History

We also added a new member to our MicroMux™ family, unlocking extra value in deployed infrastructure with our MicroMux™ Edge BiDi.

And our Ensemble Simulator hit the market in 2022, helping accelerate network evolution by providing a safe virtual testing environment.

2021 saw ADVA showcase a best-in-breed open DCI solution for the 400ZR era.

We also launched the world’s first optical transport solution with post-quantum cryptography.

Our new TeraFlex™ CoreChannel™ delivered 800G capacity with the longest reach on the market.

And it was in 2021 that ADVA announced its combination with Adtran to create a global, scaled, end-to-end fiber networking solutions leader.

In 2020, ADVA launched its pluggable, self-tuning G.metro solution to tackle access network bottlenecks.

We also launched a new way for CSPs to drive more revenue from their deployed networks with spectrum as a service.

Our OSA 3350+ was the industry’s first ePRC optical cesium clock solution, tackling GNSS vulnerabilities and enabling 5G.

We also helped bring post-quantum security to packet networks with the QuaSiModO project and joined the OPENQKD initiative to create the first market-ready quantum-safe communication infrastructure.

In the year of Oscilloquartz's 70th anniversary, we brought new levels of automation to DCI networks and led the way with disaggregated cell site gateway technologies for 5G connectivity.

As well as playing a key role in projects enhancing spectrum utilization and electro-photonic integration, we broke multiple industry records for reach and capacity with our FSP 3000 TeraFlex™ solution.

Our Ensemble Connector NFVI platform formed the basis of the market's most innovative new uCPE solutions.

2018 saw ADVA bring secure zero-touch provisioning to the network edge for effortless service activation.

We also launched ConnectGuard™ Cloud, the industry’s first virtualized encryption solution and were at the heart of key technology demos in the field of quantum security and multi-layer network slicing for 5G.

We continued to play a central role in major joint innovation projects in 2018, advancing interoperability and bringing TIP’s open, disaggregated packet optical solution to the market.

This year saw the acquisition of MRV Communications, strengthening our cloud access portfolio, increasing our North American and Asian footprint, and enabling us to deliver even more value to our customers.

We grew our Ensemble Harmony Ecosystem to include more than 40 hardware, software, and services partners all focused on delivering market-leading virtual network functions.

We also introduced a major expansion of our FSP 3000 platform designed specifically for metro networks.

The strategic purchase of Overture helped establish our position as the industry’s NFV powerhouse with our new software-based virtualization division, Ensemble.

Other landmarks included the release of SmartWAN, our ground-breaking SD-WAN solution, and our One Network Edge portfolio of high-performance edge devices.

Our annual revenues for 2016 also broke the half-billion euros mark, climbing to 566.7 million euros.

In 2015, we unveiled our network functions virtualization (NFV) strategy and our FSP 150 ProVM range.

We also launched our new ConnectGuard™ Optical solution for robust transport layer security as well as ConnectGuard™ Ethernet to protect data as it travels across third-party networks, ideal for safeguarding data center interconnect (DCI) applications.

Additionally, our open DCI solution, the FSP 3000 CloudConnect™, hit the market, a major boost for ICPs and CSPs seeking best-of-breed networks.

In this year, we acquired Oscilloquartz and all its network timing expertise. This purchase helped us to become a leading provider of end-to-end solutions for the delivery and assurance of highly accurate, robust and versatile synchronization technology.

We launched our new 100Gbit/s metro technology with built-in on-the-fly encryption. This was the first solution on the market able to transport 100Gbit/s data rates with integrated line-side encryption.

2014 also saw the launch of our ALM fiber monitoring solution, which has since brought real-time fiber assurance to mission-critical networks across the globe.

This year was a busy one for us. We developed Cachejack™, designed to improve mobile user experience and enable location-based services (LBS) through an application-aware radio access network. It also optimizes resource utilization by uniquely transporting content directly from the backhaul network straight to the mobile subscriber.

We launched the FSP 150 with IEEE 1588v2 mini-grandmaster (miniGM) clock and boundary clock functionality, which added to our timing product portfolio.

We announced an industry-first with our software-defined networking (SDN) solution that was developed in cooperation with IBM and Marist College.

Our team was also awarded a prestigious Supply Chain Management Award. This is presented annually to the company with the most effective value chain in the manufacturing industry. Shortly after, we also won an eco Internet award for our 100Gbit/s metro card.

The flexibility of our organizational structure was further enhanced when ADVA AG Optical Networking completed its conversion into an SE (Societas Europaea) legal entity, a public limited-liability company under European law). Since then, we’ve operated under the name of ADVA Optical Networking SE. With this, we established an efficient global employee representation, reflecting the international employee base and overall orientation of the company.

We made a strategic investment in Saguna Networks and its content optimization delivery systems (CODS) technology, underlining the growing demand for content caching in mobile backhaul networks.

