Members gathered to align on interoperability priorities, including pluggable security and higher-density chip-to-module, backplane connectivity

Fremont, Calif. —  OIF today shared highlights from its Q1 2026 Technical and MA&E Committees Meeting, held fully in-person Feb. 9–12 in Palm Springs.

The meeting drew strong participation from OIF member companies as technical leaders advanced work across management, electrical signaling and interoperability priorities shaping AI-era data center and carrier infrastructure.

“OIF’s Q1 meeting reinforced the value of having the ecosystem in the room to pressure-test requirements, align on the next set of Implementation Agreements (IAs) and keep interoperability moving from ideas to deployable reality,” said Sam Kocsis, OIF Technical Committee Chair (Amphenol). “With such a strong turnout and real momentum across the work, you could feel the urgency and innovation the industry is demanding right now.”

New Projects

Security for CMIS
This new project, Security for CMIS, will result in an IA supplement that defines tiers of security for CMIS. The objective is to make host-to-module management interactions secure and interoperable across vendors by specifying mechanisms for authentication, authorization, confidentiality (strong encryption to prevent interception) and integrity. The work is being driven by growing demand for encryption supported within pluggable modules and the need to align with “zero trust” expectations associated with certification frameworks such as FIPS 140-3 and ISO 19790. The project also considers the industry’s longer-term security trajectory, including the ability to evolve toward quantum-resilient cryptography as requirements mature.

Common Electrical I/O (CEI) CEI-448G-VSR Common Electrical Chip-to-Module Interface
This project will develop CEI-448G-VSR IA specifications for a chip-to-module VSR (very short reach) interface, supporting 448Gx1, 448Gx2 (896G), 448Gx4 (1792G) and 448Gx8 (3584G) use cases, with a focus on optimized power, latency, complexity and bandwidth density. The work is designed to enable smaller, power-optimized 448G/lane optical modules and increase I/O bandwidth density in AI and carrier equipment by a minimum factor of two, building on earlier CEI-56G, CEI-112G and CEI-224G projects.

CEI-448G-LR Common Electrical Backplane Interface
This new project will define CEI-448G-LR (long reach) IA specifications for 448G over backplane, addressing high-loss channels that require a backplane interface definition including at least two connectors. The project is intended to increase backplane bandwidth density by at least a factor of two, leveraging relevant learnings from CEI-56G, CEI-112G and CEI-224G efforts.

Elections

OIF also announced that David Stauffer (Amphenol Corporation) was re-elected as Physical & Link Layer Working Group Chair.

Guest Speaker

Guest speaker Alan Weckel, Founder and Technology Analyst at 650 Group, shared a market perspective on the accelerating pace of network evolution and the tightening system-level requirements around bandwidth density, power efficiency and deployment certainty.

“As bandwidth density ramps, the hard constraints are no longer theoretical—power, reach, and manageability are now first-order design drivers,” Weckel said. “OIF’s work is critical because it aligns the electrical and management layers early so that the industry can scale faster with less integration risk.”

Upcoming Member Meetings

OIF’s Q2 2026 Technical and MA&E Committees meeting will take place May 18-21, in St Julian’s, Malta.

About OIF
OIF is where the optical networking industry’s interoperability work gets done. With more than 25 years of effecting forward change in the industry, OIF represents the dynamic ecosystem of 170+ 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 on LinkedIn, on X, on Bluesky and at https://www.oiforum.com/.

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Wilkinson + Associates for OIF
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