (NASDAQ: INFN) has launched Bandwidth Virtualization™ to meet the needs of the Internet for a faster, more responsive Internet today and in the future. Implemented using an Infinera Digital Optical Network, Bandwidth Virtualization enables service providers to respond quickly and flexibly to market demand with a wide range of services over one optical infrastructure. Bandwidth Virtualization also enables service providers to differentiate themselves by offering innovative new services to their customers.

In a new video entitled "Bandwidth Virtualization: An Architecture for Today's Internet," produced in high-definition TV format and posted on the Internet, Infinera customers Equinix and XO Communications and Infinera CEO Jagdeep Singh explain the benefits of this new technology.

Speed, Flexibility, and Service Differentiation

In a traditional optical network using Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM), each service that a service provider sells is typically linked to a specific wavelength, which is installed and turned up after a customer commits to purchase that service. Each service to be sold typically requires pre-planning, engineering activities and testing at time of installation, and there is often a significant delay between customer commitment to purchase and turn-up of the corresponding service. Service providers introducing new services, such as 40 Gigabit/second (Gb/s) and 100Gb/s services, must frequently re-engineer or overbuild their WDM networks to support the new services, creating long cycles between end-user service requests and service delivery, as well as inefficient network utilization, operational complexity, and the need for additional capital outlays.

Bandwidth Virtualization overcomes these challenges and accelerates operators' speed of service provisioning by decoupling the service layer in the network from the underlying optical transmission layer. Bandwidth Virtualization is enabled by an Infinera Digital Optical Network using high-capacity photonic integrated circuit technology on every route in the optical network, and integrates sub-wavelength digital switching with end-to-end software intelligence. This provides operators with a readily available pool of WDM bandwidth to meet immediate service requests, and allows new services to be deployed over the same infrastructure. The transmission layer can be configured to support any service simply by installing a service interface module at each of the two service endpoints and activating new end-to-end services using software rather than via hardware-based re-engineering of network resources.

Bandwidth Virtualization also yields significant operational benefits for service providers. By deploying hundreds of Gigabits of capacity at initial installation and being able to turn up additional services with digital plug-and-play ease, service providers can operate their network with smaller skilled engineering teams and at lower cost than on traditional WDM networks.

Equinix Corp. (NASDAQ: EQIX), a leading global provider of network-neutral data center and interconnection services for customers including many of the world's largest websites, selected Infinera for the speed and flexibility benefits of Infinera's Bandwidth Virtualization. "In today's environment, our customers can say to us, we will need 20 or 30 Gigs of additional capacity this month, and by the way, can you give them to us next week," said Equinix Chief Technologist Lane Patterson. "With Infinera's Bandwidth Virtualization we can meet that demand with no problem."

Last week, XO Communications (OTCBB: XOHO), a leading provider of 21st century communications and operator of a nationwide Infinera Digital Optical Network, renewed its attention-getting guarantee to deliver its customers "10 Gigs in 10 Days," a service commitment supported by Infinera's Bandwidth Virtualization combined with Infinera's Just-in-TAM™ guarantee, a commitment to ship 10 Gigabit client modules anywhere in the world within ten days of receipt of order. In addition, XO Communications Chief Technology Officer Randy Nicklas comments in today's Infinera video that he is investigating the opportunity to offer XO customers a Layer 1 virtual private network on XO's Infinera network. "The Bandwidth Virtualization technology lends itself to these innovative, software-managed services," commented Randy Nicklas. "The greatest advantage from XO's point of view of Infinera's Bandwidth Virtualization is the flexibility it gives XO, flexibility to meet our customer's needs quickly, reliably, and economically," he added.

"Infinera's Bandwidth Virtualization is an important innovation in optical networking," commented Infonetics Research principal analyst Michael Howard. "Virtualization technologies like storage and server virtualization have delivered benefits in those realms including increased flexibility, adaptability, and better resource utilization, and Infinera's Bandwidth Virtualization delivers similar benefits for the optical network."

