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OIF Launches Flexe 2.1 Project and Elects new Board Positions and Working Group Representatives

This work continues OIF’s lead in FlexE aggregation architectures by keeping current with industry PHY rates

Fremont, Calif.—December 4, 2018 – OIF, the global industry forum accelerating market adoption of advanced interoperable optical networking solutions, today announced the launch of the FlexE 2.1 project and newly elected board members and working group chairs. The new project initiation and elections took place at the Q418 Technical and MA&E Committee meetings held October 29-November 2, 2018 in Sydney, Australia.

The new FlexE 2.1 project is for FlexE over 50Gbe PHY applications and an extension to the recently released FlexE 2.0 Interoperability Agreement (IA). FlexE 2.1 will specify a 50G FlexE frame and multiplexing format and will address Flex Ethernet (FlexE) applications with lower bandwidth needs and provide an implementation foundation for applications including the access layer of the future 5G mobile network. This new 50GbE support will extend the existing support for 100, 200 and 400GE in the just published FlexE 2.0 IA.

With market demand and possible large volume applications for channelization (5Gb/s granularity for minimum 10G clients) and bonding of 50GE PHYs in the future access layer/metro edge (based on IPRAN/PTN) of the 5G mobile backhaul network, FlexE implementation logic will be critical.

“There is continued demand by data center and network operators for a solution for flexible deployment and provisioning of Ethernet bandwidth,” said Dave Ofelt, Juniper Networks and OIF Physical and Link Layer (PLL) Working Group – Protocol Vice Chair. “Building on OIF’s great work for FlexE and FlexE 2.0, this new FlexE 2.1 project will ultimately result in a single IA that adds n×50Gb/s support to FlexE 2.0, along with other possible feature enhancements.”

Election Results

  • Board of Directors:
    • Nathan Tracy, TE Connectivity, was re-elected to the Board and appointed as President
    • Tad Hofmeister, Google, was appointed as Vice President
    • Martin Bouda, Fujitsu, was re-elected to the Board and appointed as Secretary/Treasurer
    • Mike Li, Intel, was newly elected to the Board
    • Cathy Liu, Broadcom Inc., was re-elected to the Board
    • Gary Nicholl, Cisco, was newly elected to the Board
    • Ian Betty, Ciena, continues to serve on the Board
  • Officers:
    • Klaus-Holger Otto, Nokia, was re-elected as Technical Committee Chair
    • Ed Frlan, Semtech, was re-elected as Technical Committee Vice Chair
    • Tom Issenhuth, Huawei Technologies, was newly elected Market Awareness & Education Committee Co-Chair, Physical and Link Layer (PLL)
    • Lyndon Ong, Ciena, was re-elected as Market Awareness & Education Committee Co-Chair, Networking
    • Dave Brown, Nokia, was appointed as Communications Director, having termed out as a Board member and Board President
  • Technical Committee – Working Groups:
    • Jia He, Huawei Technologies, was newly elected as Network & Operations Working Group Chair
    • Jeff Maki, Juniper Networks, was re-elected as Physical Layer User Group Working Group Chair

“I am thrilled and honored to serve as president of the OIF for the coming year,” said Nathan Tracy, TE Connectivity and new OIF president. “This is an exciting time in the industry and OIF has an important role to play with the interoperability solutions that are both in-process and yet to come. I congratulate all the other members who are newly elected to the board of directors and other leadership positions.”

About OIF
OIF is where the optical networking industry’s interoperability work gets done. Celebrating 20 years of effecting progressive change in the industry, OIF represents the dynamic ecosystem of 100+ industry leading network operators, system vendors, component vendors and test equipment vendors, all collaborating to develop interoperable electrical, optical and control solutions that directly impact the industry’s ecosystem and facilitate global connectivity in the open network world. Connect with OIF at @OIForum, on LinkedIn and at http://www.oiforum.com.

PR Contact:
Leah Wilkinson
Wilkinson + Associates for OIF
Email: leah@wilkinson.associates
Office: 703-907-0010

OIF Launches CEI-112G Projects, Forms Network Operator Working Group

The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) announced that it has begun work on long reach (LR) and medium reach (MR) CEI-112G, building upon two existing 100G serial electrical link projects. Forum members continue to support and approve the development of projects addressing CEI-112G as bandwidth needs increase. Dr. Chongjin Xie of Alibaba was invited to present to members at the quarterly meeting in Shanghai. Dr. Xie shared with members the need for various network technologies, innovations and breakthroughs for datacenters. Following the meeting, the members participated in an OIF Day with China Unicom and SK Telecom.

