ertical operation where they manufacture and sell all the components needed for an optical network. Infinera designs and manufactures all of their own components including chips, dense wavelength division multiplexing, receivers, circuit boards, and fiber-optic cabling. Their networks were designed from the beginning SO that a large number of wavelengths could be brought up and put into service in a single operation by network providers. When Infinera started shipping their products in 2005, all of their fiber-optic equipment was made for long-haul networks connecting cities, countries, and continents. In 2015 they purchased Transmode, a company that specialized in metro wavelength division multiplexing within cities. Transmode additionally provided fiber networks to mobile carriers for connections between their towers and data centers and between mobile networks and the Internet. Infinera is able to achieve the density they offer because of the photonic chips they manufacture. Photonic chips send data within the chip via light pulses because electrical impulses in non-photonic chips have electrical magnetic interference that slows down signals. Another innovation is that their chips are built using indium phosphide instead of silicon, which Infinera feels provides the exacting transmissions required in their high- www.TechnicalPDF.com speed optical components. All the processing in their chips is done using multicore, parallel mode processors. Single-Mode vs. Multi-Mode Fiber There are two main types of fiber: single-mode and multi-mode. Single-mode fiber is smaller, is more expensive, and supports higher speeds than multi-mode fiber. Measuring approximately the same diameter as a strand of human hair, it is used mainly in carrier networks and in undersea cabling. The fact that single-mode fiber carries light pulses faster than multi-mode fiber can be explained by a geometric rule: A straight line is the shortest distance between two points. Light travels faster in a straight line than if it zigzags along a path