ADVA Optical Networking

The factory in Meiningen

ADVA was founded in 1994 by Brian Protiva. It established its headquarters in Martinsried near Munich and its first production facility in Meiningen. Funded by Egora Holding, the company's initial focus was on the development of wavelength division multiplexing technology designed to provide enterprises, including banks, insurance firms and utilities, with high-bandwidth network connectivity.

In 2014, ADVA Optical Networking acquired Oscilloquartz. Following the purchase, ADVA continued to expand and develop Oscilloquartz's portfolio of end-to-end synchronization technology.

In 2016, ADVA acquired Overture.

In 2017, ADVA Optical Networking acquired its US rival, MRV Communications in an effort to increase its cloud access portfolio and strengthen its Network Edge portfolio. Following the acquisition, one MRV executive: Scott St. John, was appointed to ADVA's board.

In 2009, Infonetics Research listed ADVA as the industry leader (#1 position) in the Ethernet Access Device (EAD) space with a market share of 20 percent,[3] based on 2008 revenues.

In 2016, ADVA was listed as the industry leader (#1 position) in Ovum's data center interconnect (DCI) global market share report, with the largest market share in both the metro ICP/CNP and enterprise categories. [4]

ADVA's annual revenues surpassed half a billion euros in 2016, peaking at 556.7 million euros.

ADVA demonstrated the world’s first 100G quantum safe transport over 2800 km on 13 June 2018.

ADVA’s FSP 3000 TeraFlex™ terminal broke industry records on 24 July 2019, achieving 200Gbit/s per wavelength transmission over a distance of 5,738km with 2.5bit/symbol, and 500Gbit/s over 1,016km with 5bit/symbol modulation. The trial was conducted with partners: the Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center (PSNC), EENet of HITSA and Tele2 Estonia. Marketwatch

• 25 November 2019: ADVA jointly won MEF 19 Proof of Concept (POC) award in the category of MEF 3.0 SD-WAN Implementation [5]
• 14 October 2019: ADVA was chosen to be included in the Intel Network Builders Winners’ Circle for its work on next generation solutions for universal customer premises equipment (uCPE). [6]
• 21 March 2019: ADVA won the BT sustainability award for a second time for its Carrier Ethernet demarcation solution. [7]
• 18 October 2018: ADVA received the ECOC (European Conference on Optical Communication) award for low-latency timing-accurate 5G technology along with partner, Transpacket [8]
• 16 November 2017: ADVA won the MEF 2017 Carrier Ethernet 2.0 (CE 2.0) award for its FSP 150 ProVMe (P2.4) solution. [9]
• 16 October 2017: ADVA received the Layer 123 2017 Network Transformation Award in the category of Best Energy Efficiency.
• 22 September 2017: ADVA’s Ensemble Connector software hosting platform for virtual network functions (VNFs) won the Telecom World Award for vendor innovation.
• 20 January 2017: Ensemble Connector received TMC’s NFV Product of the Year award.
• 12 May 2016: Ensemble Connector won the title of Innovation of the Year at 5G World MENA.

In 2016, ADVA announced it was joining the Science Based Targets Initiative [10] (SBTi),[11][12] an organisation set up by the World Resources Institute. ADVA joined the initiative with the aim of contributing to the global effort to keep the average global temperature below a 2 °C rise beyond pre-industrial levels, in line with the 2015 Paris Agreement. In 2017, ADVA submitted its targets to the SBTi, which were primarily focussed on reducing indirect consumer emissions. The SBTi validated ADVA’s targets in 2019 and they will remain in place for 15 years, determining ADVA’s sustainability practices over the course of this period.