Coriant was incorporated as an independent company in 2013 as a spin-out from Siemens Optical Networks (NSN ON).

The launch of the company was announced for the OFC/NFOEC in March 2013 and on May 6, 2013 Coriant became independent from Nokia Siemens Networks under the ownership of Marlin Equity Partners.

[5][6] Coriant originates from the Transmission Technology department of Siemens based in Munich, Germany (Übertragungstechnik - ÜT as it was called in the 1990s).

[citation needed] In the late 1990s and early 2000s DWDM emerged to allow for even higher transmission capacity (in the terabit per second region).

This technology is also named optical transport network (OTN), where a set of multiplex and encapsulation hierarchies is standardized.