Infinera to take over Corvis, supply Broadwing

Broadwing has selected Infinera’s optical switching platform for its network and will transfer control of its equipment manufacturing and network maintenance support functions to Infinera, the companies announced today.

In addition, Infinera will license some of the intellectual property from Broadwing’s equipment business, once known as Corvis, including that related to Raman amplification. And as part of the deal, some former Corvis employees will become Infinera employees.

The two companies, which issued a press release late Tuesday, were not immediately available to elaborate.

The news may have some symbolic significance to some. Infinera’s gear was designed as a unique alternative to the all-optical technology touted by Corvis and others. Both vendors aimed to tackle the high cost of converting optical signals into electrons (for the purpose of switching and other traffic management) and then back into optical signals. Corvis proposed to eliminate that expense by eliminating the so-called “OEO” conversions altogether, keeping signals optical end-to-end. Infinera’s approach, unveiled in 2004, was to reduce the cost of those OEO conversions by using integrated photonics--replacing expensive optical components with chips.

Broadwing built its all-optical backbone based on Corvis’ gear years ago. Corvis then acquired Broadwing in 2003, ultimately retaining the Broadwing name. But sales of Corvis’ optical equipment gradually dwindled, and its founder, David Huber, resigned his post as Broadwing’s chief executive officer last year.