Video: Challenge and Opportunity

According to Internet audience measurement firm ComScore, in November 2007, Americans watched 9.5 billion videos on the Internet. According to ComScore, about 138 million Americans viewed video on the Internet in that month, and the typical viewer spent 3.25 hours or 195 minutes viewing Internet video, up 29% from the 151 minutes spent by the average viewer ten months previously, in January.(See "Google Sites' Share of Online Video Market Expands to 31 Percent in November 2007," press release published Jan. 17, 2008 at www.comscore.com).

As more consumers spend more time viewing video on the Internet, the demand for higher quality images, comparable to those on traditional televisions, will rise. The major broadcast networks have already begun this trend by insisting on higher-quality images as they make their shows available online. To illustrate this phenomenon and the challenges it poses to technologists and network operators, Infinera commissioned a video, "Bandwidth Virtualization, An Architecture for Today's Internet," shot entirely in high-definition or HDTV format. Hosted by Infinera CEO Jagdeep Singh, and featuring appearances by Randy Nicklas of XO Communications and Lane Patterson of Equinix, the video explains the technology behind Bandwidth Virtualization and its application in some of the world's most advanced networks.

The video runs nearly 9 minutes and is posted on the Infinera website in its HDTV format, where its file size is just over 7 gigabytes. The fully uncompressed HD version of the video would be 23.99 gigabytes. The video is posted on video-sharing websites YouTube and DailyMotion with a file size of just 27 megabytes. The trend to higher-quality images, compounded by the trend for more viewers to view video, and for each viewer to spend more time viewing Internet video, will create significant challenges for the world's networks and the service providers who provide those networks. We believe Bandwidth Virtualization will play a critical role in helping them meet those challenges.

"Our customers have told us that the capabilities and benefits of Bandwidth Virtualization are key reasons for their selection of Infinera for their networks," commented Infinera CEO Jagdeep Singh. "Bandwidth Virtualization is built on multiple technological innovations, but from the service providers' point of view, the key point is that it contributes to their business success, by enabling them to be more flexible, more innovative, more responsive and differentiate themselves from their competitors."

Note 1:

See also today's Infinera news release, "Equinix Selects Infinera for Metro Networks in North America and Asia"

Note 2:

The Infinera video, "Bandwidth Virtualization, An Architecture for Today's Internet," can be viewed at the below websites:

-- www.infinera.com/bandwidthvirtualization

-- Bandwidth Virtualization: An Architecture for Today's Internet (YouTube version)

-- Bandwidth Virtualization: An Architecture for Today's Internet (DailyMotion)

-- Bandwidth Virtualization: An Architecture for Today's Internet (DivX Stage6)

About Infinera

Infinera provides Digital Optical Networking systems to telecommunications carriers worldwide. Infinera's systems are unique in their use of a breakthrough semiconductor technology: the Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC). Infinera's systems and PIC technology are designed to provide optical networks with simpler and more flexible engineering and operations, faster time-to-service, and the ability to rapidly deliver differentiated services without reengineering their optical infrastructure. For more information, please visit www.infinera.com.

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements are based on information available to Infinera as of the date hereof; and actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied, due to risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding Infinera's expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future, such as the benefits and capabilities of our products and the Digital Optical Network's architecture, and other statements that can be identified by forward-looking words such as "anticipated," "believed," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "should," "will," and "would" or similar words. The risks and uncertainties that could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements include aggressive business tactics by our competitors, our dependence on a single product, our ability to protect our intellectual property, claims by others that we infringe their intellectual property, our manufacturing process is very complex, product performance problems we may encounter, our dependence on sole or limited source suppliers, our ability to respond to rapid technological changes, our ability to maintain effective internal controls, the ability of our contract manufacturers to perform as we expect, general political, economic and market conditions and events, including war, conflict or acts of terrorism; and other risks and uncertainties described more fully in our public announcements, reports to stockholders and other documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. These statements are based on information available to us as of the date hereof and we assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements included in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Contact Information: For further information Media: Jeff Ferry Infinera Tel. +1-408-572-5213 Investors: Bob Blair Infinera Tel. +1-408-716-4879