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OIF Thought Leaders to Provide Updates on Co-Packaging, 400ZR, Electrical Data Rates and Transport SDN Projects at Global Conferences

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Presenting developments on innovative projects at OFC 2021, Optinet China 2021 and
China Fiber Connect Forum 2021

Fremont, Calif.—June 7, 2021 – OIF thought leaders will share insight into OIF’s interoperability work in groundbreaking technologies at some of the world’s largest global communications conferences: OFC 2021, Optinet China 2021 and China Fiber Connect Forum 2021.

OIF’s dynamic membership has brought about significant advances in the industry through its interoperability work.

“For more than 20 years, we’ve led the way for network operators and system, component and test equipment vendors to collaborate on, and test the interoperability of the electrical, optical and control solutions that directly impact the industry. Our members continue the path forward by sharing their expertise and OIF project updates at three global conferences this month,” said Ian Betty, OIF Board President, Ciena.

OFC 2021 Panels – Virtual

“Electrical Data Rates Keep Pushing Forward: An OIF Update”
Tuesday, June 08, 2021 – 11:00-12:00 PDT
A panel of industry experts and OIF members will provide an update on OIF’s CEI-112G and CEI-224G development work, including discussion and debate of 224G modulations.

  • Moderator: Nathan Tracy, OIF VP of Marketing, TE Connectivity
  • Panelists: David Stauffer, OIF Physical & Link Layer Working Group Chair, Kandou Bus SA; Gary Nicholl, OIF Secretary/Treasurer, Cisco; Cathy Liu, Broadcom Inc.; Mike Li, OIF Board Member, Intel and Thananya Baldwin, Keysight Technologies

“OFC Media/Analyst Panel: Data Center Optics are Heading Toward Co-packaged Optics: Why, How and When?”
Tuesday, June 08, 2021 – 12:30 – 13:30 PDT
This OFC-sponsored panel of industry experts will discuss the need for co-packaged optics (CPO) inside the data center. The path to CPO commercialization is fraught with risk. An entire ecosystem must be developed to support the transition from pluggable modules. The panel consists of specialists who come from different parts of this potential ecosystem to deliberate CPO’s merits, its potential pitfalls, how and perhaps when it can be successful.

  • OIF Speaker: Mark Filer, OIF Board Member, Microsoft

“400ZR Deployment and What’s Next: An OIF Update”
Friday, June 11, 2021 – 11:30-13:00 PDT
A panel of industry experts will provide an update to the state of the 400G coherent transmission ecosystem. They will provide an update for 400ZR deployment and the status of ongoing OIF projects that are intended to accelerate the deployment of optical networking equipment. A panel discussion including representatives of the DSP, optics, equipment, and end-user communities will ensure this will be a lively discussion.

  • Moderator: Richard Ward, OIF Market Awareness & Education Committee Co-Chair – PLL, Intel
  • Panelists: Ian Betty, OIF President, Ciena; Josef Berger, Marvell; Tom Williams, Cisco;  Paul Brooks, Viavi Solutions

Optinet China 2021 – Beijing

“Overview of OIF Transport SDN Projects”
Wednesday, June 16, 2021 – 11:50-12:10 China Standard Time
During this session, an OIF expert will discuss OIF’s Transport SDN projects and the 2020 Transport SDN API Interop Demonstration, where operator-defined use cases and deployment scenarios for multi-vendor Layer 0 and Layer 1 networks were tested in the Telefonica Madrid lab using the ONF T-API 2.1.3 and OpenConfig device APIs for interoperability between devices, SDN controllers and orchestrators.

  • Presenter: Hu Qian, OIF Representative, Senior Engineer, Optical Communication Research Center of China Telecom Beijing Research Institute

China Fiber Connect Forum 2021 – Suzhou

“Standardization for the Co-packaging of Photonics and Electronics”
Thursday, June 24, 2021 – Time TBD
OIF has been studying the co-packaging of ASICs with optical and electrical transceivers within its Co-Packaging Framework Project.   During this session, an OIF expert will define co-packaging, its’ unique challenges, and describe OIF activities to address multi-vendor interoperability for co-packaging.

