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OIF Concludes Successful Q3 ‘24 Technical and MA&E Committees Meeting with Launch of Three New Projects to Advance Networking Technologies

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Fremont, Calif. – OIF successfully concluded its Q3 ‘24 Technical and MA&E Committees Meeting, held from Aug. 6-8, 2024, in Ottawa, ON, Canada.

During the meeting, OIF members initiated three new projects: Energy Efficient Interfaces (EEI) Compute Optics Interface (COI) for Artificial Intelligence (AI) Scale-up, EEI-224G-RTLR, and Common Electrical I/O (CEI)-448G Framework. The meeting also included Physical & Link Layer Working Group Interim Meetings on Aug. 5, 2024.

“Our in-person meetings provide a critical platform for collaboration and progress, allowing us to push the boundaries of innovation and address the evolving needs of the networking and AI/Machine Learning (ML) industries,” said Karl Bois, OIF Technical Committee Chair and NVIDIA.

NEW PROJECTS:

EEI COI Project for AI Scale-up: Aimed at addressing the growing demands of AI and ML, this project will focus on developing high-efficiency, low-latency interfaces to support the next generation of AI hardware.

The EEI COI Project will focus on developing energy-efficient, low-latency photonic interfaces to support AI scale-up links such as PCIe, NVLink and UALink. As AI workloads grow, the need for standardized, interoperable solutions for local accelerator connectivity becomes critical. Building on the existing EEI work, this project aims to address the industry’s demand for scalable, high-performance compute optical interfaces that ensure interoperability across diverse AI platforms.

EEI-224G-RTLR Project: This project will concentrate on enhancing electrical interfaces to enable lower power 224G optical signaling, a critical component in the evolution of high-speed data transmission and the expansion of broadband infrastructure.

The EEI-224G-RTLR Project aims to develop an Implementation Agreement (IA) for 224G Retimed Tx Linear Rx (RTLR) optical interfaces, following the decision to split the 224G RTLR work into a dedicated project. RTLR offers significant potential for cost, power and latency savings—approximately half of what is achievable with fully retimed pluggable optics—by eliminating the need for Rx DSP. Unlike Linear Pluggable Optics (LPO), where optical and copper links are mutually constrained, RTLR enables true plug and play interoperability.

This project is critical to ensuring interoperable interfaces with reduced power and higher efficiency in next-generation data and communication systems.

CEI-448G Framework Project: The CEI-448G Framework Project will develop a comprehensive framework for 448G electrical interfaces, enabling higher data rates and improved performance in data center and telecommunications applications.

The CEI-448G Framework Project is focused on defining the next electrical data rate beyond 224Gbps, targeting 448Gbps. As industry discussions begin, this project aims to address the challenges of achieving this high-speed data rate by exploring key factors like interface support, modulation schemes and test methodologies.

By gathering input from end-users, equipment developers and industry experts, the project will create a comprehensive body of knowledge. The findings will be summarized in a technical white paper, laying the groundwork for future projects that will develop specific standards and architectures for 448Gbps data rates.

Looking ahead, OIF’s Q4 ‘24 Technical and MA&E Committees Meeting will be held the week of November 4-8, 2024, in Melbourne, Australia. This members-only meeting will provide a platform for further collaboration and progress on ongoing and new projects.

For more information about OIF’s initiatives, upcoming events or how to become a member, please visit  https://www.oiforum.com.

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 150+ 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 at @OIForum and at http://www.oiforum.com.

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

OIF Unveils CEI-112G-XSR+-PAM4 Extended Extra Short Reach Implementation Agreement, Paving the Way for Advanced Interconnectivity

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Organization also releases C-CMIS IA, publishes AI network operations and 400ZR+ demo white papers and announces next CMIS webinar

Fremont, Calif. – OIF, where the optical networking industry’s interoperability work gets done, has published a new Implementation Agreement (IA) for Common Electrical I/O (CEI) CEI-112G-XSR+-PAM4 Extended Extra Short Reach.

The CEI-112G-XSR+-PAM4 IA specifies a 112 Gb/s PAM4 electrical interface for die-to-die (D2D) and die-to-optical-engine (D2OE) interconnect with bump-to-bump insertion loss up to 13 dB at the Nyquist frequency and baud rate in the range 36 Gsym/s to 58 Gsym/s. The intended applications encompass multiple-chip modules (MCM), co-packaged optics (CPO) and near-package optics (NPO) assemblies. It also details the requirements for the CEI-112G-XSR+-PAM4 extended extra short reach high-speed electrical interface with nominal baud rates between 36 Gsym/s and 58 Gsym/s using PAM4 modulation.

“The CEI-112G-XSR+-PAM4 IA represents a significant milestone, extending the reach of previously published XSR class specifications at this speed range,” said David Stauffer, OIF Physical and Link Layer Working Group Chair and Kandou Bus, S.A. “This IA empowers advanced interconnectivity solutions in die-to-die and die-to-optical-engine scenarios, supporting baud rates up to 112 Gb/s (58 Gsym/s). These specifications have the opportunity to revolutionize multiple-chip modules, co-packaged optics, and near-package optics applications, pushing the boundaries of high-speed data transmission.”

Matt Brown, editor of the CEI-112G-XSR+-PAM4 IA and Alphawave Semi, added, “The CEI-112G-XSR+-PAM4 IA addresses a gap in the set of OIF CEI specifications to address new applications identified by the diverse membership of the OIF.”

OIF also recently released the Coherent Common Management Interface Specification (C-CMIS) IA 1.3, published an Application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Enhanced Network Operations technical white paper, published the ECOC 400ZR+ demo white paper and launched a series of CMIS technical webinars.

C-CMIS IA 1.3: This Implementation Agreement extends the Common Management Interface Specification [CMIS] to allow the management of digital coherent optics (DCO) modules. Initially covering 400ZR modules, this IA supports the management of modules that have a single data path with an eight-lane host interface for a 400GBASE-R Ethernet signal and a single-lane 400G coherent media interface based on the 400ZR specification. Future extensions to accommodate other DCO modules are anticipated.

Application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Enhanced Network Operations Technical White Paper: This new white paper addresses the interoperability requirements for enhanced network functions that interface between transport networks and their management-control systems. It identifies various use cases for applying AI to guide interoperability and provides insights into data requirements, processing needs, output specifications and interfaces relevant to each use case.

ECOC 400ZR+ Demo White Paper: This paper presents the methodology and results of an interoperability study of OpenZR+ MSA QSFP-DD transceivers conducted during the ECOC 2023 plugfest. Ten different transceivers were cross-connected in a matrix of transmitter-to-receiver combinations using a noise-loaded link to characterize the penalties associated with supplier interoperability. Individual transceiver performance was tested using 400GE traffic over a shortened optical line system link with a DWDM 75GHz fixed channel grid and a separate configuration to capture the transmitter error vector magnitude (EVM) performance. The transceiver receiver OSNR performance is compared against the transceiver transmitter EVM performance for each vendor.

CMIS Technical Webinar Series: OIF is hosting a series of free, public CMIS tutorial webinars. The next webinar, “Data Path State Machine (DPSM) and Application Advertising,” will be held on February 7th. These webinars aim to equip engineers, developers and industry professionals with a comprehensive understanding of CMIS. More information on the series can be found here.

 

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 150+ 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

leah@wilkinson.associates

703-907-0010