CEI-112G Projects

The CEI-112G-LR project defines an interface to enable high-loss 112G backplane channels. This project will also facilitate direct attach copper (DAC) cable channel links at 112G. The CEI-112G-MR project will develop specifications for a chip-to-chip (c2c) interface which can also be used to support applications of 112Gx2 (224G), and 112Gx4 (448G) with reduced power, complexity, and enhanced density.

“These projects build upon the relevant and foundational 56G and 112G CEI roadmap the OIF has established,” said Nathan Tracy of TE Connectivity and OIF vice president of marketing.  “The industry continues to look to the OIF to deliver interoperable implementation agreements that will drive adoption of both 100 Gb/s serial applications and the interfaces needed to address higher bandwidth.”

Network Operator Working Group

Members voted to evolve the Carrier Working Group into the new Network Operator Working Group, reflecting the active participation of web-scale and content service provider members such as Alibaba, Google and Microsoft, along with traditional service providers such as China Telecom, Orange, TELUS, and Verizon.

“The new working group reflects the OIF’s growing membership of network operators who are participating in technology advancement and interoperability demonstrations to influence the industry,” said Dr. Junjie Li of China Telecom, the newly elected Network Operator Working Group chair.  “These network operators have driven the OIF 400ZR and CFP2-DCO projects and are sharing their insights as reflected in the presentation from our Q4 speaker, Dr. Xie of Alibaba.”

OIF Election Results

Cathy Liu of Broadcom Limited and Dr. Martin Bouda of Fujitsu were newly elected to the Board for one-year terms, with Dr. Bouda appointed to secretary/treasurer. Ian Betty of Ciena was re-elected for a two-year term, and Tad Hofmeister of Google was elected to a two-year term.

Jonathan Sadler of Coriant was appointed to vice president. Dave Brown of Nokia continues to serve as president, and Nathan Tracy of TE Connectivity continues to serve as vice president of marketing.

About the OIF
The OIF facilitates the development and deployment of interoperable networking solutions and services. Members collaborate to drive Implementation Agreements (IAs) and interoperability demonstrations to accelerate and maximize market adoption of advanced internetworking technologies. OIF work applies to optical and electrical interconnects, optical component and network processing technologies, and to network control and operations including software defined networks and network function virtualization. The OIF actively supports and extends the work of national and international standards bodies. Launched in 1998, the OIF is the only industry group uniting representatives from across the spectrum of networking, including many of the world’s leading service providers, system vendors, component manufacturers, software and testing vendors. Information on the OIF can be found at http://www.oiforum.com.

 

OIF Updates Micro Intradyne Coherent Receiver IA for Beyond 100G Applications

Forum soliciting input for next global interop demo

Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) members recently approved important updates to the Micro Intradyne Coherent Receiver implementation agreement. The IA introduces three classes of receivers, distinguished by their RF frequency response, to support Flex Coherent DWDM transmission to 400G and beyond.

The OIF continues its efforts to look beyond 100G by selecting a 400G implementation technology option. The newly published Flex Coherent DWDM Transmission framework document specifies a single technical approach for diverse network applications, including long-haul (LH), metro and data center inter-connection (DCI).  One of the objectives of this work is to provide direction on the technical developments required by system and component providers.

“Our system vendor members continue to flow down future system requirements so that component suppliers can be ready with products to support their designs,” said Karl Gass of Qorvo and the OIF’s Physical and Link Layer Working Group – Optical Vice Chair.

Global transport SDN interop demo survey for service providers

The OIF is planning its next global transport SDN Interop demo.  Building on the successful OIF 2016 Global SDN Transport API Interoperability Demo, the goal is to show APIs at work in key commercial transport SDN use cases. The OIF is seeking input from the service provider community, including those that have not participated in past interop demonstrations.  Click here to complete the anonymous survey by September 8, 2017 and help shape the next interop demo.

OIF Elections

The following officers were re-elected to one-year terms:

Klaus-Holger Otto of Nokia – Technical Committee, Chair; Ed Frlan of Semtech – Technical Committee, Vice Chair; Lyndon Ong of Ciena – MA&E Committee Co-Chair, Networking; Brian Holden of Kandou Bus – MA&E Committee Co-Chair, Physical & Link Layer.

OIF Day at Telefonica – Sept. 26th, Madrid, Spain

This event will be an interactive and educational workshop featuring OIF and Telefonica subject matter experts including Juan Pedro Fernandez Palacios, Head of “Core Network Evolution” for Telefonica. Topics will include OIF projects and directions, SDN for transport optical networks, and interoperability in disaggregated networks. With this exclusive event, the OIF is directly reaching out to understand service provider challenges and strategies, unlike any other forum. This event is open to all OIF Principal members and Telefonica.

