Software Working Group

Charter

The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) Software Working Group's purpose is to define, publish, and promote software interfaces that facilitate integration between multiple software modules for networking platforms. Software interfaces include application programming interfaces (APIs) and the contextual framework in which they operate.
The benefits of these software interfaces apply to several categories:

1.Carrier/Network Service Providers
Facilitate developing and deploying software defined networking products/services using sets of modular, interoperable, reusable, common software building blocks linked through software interfaces that are able to run in standardized software environments on standardized hardware platforms. Direct advantages are flexibility, and accelerated time to market for new services, at reduced cost.

2. Network Equipment Providers
Facilitate the integration of the data plane elements in component devices and various control plane and management plane applications running in control components/processors.
Typical APIs would be used in controlling various components such as SSL acceleration, IPv4, IPv6, MPLS, Ethernet, SONET/SDH, ATM, PDH, OTN, etc.

3. Component Providers
Facilitate the integration of multiple software or firmware functional blocks that provide the networking control plane, management plane, and/or data plane processing functionality in component devices.
Facilitate reducing time to market and cost in the integration of OIF Hardware Interfaces as defined by the OIF PLL WG, when such Hardware Interfaces have complementary OIF developed APIs.

Chairperson