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OIF Marks 25th Anniversary, Launches New Physical & Link Layer Working Group Electrical Project and Adds 112G VSR Clause to CEI 5.0 IA at Q1 Technical and MA&E Committees Meeting

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The meeting hosted leading analysts from 650 Group and LightCounting as guest speakers giving member participants direct access to research, forecasting of industry growth and the impact of OIF’s work

Fremont, Calif.—January 23, 2023 – OIF’s first Technical and MA&E Committees Meeting of the year kicked off a year-long celebration of OIF’s 25th anniversary, the launch of an enhanced SGMII project – a Physical & Link Layer (PLL) Working Group Electrical track project – and the completion of the Common Electrical I/O (CEI)-112G-VSR, as well as featured guest speakers, Vladimir Kozlov, CEO, LightCounting; and Alan Weckel, Founder and Technology Analyst, 650 Group.

The Q1 Technical and MA&E Committees Meeting was held in person and virtually January 10-12, 2023, in Indian Wells, California.

25th Anniversary

For 25 years, OIF has accelerated progressive transformation in optical networking by serving as the only global industry forum driving the electrical, optical and control interoperability that enables a more efficient and reliable network. Its active member ecosystem of more than 140 companies collaborates through a transparent and fast-paced process to develop, validate and publish Implementation Agreements (IAs) and technical white papers critical to accelerating market adoption of interoperable optical networking technologies.

Opening the week of celebration, Stephen Hardy, Editorial Director of Lightwave, welcomed attendees with a special virtual greeting – a “Friday 5” featuring the five OIF IAs that Hardy believes have been the most transformative to the industry.

Approval of Common Electrical I/O (CEI)-112G-VSR

CEI-112G-VSR-PAM4 specifies a 112 Gb/s chip-to-module PAM4 electrical interface for use in the range 36 to 58 Gsym/s with up to 16 dB loss at the Nyquist frequency, including one connector. Hosts and modules compliant to CEI-112G-VSR-PAM4 from different manufacturers are interoperable.

“CEI-112G-VSR allows for an interoperable environment using optical pluggable modules critical to networking and challenging AI/ML connectivity,” said Dr. Karl Bois, OIF Technical Committee Vice Chair, NVIDIA Corporation. “The networking and data center ecosystems have a new powerful implementation recipe to increase throughput and capacity, especially when the network is part of the Compute infrastructure.”

New Electrical Project – Enhanced SGMII Electrical Specifications

The enhanced SGMII (E-SGMII) specifications will be based on modernized current mode logic (CML) electrical specifications instead of legacy LVDS and provide an optional high-speed 1 GbE interface to supplement the management of modules. Specifically, it will define a 1 GbE (1.25 GBd) high-speed serial interface for modules based on a modernized, enhanced SGMII. E-SGMII will have applications both for next-generation modules and for existing form factors with sufficient pins available.

Guest Speakers – Vladimir Kozlov, Founder and CEO, LightCounting; and Alan Weckel, Founder and Technology Analyst, 650 Group

Kozlov, Founder and CEO of LightCounting, an optical communications market research company:

“It takes a collective mind of the industry experts to filter out the best product ideas enabled by cutting-edge technologies,” said Kozlov. “OIF created a framework to keep the collective mind productive by letting the experts debate respectfully, yet often passionately. Some projects turn into success stories in 2-3 years, with 400ZR being the most recent example. Others take up to 7 years to complete, and many never make it to the market, but they all help chart the industry’s future. I am looking forward to the 50th anniversary of OIF. The next 25 years will be even more fun since the industry has many diverging routes to consider.”

Weckel, Founder and Technology Analyst of 650 Group, a trusted market research firm:

“As OIF celebrates its 25th anniversary, the organization continues to push critical standards and efforts forward that help shape almost every data center and network in the world today,” said Weckel. “If we look at all the recent and upcoming announcements on 56/112/224 Gbps SERDES and ZR optics, the OIF was critical in bringing those products to market.”

About OIF

OIF is where the optical networking industry’s interoperability work gets done. Celebrating 25 years of effecting forward change in the industry, OIF represents the dynamic ecosystem of 140+ 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

703-907-0010

leah@wilkinson.associates

 

OIF to Host “Cu (see you) Beyond 112 Gbps” Workshop at OFC 2020

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Workshop will feature leading end-users, equipment developers, and component suppliers discussing the needs and challenges for electrical interfaces beyond 112 Gbps

Fremont, Calif.—February 4, 2020 – OIF, where the optical networking industry’s interoperability work gets done, will hold a half-day workshop “Cu (see you) Beyond 112 Gbps” on Thursday, March 12 during OFC 2020 in San Diego, Ca. The workshop, featuring industry-leading experts from Arista, Broadcom, Cisco, Facebook, Google, Innovium, Intel, MACOM and TE Connectivity, is open to the public.