About the OIF
The OIF facilitates the development and deployment of interoperable networking solutions and services. Members collaborate to drive Implementation Agreements (IAs) and interoperability demonstrations to accelerate and maximize market adoption of advanced internetworking technologies. OIF work applies to optical and electrical interconnects, optical component and network processing technologies, and to network control and operations including software defined networks and network function virtualization. The OIF actively supports and extends the work of national and international standards bodies. Launched in 1998, the OIF is the only industry group uniting representatives from across the spectrum of networking, including many of the world’s leading service providers, system vendors, component manufacturers, software and testing vendors. Information on the OIF can be found at http://www.oiforum.com.

 

Plethora of OIF Activities at OFC 2017

The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) announced today  an abundance of activities and demos at OFC 2017 in Los Angeles, March 21-23.  The OIF is hosting live demonstrations showing 56Gbps, CFP2-ACO and FlexEthernet by 11 OIF member companies.  The Forum will share details from its SDN Transport API Interoperability Demonstration which concluded in December of 2016 and, finally, the OIF is offering a half day 100G Serial Electrical Interconnect Needs workshop, which is open to the public.

OIF Delivers on Enabling Next Generation Networks!

OIF member companies have teamed up to demonstrate significant progress in delivering an interoperable ecosystem of suppliers and solutions for critical market needs:

  • 56Gbps live electrical signaling over all reaches
  • CFP2-ACO Optical Interoperability
  • FlexE (Flex Ethernet)

Public demonstrations will be on display March 21-23, 2017 at OFC in OIF Booth #3853. Additional information can be found here.

 

OIF Presentation: Enabling Next Generation Physical Layer Solutions

This session will cover the operating, live, interoperability demonstrations that OIF members are displaying in booth #3853. The panelists will discuss the OIF Implementation Agreement development work that has led to these demos and provide an update on the current status.  In addition, some of the OIF’s new, future work in process will be discussed.

This session will take place Tuesday, March 21, 2017 – 1:45pm–2:45pm – in Expo Theater III

Moderator: Steve Sekel, Keysight Technologies, Inc., OIF PLL Interoperability WG Chair

Panelists: Ed Frlan, Semtech, OIF Technical Committee Vice Chair; Karl Gass, OIF PLL WG Optical Vice Chair; Tad Hofmeister, Google, OIF Representative

 

SDN Transport API Interoperability Demo Public Read-Out

The OIF helps operators unlock the benefits of SDN for their optical networks through three interrelated projects:  interop demonstrations hosted by participating operators leveraging key interfaces such as the Transport API to bind together multi-layer and multi-domain carrier networks; Implementation Agreements that document new interoperability industry standards; and a new certification program that will address the gap between paper specifications or early implementations and products that carriers can realistically deploy.  Learn how these help realize commercial Transport SDN deployment and the promised benefits of accelerated time-to-revenue coupled with increased operational efficiency.

This session will take place Tuesday, March 21, 2017 – 3:00pm-4:00 pm – in Expo Theater III

Moderator: Dave Brown, Nokia, OIF President.

Panelists: Jonathan Sadler, Coriant, OIF Board Member and Networking Interoperability WG Chair; Lyndon Ong, Ciena, OIF MA&E Committee co-chair Networking; Victor Lopez, Telefonica.

 

OIF Workshop – 100G Serial Electrical Interconnect Needs

The OIF will host a half-day workshop focusing on potential electrical link and interconnect technologies being developed to support serial data rates of 100 Gb/s and higher. The workshop, which is open to the public, will give an industry view and dicuss the application spaces for the next generation interconnects, including Networking Trends and Cloud Scale applications.

Thursday, March 23, 2017 – 12pm-6pm

Los Angeles Convention Center

Level Two, West Hall – Room 518

To register for the workshop, click here.

Workshop Agenda

12:00pm: Registration and Box Lunches

12:30pm: Intro – Tom Palkert, OIF PLL WG Electrical Vice Chair, Molex

1:00pm: Industry Analyst – Alan Weckel, 650 Group

Session 1 – User Demand

  • High Level Systems – Katharine Schmidtke, Facebook
  • Equipment Perspective – Andreas Bechtolsheim, Arista

Session 2 – Component Suppliers’ Vision

  • Optics – Mark Nowell, Cisco
  • SERDES/semiconductor – Bart Zeydel, MACOM
  • Alternate Modulation – David Stauffer, Kandou Bus
  • Copper cable/connector/PCB trace – Greg Walz, Molex

5:15pm: Wrap-up – Nathan Tracy, OIF VP of Marketing, TE Connectivity

 

About the OIF
The OIF facilitates the development and deployment of interoperable networking solutions and services. Members collaborate to drive Implementation Agreements (IAs) and interoperability demonstrations to accelerate and maximize market adoption of advanced internetworking technologies. OIF work applies to optical and electrical interconnects, optical component and network processing technologies, and to network control and operations including software defined networks and network function virtualization. The OIF actively supports and extends the work of national and international standards bodies. Launched in 1998, the OIF is the only industry group uniting representatives from across the spectrum of networking, including many of the world’s leading service providers, system vendors, component manufacturers, software and testing vendors. Information on the OIF can be found at http://www.oiforum.com.

