FREMONT, Calif. -- In the wake of its 3rd quarter meeting, the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) announced that it has begun work on its 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," said an OIF statement. "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,” points out 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."
Learn more about the OIF's participation at the Ethernet Alliance TEF 2016 event.
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