  • Presenter:  Jeff Hutchins, OIF Physical & Link Layer Working Group – Co-Packaging Vice Chair, Ranovus

 

About OIF

OIF is where the optical networking industry’s interoperability work gets done. Building on more than 20 years of effecting forward change in the industry, OIF represents the dynamic ecosystem of 100+ industry leading network operators, system vendors, component vendors and test equipment vendors 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 Reveals Three Innovative Projects – External Laser Small Form Factor Pluggable Module for Co-Packaged Optics, Artificial Intelligence for Enhanced Network Operations and CEI-112G-Linear – at Q2 2021 Virtual Meeting

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Fremont, Calif.—May 26, 2021 – Activity was high at OIF’s Q2 2021 Technical and MA&E Committees Meeting, held virtually May 10-14. Members initiated three new innovative projects, including a Co-Packaged Optics external laser module, Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Enhanced Network Operations and CEI-112G-Linear, in addition to announcing a network operator survey for the 2022 Networking Demo.

External Laser Small Form Factor Pluggable (ELSFP) Module Project – companion project to support co-packaged optics applications

This project for a blind-mate pluggable external light source module will define a new form factor optimized to package lasers to support co-packaged optical modules. It also includes provisions for the longevity of this form factor beyond the initial scope of the Co-Packaged Optics Module project (i.e., more fibers, thermal, and optical power classes).

“The ELSFP project is an important step for enabling co-packaged optics deployments,” according to Gary Nicholl, Cisco and OIF board member. “And, the project objectives include the necessary technical considerations to ensure this project will be relevant for multiple generations.”

Application of Artificial Intelligence to Enhanced Network Operations Project

A healthy and high-performance network serves as the foundation for all 5G application scenarios. Traditional approaches face significant difficulties in automatically and efficiently analyzing network data, solving network faults, and optimizing network performance. This new project will result in a white paper identifying a collection of use cases for applying AI to construct intelligent, resilient and high-performance optical and packet networks.

CEI-112G-Linear Project

A linear Chip-to-Optical Engine interface is needed to enable low power, low cost, small form factor 112G serial optical modules in Co-Packaged Optics, Near Package Optics (NPO) and server/GPU applications. This new project will facilitate increased bandwidth and reduced power of switch ports using co-packaged and closely packaged optical modules.

Network Operator Survey – 2022 Transport SDN Interoperability Demonstration

The OIF Networking Interoperability Working Group is surveying operators worldwide for their input and interest in participating in a 2022 Transport SDN Interoperability Demonstration. As with past surveys, responses will be anonymized, tabulated and summarized. The deadline to complete the survey is Tuesday, June 15, 2021. Interested operators can click here to download the survey.

About OIF

OIF is where the optical networking industry’s interoperability work gets done. Building on more than 20 years of effecting forward change in the industry, OIF represents the dynamic ecosystem of 100+ industry leading network operators, system vendors, component vendors and test equipment vendors 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 Announces Participants in 2020 Joint Network Operator, Multi-Vendor Transport SDN API Interoperability Demonstration

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Interoperability is vital to facilitating operator deployment of SDN and accelerating transport network transformation for the 5G era

Fremont, Calif. —June 16, 2020 – Leading the acceleration of the commercialization of transport SDN worldwide and transport network transformation for the 5G era, OIF today announced plans for its 2020 Transport SDN Application Programming Interface (API) interoperability demonstration.

The 2020 event will focus on SDN-based programmability, control and automation and showcase testing in Telefonica’s lab in Europe over a six-week period (September to October).

Building on OIF’s 2018 and 2016 interoperability demonstrations that helped establish ONF Transport-API (T-API) as the defacto northbound interface (NBI) standard, the 2020 demonstration will test Ethernet, Layer 1 OTN and Layer 0 OTN control using ONF T-API 2.1.3, with additional testing of OpenConfig device APIs for transport equipment in network-operator-defined use cases.

Manageability and flexibility of the network are critical to allow network operators to successfully deliver a range of cloud-based services, meet dynamic bandwidth demands, and to accelerate transport network transformation for the 5G era. Established open Transport SDN APIs can help network operators:

  • improve network agility to adapt to dynamic service demands and traffic patterns
  • improve service provisioning and time-to-revenue
  • reduce maintenance and management with simplified control and automation

The multi-vendor interoperability demonstration includes participating vendors ADVA, Ciena, Cisco Systems, Infinera and Nokia. China Telecom and Telia are participating as consulting network operators.