 

OIF Approves Agreement on Polarized Multiplexed Quadrature Modulator

Starts 112G inside Multi-Chip-Module Project, Google’s Bikash Koley speaks at Q1 Meeting

Members of the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) recently passed an Implementation Agreement (IA) for an optical integrated Polarization Multiplexed (PM) quadrature modulator for coherent applications with nominal symbol rates up to 64GBaud. The agreement supports the 16QAM modulation format for 400G applications.

“As we go to higher data rates, we need higher performing optical components that maintain a reasonable level of complexity.” said Karl Gass of Qorvo and the OIF’s PLL Working Group – Optical Vice Chair. “These components are targeted for 400G applications.  RF bandwidth is the highest priority for this project.”

The forum members also started the CEI-112G in MCM project to support interconnect within Multi-Chip-Modules (MCMs). In addition to the CEI-112G-VSR specification that is being developed, there is a need to support high rate interconnect amongst large logic devices as well as to small driver devices within an MCM.

Members have also started a maintenance project to produce amendments to the User Network Interface (UNI) 2.0 and External Network to Network Interface (E-NNI) 2.0 specification documenting the extensions for support of OTN rates higher than 100G. Adding these extensions to UNI 2.0 and E-NNI 2.0 will facilitate vendor interoperability.  The project seeks to assist the IETF as it develops the required routing and signaling extension by providing a description of the Byond100G data-plane and the operations to be controlled by GMPLS.

Also at the forums’ Q1 meeting, Bikash Koley, distinguished engineer and director of network architecture, engineering and planning at Google was invited as a guest speaker and presented on the Zero Touch Network.

Following the quarterly meeting in San Jose, a well-attended FlexE workshop was held. An overview of the completed and in process FlexE projects was provided, along with presentations and discussion on the future direction of FlexE. The workshop started with a summary of the FlexE 1.0 Implementation Agreement and was followed by an overview of the active FlexE 2.0 project.  Speakers and panelists include Luca Della Chiesa, Cisco; Tad Hofmeister, Google; Maarten Vissers, Huawei; Dave Ofelt, Juniper; Tom Issenhuth, Microsoft; Scott Irwin, MoSys and Stephen Trowbridge, Nokia.

 

About the OIF
The OIF facilitates the development and deployment of interoperable networking solutions and services. Members collaborate to drive Implementation Agreements (IAs) and interoperability demonstrations to accelerate and maximize market adoption of advanced internetworking technologies. OIF work applies to optical and electrical interconnects, optical component and network processing technologies, and to network control and operations including software defined networks and network function virtualization. The OIF actively supports and extends the work of national and international standards bodies. Launched in 1998, the OIF is the only industry group uniting representatives from across the spectrum of networking, including many of the world’s leading service providers, system vendors, component manufacturers, software and testing vendors. Information on the OIF can be found at http://www.oiforum.com.

OIF Announces 100G Serial Electrical Interconnect Workshop

The Optical Internetworking Forum announced today a half-day workshop, open to the public, featuring subject matter experts from the OIF and an industry view by Alan Weckel of Dell’Oro.  The workshop will address 112 Gbps per lane serial electrical interconnect needs and will take place concurrent with OFC on March 23, 2017 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

In August 2016, the OIF began the CEI-112G project to define the serial electrical interface for next generation optical modules at 112 Gbps.  This technical work is expected to be the first of a series of CEI-112G clauses for various reaches, ranging from ultra-short reach interfaces designed for intra multi-chip module (MCM) communications to longer chip-to-chip interfaces.

“Operation of electrical interfaces at 112 Gbps speeds is feasible, but demands careful attention to some of the thorny technical issues that are involved and the technology trade off decisions that are going to be required,” said Nathan Tracy of TE Connectivity and the OIF vice president of marketing . “This workshop will present the multiple facets and perspectives for the 112 Gbps serial electrical development work including applications, equipment, optics, SERDES, connectors and channels.”

The first half of this workshop will focus on the industry view and application spaces for the next generation interconnects, including networking trends and cloud scale applications. It is anticipated that requirements for these application spaces are characterized by a combination of parameters such as:

  • loss budgets (distance, number of connectors),
  • electrical and optical data rates,
  • electrical channel properties,
  • power constraints,
  • equalization and retimers,
  • mechanical constraints (faceplate density, etc.)