Leading experts from end-users, equipment developers and component suppliers will discuss the needs for next generation interoperable electrical IO rates as well the challenges and possible technical options to make these rates possible. The panel will address questions such as: Do electrical interfaces hit the wall beyond 112 Gbps? Is 224 Gbps possible? What is a useful reach? Does copper have a future? The workshop will also include a brief summary of OIF’s existing and in-process electrical IO work.

The first half of the workshop will focus on the industry view and need for the next generation electrical interconnects, including networking trends and cloud scale applications. The second half will include presentations and discussion on the technical challenges and directions that could be considered to realize interoperable next generation common electrical IOs that balance density, power, reach and risk.

“OIF has a long history of developing electrical interface specifications known as CEI Implementation Agreements that have been the foundation for almost every industry standards group,” said Nathan Tracy, TE Connectivity and OIF president. “There is little doubt there will be electrical interfaces required beyond 112 Gbps and it is safe to say the OIF will be a part of that development. This workshop is a critical opportunity for OIF members and industry to participate in an open debate and discussion on this topic.”

Details on the workshop are as follows:

March 12, 2020 – 12:00pm-5:30pm

Hilton San Diego Gaslamp, 401 K St (across from the SD Convention Center), San Diego, Ca.

 

Agenda

12:00pm: Registration and distribution of box lunches

12:30pm: Introduction – Nathan Tracy, OIF president and TE Connectivity

 

Session 1 – User Demand 12:40pm-2:30pm

12:40pm-1:30pm – End Users’ Perspective – Srinivas Venkataraman, Facebook; Sara Zebian, Google

1:30pm-2:15pm – Equipment Developers’ Perspective – Andy Bechtolsheim, Arista; Rakesh Chopra, Cisco

2:15pm-2:30pm – Coffee break

 

Session 2 – Component Suppliers’ Analysis/Perspective 2:30pm-5:00pm

2:30pm-3:00pm – Optics and co-packaging – Richard Grzybowski, MACOM

3:00pm-3:30pm – Switch Developer – Kapil Shrikhande, Innovium

3:30pm-4:20pm – SERDES, Modulation and FEC – Adam Healey, Broadcom, Inc; Mike Li, Intel

4:20pm-4:50pm – Improved Copper Components and Channels – Dave Helster, TE Connectivity

5:00pm – Wrap-up

Informal Networking at local bar/grill (TBD) following wrap-up

 

Registration fee for OIF Members: $150.00. OIF Members click HERE to register.

Registration fee for Non-Members: $200.00. Non-Members click HERE to register.

Late Fee: Additional fee of $25.00 USD will be charged after March 6, 2020.

 

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 Thought Leaders Offer CEI-112G Project Update at DesignCon 2020

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Panel of electrical interface experts will showcase OIF’s latest work on multiple interfaces including CEI-112G MCM, XSR, VSR, MR and LR for 112 Gbps applications

Fremont, Calif. —January 14, 2020 – OIF industry leaders will present and discuss OIF’s ongoing CEI-112G electrical interface development projects, and the new architectures they will enable including chiplet packaging, co-packaged optics and internal cable-based solutions on Wednesday, January 29 at 3:45 pm (local) at DesignCon in Santa Clara, CA.

OIF’s panel “Enabling New Architectures: An Update on OIF’s CEI-112G Electrical Interfaces,” will provide an update on the five new interfaces, including CEI-112G MCM, XSR, VSR, MR and LR for 112 Gbps applications, that will shape the future of next generation designs, ranging from die-to-die implementations all the way up to backplane and copper cable architectures.

Panel speakers include: Nathan Tracy of TE Connectivity and OIF President; Cathy Liu of Broadcom Inc. and OIF Board Member; Steve Sekel of Keysight Technologies and OIF Physical and Link Layer Interoperability Working Group Chair; Ed Frlan of Semtech and OIF Technical Committee Chair; Gary Nicholl of Cisco and OIF Board Member and Mike Li of Intel Corporation and OIF Board Member.
“Electrical interfaces at 112 Gbps are critical for faster, more efficient and cost-effective networks and data centers,” said Tracy. “This panel discussion will provide the opportunity for an engaging industry debate on the issues surrounding OIF’s CEI-112G projects and the architectures they will enable.”

OIF has led the industry for the past 20 years in the development and publication of next generation electrical definitions for transmitters, receivers and channels to enable interoperable electrical links for chip to chip, chip to optical, line card to line card and equipment to equipment applications. OIF is currently in the process of developing electrical link definitions for the next generation 112 Gbps data rate to provide signalling over a multitude of link types including die to die, chip to chip, chip to module, medium reach chip to chip and long reach chip to chip also known as backplane. OIF’s complete work on the CEI-112G can be found here.

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