“Widespread adoption of transport SDN is a must for network operators to accelerate their transformation for the 5G era and reap the benefits of a more dynamic and open network,” said Dave Brown, Nokia and OIF Officer – Director of Communications. “OIF’s facilitation of this thorough test of specifications and interoperability of open transport SDN APIs will highlight the tools necessary to create an open manageable, flexible network.”

“Interoperability is the key success factor for SDN deployment in production networks,” said Arturo Mayoral, Telefónica Transport Global CTIO Unit – Technology Expert and Lead of Optical SDN strategy. “This OIF interop event arrives at the perfect moment to evaluate maturity of the commercial solutions, fostered by the recent efforts done by Telefónica through the iFUSION project, in the design of reference implementations based on ONF T-API and OpenConfig standards.”

Public read-out events highlighting the results of the testing will take place at select industry events in Q4 2020. In Q1 2021, OIF will hold a webinar and launch a whitepaper describing the results of the event. Additional information can be found at https://www.oiforum.com/technical-work/2020-oif-transport-sdn-api-interoperability-demo/

About the 2020 OIF Transport SDN Application Programming Interface (API) Interoperability Demonstration

Leading the acceleration of the commercialization of transport SDN worldwide and transport network transformation for the 5G era, Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF), will bring new use cases and deployment scenarios into Telefonica’s lab to test multi-vendor interoperability of Ethernet, Layer 1 OTN, Layer 0 OTN control using ONF T-API 2.1.3 and OpenConfig device APIs. The 2020 Transport SDN Application Programming Interface (API) interoperability demonstration builds on OIF’s previous transport API requirements and interoperability demonstrations which substantiated T-API as the northbound interface (NBI) of choice, establishing a foundation for open, programmable networks that allow network operators to efficiently deliver dynamic multi-domain connectivity services to the market.

About OIF

OIF is where the optical networking industry’s interoperability work gets done. Building on 20 years of effecting forward change in the industry, OIF represents the dynamic ecosystem of 100+ industry leading network operators, system vendors, component vendors and test equipment vendors 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 New Project to Identify APIs for Transport SDN

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Close on the heels of the joint Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) and Open Networking Foundation (ONF) Global Transport SDN demonstration that concluded in October, the OIF has launched a new project to develop implementation agreements (IAs) for the application programming interfaces (APIs) used between application and network controller during the event. The new initiative will build on the Service Request and Topology APIs prototyped in the demonstration, culminating in IAs for use by carriers and equipment vendors. The new initiative will also create IAs for Service Request, Path Computation, Topology and Link Resource Manager interfaces that have been identified as part of the OIF’s upcoming SDN Framework document. The APIs to be delivered by the new project are based on REST and JSON principles enabling rapid and flexible application development.

“The prototype Transport SDN demonstration revealed a lack of definition for how user applications interact with transport network applications and resource functions,” said Jonathan Sadler, of Coriant and the OIF technical committee vice chair. “The programmability of Transport SDN requires some of the internal interfaces used by ASON to become open.”

In particular, a Service API is important as it allows applications to request connectivity services from the network. Having a common Service API allows a variety of applications to access services provided by the network, particularly in an environment with multiple domains with potentially different underlying control methods.

During the Global Transport SDN demonstration, different domains supported a number of South-Bound Interfaces (SBIs) with the Domain controller, including vendor-specific, standard OpenFlow version 1.3, and OpenFlow with optical extensions. The use of a common Service API allowed the same application to be tested across these heterogeneous domains.

Similarly, the Topology API allows applications to understand the connectivity available in the network.  A common Topology API allows a variety of applications to access network topology information, enabling support for new constraints and service criteria.

The Global Transport SDN demonstration implemented a prototype Topology API. Different domains exported their topology information enabling path computation to be performed outside of the controller.  These paths could then be requested using the Service API.  Additionally, the Service API responses had references to links and nodes in the topology, enabling the activated path to be shown.

Leadership Elections

The Forum conducted its annual leadership election with Doug Zuckerman of Applied Communication Sciences and Junjie Li with China Telecom elected to the OIF board of directors for one-year terms. Officers re-elected to two-year terms include Dave Brown of Alcatel-Lucent, vice president of marketing; Dave Stauffer, of Kandou Bus, secretary/treasurer; John McDonough, NEC Corp of America, vice president; and Torsten Wuth, of Coriant, Physical Layer User Group working group chair.

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.