The second half of this workshop will focus on potential electrical link and interconnect technologies being developed to support serial data rates of 100 Gbps and higher.

Workshop details can be found at http://www.oiforum.com/meetings-and-events/march-2017-workshop-100g-serial-electrical-interconnect-needs/

Agenda

12:00pm:  Registration and Box Lunches

12:30pm:  Intro – Tom Palkert, OIF PLL WG Electrical Vice Chair, Molex

1:00pm:     Industry Analyst – Alan Weckel, Dell’Oro

 

Session 1 – User Demand

1:40pm:  High Level Systems

2:20pm:  Equipment Perspective

3:00pm:  Coffee break

 

Session 2 – Component Suppliers’ Vision

3:15pm:     Optics

3:55pm:     SERDES/semiconductor

4:35pm:     Copper cable/connector/PCB trace

5:15pm:     Wrap-up

6:00pm:      Informal Networking at local bar & grill (TBD)

 

March 23, 2017

12pm-6pm

Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA

 

OIF Members: $150.00 USD; Non-members: $200.00 USD (fee includes lunch).

OIF Members, click HERE to register.

Non-Members, click HERE to register.

 

About the OIF
The OIF facilitates the development and deployment of interoperable networking solutions and services. Members collaborate to drive Implementation Agreements (IAs) and interoperability demonstrations to accelerate and maximize market adoption of advanced internetworking technologies. OIF work applies to optical and electrical interconnects, optical component and network processing technologies, and to network control and operations including software defined networks and network function virtualization. The OIF actively supports and extends the work of national and international standards bodies. Launched in 1998, the OIF is the only industry group uniting representatives from across the spectrum of networking, including many of the world’s leading service providers, system vendors, component manufacturers, software and testing vendors. Information on the OIF can be found at http://www.oiforum.com.

OIF Launches Optical Projects to Enable Next Generation Modules

At the conclusion of the Optical Internetworking Forum’s (OIF) latest quarterly meeting, the organization announced that it has begun work on two optical interface projects, marking an evolutionary step to integrate optics as the industry moves to aggressively shrink module size. The IC-TROSA project would enable manufacturers to have a higher level of integration for transmit and receive optical components. The OIF’s CFP2-Digital Coherent Optics (DCO) project will work with other standards bodies to implement coherent modulations formats in CFP modules.

 “The IC-TROSA project tackles much more than just a simple size reduction,” said Karl Gass of Qorvo and the OIF’s Physical and Link Layer (PLL) Working Group – Optical vice chair.  “It addresses optical packaging in a way that isn’t done in high volumes today. We want to come to industry consensus in this pre-competitive environment.”

Integrated Coherent Transmitter-Receiver Optical Subassembly (IC-TROSA) is the evolutionary step that combines Polarization Multiplexed Quadrature (PMQ) Transmitter (Tx) and Integrated Coherent Receiver (ICR) components to create a single integrated optics package.  The optical sub-assembly that supports high-bandwidth and high-order QAM operations is suited for data center interconnect, metro and long-haul applications. As module sizes decrease, current coherent optics components need similar size reductions to enable next generation multi-terabit switches, line cards, and transport. Density requirements for next-gen line cards, front-pluggable and future on-board 400G+ optical modules are driving the need for further integration and miniaturization.

The OIF’s CFP2-DCO project includes a way to build address management interface and identify registers necessary to talk to the DSP located in the module, specific to coherent modulation techniques. The CFP2-DCO is intended to be used for 100G, 200G or 400G applications for metro, long-haul and data center interconnections and it can support different formats such as DP-QPSK and DP-xQAM.

About the OIF
Launched in 1998, the OIF is the first industry group to unite representatives from data and optical networking disciplines, including many of the world’s leading carriers, component manufacturers and system vendors. The OIF promotes the development and deployment of interoperable networking solutions and services through the creation of Implementation Agreements (IAs) for optical, interconnect, network processing, component and networking systems technologies. The OIF actively supports and extends the work of standards bodies and industry forums with the goal of promoting worldwide compatibility of optical internetworking products.  Information on the OIF can be found at http://www.oiforum.com.

 

OIF Launches CEI-112G Project for 100G Serial Electrical Links

In the wake of its 3rd quarter meeting, the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) announced that it has begun work on a 100G Serial Electrical Link project. The very short reach (VSR) CEI-112G chip-to-module interface project is aimed at meeting the most immediate needs of the industry, with both shorter and longer reach projects expected to follow. CEI-112G-VSR will support a nominal lane rate of 112 Gb/s, enabling narrower interfaces to optical modules and is expected to be more energy efficient than previous interfaces. The CEI-112G-VSR specification doubles data rates over the current generation CEI-56G-VSR interfaces.

