Infinera Brings New Power to Cognitive Networking

Infinera is widely known in the field already for its line of Intelligent Transport Networks, and for good reason. These systems have brought a lot of value forward in networking, and by all indications, Infinera isn't stopping there. A new report notes that Infinera's well on its way to building the latest in cognitive networking with its new Infinera Instant Network system.

Infinera Instant Network is geared toward cloud-scale networks, offering some of the necessary infrastructure to build cognitive networking into current systems.  Basically, Instant Network allows service providers to activate software-defined capacity (SDC) as it's needed, as opposed to having it run constantly whether it's needed or not. That's an almost-immediate cost savings, and it only gets better from there. Not only is unnecessary idle time dropped, but the interval between setting up new capacity and offering new, revenue-generating services is reduced, which further helps address waste and delivers value.

There are several other fronts on which Instant Network improves matters; one of the most substantial new improvements is the use of what are

called “Bandwidth License Pools.” With such systems in place, service providers can almost immediately activate capacity after creating an invoice. That reduces the time down to minutes, where previously, it might have taken hours. 

Moveable Licenses are another new innovation; where formerly, licenses were restricted to certain parts of the operation—specific platforms or even line modules—now license can go where it's needed, which makes for a more agile network that better delivers on customers' needs in the field. Finally, Automated Capacity Engineering (ACE)  engineering allows what was formerly done manually—route and capacity planning—and converts it to an automated system that allows for the best in wavelength assignment and other such functions to be delivered according to needs on the ground.

It's easy to see why there would be such a draw here. We're talking about a system that can save money in several different ways.  A system that allows for easy savings opportunities while not clearly hurting revenue opportunities—in fact, it may well help these grow—is a clear recipe for profit generation. If it works out on the revenue side as it's projected to, then that will only make it more attractive.

Passing up a system that can both reduce costs and improve revenue—assuming such a system can be used at all—is a hard offer to pass up. Infinera has taken a great step forward, and should find a welcome market eager to put its Instant Network system to use.