OIF announced that the consortium's Q2 2020 Technical and MA&E Committees Meeting, held virtually May 11-15, resulted in a preview of a proposed 224 Gbps project, election results, upcoming webinar announcements and the release of the Integrated Packet Optical SDN Implementation Agreement (IA).
In the new project preview, OIF said that its 224 Gbps Project Start Proposal begins on the premise that the next electrical data rate beyond 112 Gbps will be technically challenging with many factors to be considered, but already industry discussions are beginning to take place. In its continued efforts to meet industry needs, OIF previewed a proposed project start to address data rates around 224 Gbps.
The project is expected to start in Q3 and will consider the following challenges: what reaches need to be supported; what modulations will be appropriate for each reach; simulation tools, and test and measurement methodologies.
“By providing an active forum for discussions on next-generation architectures and data rate beyond 112 Gbps, OIF is performing an essential role in accelerating standards and requirements,” said Nathan Tracy, TE Connectivity and OIF president. "We expect this project to result in output data and baseline materials that will drive next generation CEI clauses and enable 1.6 Tbps rate architectures. In addition, it is anticipated this next-generation electrical rate will keep the industry on track to deliver lower cost and complexity 400 Gbps and 800 Gbps architectures as well.”
In terms of elections at OIF's Q2 Virtual Meeting, Dave Stauffer, Kandou Bus, S.A., was re-elected as the group's Physical and Link Layer Working Group Chair through January 2022.
In terms of events, OIF announced it will hold two upcoming webinars. They are as follows:
- “Cu (See you) Beyond 112Gbps” - Thursday, June 18th at 7am PDT/9am CDT/10am EDT/4pm CEST - This online event, in partnership with Lightwave and Electronic Design, will feature a dynamic discussion between end-users, equipment developers and component suppliers. The webinar event is free and open to the public. Register here for this event.
- OIF will hold a members-only “Co-packaging of Optics with ASICs” webinar on Monday, July 20th at 7am PDT/9am CDT/10am EDT/4pm CEST. The webinar will explore challenges in realizing high density co-packaged optic solutions for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) applications. It will identify key drivers as well as important constraints (electrical, thermal, optical, etc.) as it continues OIF’s mission of identifying industry gaps in standards and explores opportunities to provide interoperable solutions.
Finally at the Q2 Virtual meeting, OIF's Integrated Packet Optical SDN Implementation Agreement (IA) was announced. The new IA is premised on the notion that packet networks and optical networks have typically been managed separately in operator networks, resulting in low efficiency in both service provisioning and network maintenance. OIF notes that SDN brings in new options and opportunities based on its open and software-ized characteristics.
The OIF Integrated Packet Optical SDN IA defines a standardized universal open framework and principal use cases for integrated SDN control of packet and optical networks that at the solution level will normalize the architecture, interfaces and behaviors and help move the industry forward. The new IA can be downloaded here.
“OIF’s Integrated Packet Optical SDN IA brings meaningful use cases, architecture and technical requirements for cooperation between IP and optical layers via SDN,” commented Junjie Li of China Telecom, and OIF Network Operator Working Group chair. “Operators look to OIF as a place to address industry gaps and achieve maximum benefit for their optical networks. I believe this work will help us to construct a bridge between packet and optical and make our network smarter and simpler.”
Learn more at at http://www.oiforum.com.