Following the OIF’s industry workshop “100G Serial Electrical Links and Beyond” in March, a large number of Forum members supported the development of an implementation agreement addressing CEI-112G. That workshop, held at OFC 2016, was open to the public and featured OIF and industry subject matter experts addressing both 100 Gb/s serial applications and the interfaces needed to address higher bandwidth.

“Optical lane speeds have run faster than electrical lane speeds since the introduction of 10G Ethernet. While this is not a problem in the early days of a new data rate, the lowest module cost is achieved when optical and electrical lane speeds are the same,” said Dale Murray, Principal Analyst with LightCounting Market Research. “The first optical modules running 100 Gb/s serial are expected in 2018, so now is the time for the OIF to begin work on this CEI-112G project.”

“As bandwidth increases, electrical interfaces need to reflect that trend. Given the lead times, development of standards for the next generation of electrical links needs to start now,” said David Stauffer of Kandou Bus and the OIF’s Physical and Link Layer Working Group Chair and board member.  “The OIF is continuing its roadmap for 100 Gb/s thru 400 Gb/s and beyond applications, addressing multiple reaches for chip-to-chip and chip-to module interfaces.”

OIF Leaders Speaking at Ethernet Alliance TEF in September

Two OIF industry experts will address the Ethernet Alliance TEF event in September in Santa Clara. Nathan Tracy, OIF Technical Committee Chair, TE Connectivity will speak about the OIF’s CEI-112G project at a panel session entitled “Are Standardized Ethernet Optics Obsolete?” Tom Issenhuth, OIF Board Member from Microsoft will address the OIF’s FlexE implementation Agreement at a session entitled “Ethernet Flexes Its Ports”. More information about the conference can be found at http://www.oiforum.com/meetings-and-events/2016-speaking-engagements-and-supported-events/ .

About the OIF

Launched in 1998, the OIF is the first industry group to unite representatives from data and optical networking disciplines, including many of the world’s leading carriers, component manufacturers and system vendors. The OIF promotes the development and deployment of interoperable networking solutions and services through the creation of Implementation Agreements (IAs) for optical, interconnect, network processing, component and networking systems technologies. The OIF actively supports and extends the work of standards bodies and industry forums with the goal of promoting worldwide compatibility of optical internetworking products.  Information on the OIF can be found at http://www.oiforum.com.

 

OIF Completes FlexE IA for Data Center Interconnections

Only one year after starting a project to enable flexible Ethernet for Data Center and transport interconnect efficiency, OIF members have finalized an implementation agreement (IA).  The Flexible Ethernet (FlexE) IA provides a way for Ethernet equipment to more efficiently utilize optical link bandwidth.  Ethernet connections between routers or transport gear need to be flexible in order to provide incremental increases in bandwidth beyond 100G.  The FlexE IA bridges the gap between previous, current and next-generation rates.

“The FlexE IA allows Ethernet to be used more efficiently in response to ever changing technologies, link rates, and bandwidth needs,” said Scott Irwin of MoSys and the OIF’s Physical and Link Layer Working Group – Protocol Vice Chair.  “OIF members worked hard to get this IA completed in record time to meet the industry’s need for flexible and scalable bandwidth provisioning.”

The FlexE Implementation Agreement provides a generic mechanism for supporting a variety of Ethernet MAC rates that may or may not correspond to any existing Ethernet PHY rate. This includes MAC rates that are both greater than (through bonding) and less than (through sub-rate and channelization) the Ethernet PHY rates used to carry FlexE.

The FlexE implementation agreement can be viewed here.

 

About the OIF

The OIF facilitates the development and deployment of interoperable networking solutions and services. Members collaborate to drive Implementation Agreements (IAs) and interoperability demonstrations to accelerate and maximize market adoption of advanced internetworking technologies. OIF work applies to optical and electrical interconnects, optical component and network processing technologies, and to network control and operations including software defined networks and network function virtualization. The OIF actively supports and extends the work of national and international standards bodies. Launched in 1998, the OIF is the only industry group uniting representatives from across the spectrum of networking, including many of the world’s leading service providers, system vendors, component manufacturers, software and testing vendors. Information on the OIF can be found at http://www.oiforum.com.