A new user network interface (UNI) was developed for our GMPLS control plane – RAYcontrol™. This new functionality enables users to seamlessly unite packet optical networks with optical transport technology and provides maximum service velocity and ease of use.

Our Syncjack™ suite was designed to deliver precise timing synchronization and assurance across mobile backhaul networks.

Our FSP 150SP, a sync probe device, was also launched, enabling backhaul service providers to offer synchronization as a service, something that had previously not been possible.

We expanded our total available market to include end-to-end mobile backhauling, end-to-end business Ethernet services and the possibility to address wholesale Ethernet applications such as providing a Layer 2 service adaption layer within a wholesaler network.

We introduced our FSP 150EG-X edge gateway, which delivers cost-effective capacity, scalability and resiliency for Carrier Ethernet access and backhaul networks.

A coherent express layer was developed and added to our FSP 3000 platform. 100Gbit/s transport was also optimized for high-performance agile core and metro networks.

We continued to grow as an organization – in size and in complexity. We added new executives to steer the company and lead us through the next phase of our development. We implemented global IT platforms that a company of our size requires. We grew to more than 1,200 employees on five continents.

By this stage, we’d come a long way – from enterprise to carrier, and now a mix of about 70% carrier and 30% enterprise customers. Some of our carriers were using our products for data center interconnectivity or global backbones for enterprises.

By now, we had two common architectures (FSP 3000 and FSP 150) and were continuing to lead the way for innovation with some of the best people in the industry working on innovative solutions for our customers.

We knew where the network was going and where we needed to be. We saw a few companies that were leading the pack in the Ethernet OAM, optical control plane and ROADM arenas. In this year, we finalized the acquisitions of both Covaro Networks and Movaz Networks.

Recognizing the increasing importance of Ethernet, we invested in and then later fully acquired Metro Packet Systems, Inc. (California, U.S.). We leveraged the MPS acquisition to launch the first FSP 150 Ethernet access products. This technology family has since been consolidated by taking multiple products and integrating them into one common infrastructure.

All of a sudden our world froze over – we definitely didn't talk about global warming back then. To survive the bursting of the Dotcom Bubble, we put our heads down, our shoulders to the wind and kept our vision in mind. We actually increased our market share during these hard years – we went from 0.2% to 2% of the market, just by staying flat.

To build market share in North America and Asia, we signed OEM agreements with Fujitsu Network Communications and Hitachi Ltd., respectively. And we launched the FSP 1500, our GFP next-gen SDH access solution.

In 2001, we completed construction of our state-of-the-art R&D, production and administration facility in Meiningen, Germany. This year, we expanded our WDM product line and launched the FSP 1000 and FSP 2000. We also introduced the FSP Network Manager and the FSP Network Planner.

Like all young, aggressive engineers with money in their pockets, we decided to acquire some companies. We purchased Storage Area Networks Ltd. (Cambridge, U.K.); Cellware Breitband Technologie GmbH (Berlin, Germany); FirstFibre Ltd. (York, U.K.); and the Siemens Norway Telecom R&D Team (Oslo, Norway). Many dedicated employees from these early acquisitions are still with us today, continuing to innovate and deliver great products. We also launched our fourth generation of products and brought the FSP 3000 and FSP 500 to market.

Along came 1999 and with it the "bubble." With the rest of the startups from that era, we had visions of becoming the dominant equipment provider in the telecommunications industry. We quickly realized that our small sales team was not going to be able to get global reach, so we decided to partner. In 1999, we signed an OEM partnership with Alcatel. In 2000, we closed OEM agreements with Cisco Systems and Siemens Communications.

We launched our third generation of products and brought the FSP-I and -II to market.

We also went public this year – what an amazing feeling. So many companies who launched during those years are no longer here. I'm quite proud that ADVA is still going strong.

After about three loops and some hard falls, we climbed to the top of the roller coaster with the rest of the industry. It was the heyday of optical networking, and we were determined that our products were going to connect the world, including your refrigerator and your microwave. Our share price went up, up and away – we were valued more than Lufthansa!

This year, we were proud to launch our second product generation, the Optical Channel Multiplexer (OCM) 4, 8 and 16. It's about this time I moved to a full-time position at ADVA.

We were proud that our products worked well and started thinking about other markets. From our enterprise roots, we finally sold products to our first carrier customer, COLT, for whom we built inexpensive media converters.

We launched our first product. A panicked data center manager at the Westfälische Landesbank (which no longer exists in the same corporate form) needed more dark fibers but couldn't get them from the Deutsche Bundespost. They convinced us to build the first ESCON multiplexer right around the same time that IBM began developing a competing product.

We started out to conquer the world from our Robotron building in Meiningen, the former East Germany. Prior to 1989, it was a major producer of hard drives and other technology solutions for the East. At the time, we couldn’t afford to hire engineers in Munich due to cash restrictions and the inability to get subsidies. Thus we started in Meiningen with four people and a vision … to ADd VAlue ... ADVA was born.