OIF Unveils OFC Interoperability Demo Plans

The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) today released the slate of public demonstrations that it will conduct at OFC in Anaheim, March 22-24, 2016. The demo will showcase multi-vendor interoperability of two key technologies; Pluggable Coherent Optics and 56G Electrical Interfaces.  These technologies will cover a range of channel reaches from Very Short Reach (VSR) to Long Reach (LR) and includes using both NRZ and PAM4 modulation formats. Live CFP2-ACO pluggable coherent optics, based on the recently announced OIF implementation agreement, and attendant test equipment are also part of the display. The demonstrations will be conducted in the OIF Booth #3619. In addition to the live demonstration, OIF industry experts will conduct two panel discussions at OFC on Tuesday, March 22.

“The OIF will be extremely busy at OFC this year,” said Steve Sekel of Keysight Technologies and the OIF Physical & Link Layer Interoperability Working Group Chair. “This is a very ambitious interoperability demo and we have a large slate of thought leaders speaking during the conference. In addition, the OIF’s industry leadership at OFC will conduct a public workshop on 100G Serial Electrical Links.”

The technologies on display during the live interoperability demonstration include CFP2-ACO Optical Modules, Coherent DSPs and Compliance Boards.  Also included will be CEI-56G silicon for PAM4 and NRZ demonstrated in VSR NRZ and PAM4 channels, medium reach NRZ and PAM4 cable channels and a long reach PAM4 backplane channel. Participating companies include Amphenol, Anritsu, ClariPhy, Credo, Fujitsu Optical Components, Inphi, Keysight Technologies, Molex, MultiLane, TE Connectivity, Tektronix and Yamaichi Electronics.

OIF Panel Discussions at OFC

CEI-56G – Signal Integrity to the Forefront
Tuesday, March 22, 2016 – 10:30am-11:30am – Expo Theater II (Hall B)
Moderator: Nathan Tracy, TE Connectivity, OIF Technical Committee Chair
Panelists: Tom Palkert, Molex and OIF Physical & Link Layer Working Group Vice Chair – Electrical; Steve Sekel, Keysight Technologies, OIF Physical & Link Layer Interoperability Working Group Chair; Dave Stauffer, Kandou Bus, OIF Physical & Link Layer Working Group Chair

Transport SDN – Getting Down to Business

Tuesday, March 22, 2016 – 2:45pm-3:45pm – Expo Theater III, (Hall A)
Moderator: Dave Brown, Nokia, OIF Vice President – Marketing
Panelists: Lyndon Ong, Ciena, OIF MA&E Committee Co-Chair – Networking; Jonathan Sadler, Coriant, OIF Technical Committee Vice Chair; Vishnu Shukla, Verizon, OIF Carrier Working Group Chair

OIF Workshop on 100G Serial Electrical Links

The OIF will host a public workshop addressing the latest developments in 100G Serial, immediately following OFC 2016 in Anaheim, California. The event, OIF Workshop – 100G Serial Electrical Links and Beyond, is open to the public and scheduled for Thursday, March 24, 2016, from 12:30 pm to 6:15 pm at the Anaheim Marriott Hotel. The workshop will feature subject matter experts from the OIF and will include an industry view presented by Dale Murray, Principal Analyst at LightCounting Market Research.

Registration fee includes a one-hour cocktail reception. For details including registration information, please click HERE.

OIF PLL Interoperability Demo 2016

OIF member companies will demonstrate multi-vendor interoperability of Pluggable Coherent Optics and 56G Electrical Interfaces in live, operating environments. The OIF’s Physical and Link Layer Working Group demonstrations include live 56G electrical interface interoperability over a range of channel reaches from VSR to LR and a range of modulations including NRZ and PAM4. The expanding ecosystem will be showcased through live demos. 56G and coherent optics test equipment will also be demonstrated. Public demonstrations will be on display March 22-24, 2016 at OFC in Anaheim, CA in OIF Booth #3619. Additional information can be found at http://www.oiforum.com/meetings-and-events/oif-ofc-2016/

 

About the OIF
The OIF facilitates the development and deployment of interoperable networking solutions and services. Members collaborate to drive Implementation Agreements (IAs) and interoperability demonstrations to accelerate and maximize market adoption of advanced internetworking technologies. OIF work applies to optical and electrical interconnects, optical component and network processing technologies, and to network control and operations including software defined networks and network function virtualization. The OIF actively supports and extends the work of national and international standards bodies. Launched in 1998, the OIF is the only industry group uniting representatives from across the spectrum of networking, including many of the world’s leading service providers, system vendors, component manufacturers, software and testing vendors. Information on the OIF can be found at http://www.oiforum.com.

 

OIF to Host Public Workshop on 100G Developments

The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) will host a public workshop addressing the latest developments in 100G Serial, immediately following OFC 2016 in Anaheim, California. The event, OIF Workshop – 100G Serial Electrical Links and Beyond, is open to the public and scheduled for Thursday, March 24, 2016, from 12:30 pm to 6:15 pm at the Anaheim Marriott Hotel. The workshop will feature subject matter experts from the OIF and will include an industry view presented by Dale Murray, Principal Analyst at LightCounting Market Research.

“This event presents an opportunity for members of the larger optical networking industry to see the technical direction of 100G Serial,” said Tom Palkert, OIF Physical & Link Layer Working Group Vice Chair – Electrical, System Architect at Molex. “100G developments are evolving rapidly – companies that are prepared with interoperable solutions will have a distinct advantage.”

The deadline to register is March 17, 2016. Registration fee includes a one-hour cocktail reception. For details including registration information, please click HERE.

Two working sessions led by OIF subject matter experts will focus on 100G serial application requirements and 100G serial electrical technology.

Session 1 – 100G Serial Application Requirements

1:40 pm -2:20 pm:  Networking Trends – Matt Traverso, Principal Engineer, Cisco Systems, Inc.

2:20 pm – 3:00 pm:  Cloud Scale – Brad Booth, Principal Architect, Microsoft Azure Networking

3:00 pm – 3:40 pm:  Storage and CPU – Scott Kipp, Senior Technologist, Brocade

Session 2 – 100G Serial Electrical Technology

4:00 pm – 4:40 pm:  PAM Options – Atul Gupta, Chief Technologist, MACOM

4:40 pm – 5:20 pm:  100G Connectors/Cables – David Helster, Director, Signal Integrity and System Architecture, TE Connectivity

5:20 pm – 6:00 pm:  Alternate Modulation – David Stauffer, Senior Engineer, Kandou Bus, S.A.

6:00 pm – 6:15 pm: Wrap up – Tom Palkert

6:30 pm – 7:30 pm:  Reception

 

About the OIF
The OIF facilitates the development and deployment of interoperable networking solutions and services. Members collaborate to drive Implementation Agreements (IAs) and interoperability demonstrations to accelerate and maximize market adoption of advanced internetworking technologies. OIF work applies to optical and electrical interconnects, optical component and network processing technologies, and to network control and operations including software defined networks and network function virtualization. The OIF actively supports and extends the work of national and international standards bodies. Launched in 1998, the OIF is the only industry group uniting representatives from across the spectrum of networking, including many of the world’s leading service providers, system vendors, component manufacturers, software and testing vendors. Information on the OIF can be found at http://www.oiforum.com.

 

OIF moves to raise coherent transmission baud rate

Gazettabyte – Roy Rubenstein

May 21, 2015

The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) has started modulator and receiver specification work to enhance coherent optical transmission performance. The OIF initiative aims to optimise modulator and receiver photonics operating at a higher baud rate than the current 32 Gigabaud (Gbaud).”We want the two projects to look at those trade-offs and look at how we could build the particular components that could support higher individual channel rates,” says Karl Gass of Qorvo and the OIF physical and link layer working group vice chair, optical.

Karl Gass

The OIF members, which include operators, internet content providers, equipment makers, and optical component and chip players, want components that work over a wide bandwidth, says Gass. This will allow the modulator and receiver to be optimised for the new higher baud rate.

“Perhaps I tune it [the modulator] for 40 Gbaud and it works very linearly there, but because of the trade-off I make, it doesn’t work very well anywhere else,” says Gass. “But I’m willing to make the trade-off to get to that speed.” Gass uses 40 Gbaud as an example only, stressing that much work is required before the OIF members choose the next baud rate.

“We want the two projects to look at those trade-offs and look at how we could build the particular components that could support higher individual channel rates”

The modulator and receiver optimisations will also be chosen independent of technology since lithium niobate, indium phosphide and silicon photonics are all used for coherent modulation.

The OIF has not detailed timescales but Gass says projects usually take 18 months to two years.

Meanwhile, the OIF has completed two projects, the specification outputs of which are referred to as implementation agreements (IAs).

One is for integrated dual polarisation micro-intradyne coherent receivers (micro-ICR) for the CFP2. At OFC 2015, several companies detailed first designs for coherent line side optics using the CFP2 module.

The micro-ICR IA also defines a low-speed SPI bus interface to control the trans-impedence amplifiers in the coherent receiver. The digital bus interface enables circuit settings to be changed with operating temperature. With the first generation coherent receiver design, analogue signalling was used for their control, says Gass. The smaller micro-ICR has a reduced pin count and so uses a narrower digital bus to control the circuits.The second completed IA is the 4×5-inch second-generation 100 Gig long-haul DWDM transmission module.

“This [module] is considered an intermediate step with the almost immediate goal being to go to a CFP module,” says Gass.