The OIF addresses speed, security, and control plane management

The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) has been busy: Over the last month it approved two new Implementation Agreements (IAs), published two new whitepapers and completed interoperability testing. Carried out by the Physical and Link Layer and Networking Working Groups, the program has addressed a variety of technologies including speed, cooling, security, and control plane management.

“The type of work taking place within the OIF continues to expand to meet the industry’s needs,” said Tellabs’ Jonathan Sadler, the OIF Technical Committee chair. ”The different groups within the OIF work together diligently to identify and address technology gaps that are needed to advance the industry to the next level.”

The first implementation agreement approved by OIF members is the Multi-Link Gearbox (MLG), which defines a 10:4 mux function to convert multiple (up to 10) independent 10-Gbps links into 4x25G lanes, and a 4:10 demux function to convert the 4x25G lanes back to multiple (up to 10) independent 10-Gbps links. This will enable a variety of applications to reuse 100GBASE-R technology for the transport of individual 10G links.

The second implementation agreement is the End-to-End Transport of UNI Client Authentication, Integrity, and Data Plane Security Support Information. This IA describes a new end-to-end digital signature mechanism that provides authentication, integrity, and support for non-repudiation of UNI-C to UNI-C communications. It provides guidelines for implementers describing what to protect and how to apply this protection. It also discusses performance impacts, policy enforcement, security credentials, and error handling.

The whitepaper on Management Plane (OSS) Support for Control Plane (CP) Networks documents some of the network management functionality that is needed for the management of multi-domain intelligent optical networks. Carriers have expressed interest in operational support for multi-domain CP driven networks and in the rapid deployment of new CP technologies and capabilities without network service disruption. This whitepaper identifies areas that need to be addressed in network management to help operators achieve this goal.

The whitepaper on Thermal Management at the Faceplate represents the work of the OIF to consider the system issues for thermal management at the faceplate of a line card. Issues associated with air cooling of pluggable modules in a line card are examined, starting with a brief tutorial of the basic physics, and also including examples of methods that can be used to improve cooling and discussion of design limitations and trade-offs. Guidance on the necessary communications between optics plug suppliers, the system architects and system thermal designers is provided.

Last but not least, the OIF performed interoperability testing of the Security Extension for UNI and E-NNI 2.0 and Security for Management Interfaces to Network Elements 2.0 implementation agreements. These tests are a first-of-its kind for control plane networks, the company says, and were performed at OIF Interoperability 2012 – Enabling High-Speed Dynamic Services earlier this year and reviewed by members at the Q2 meeting. The test results will be used to evaluate future changes to the security agreements and to determine the need for future security tests.

The new implementation agreements can be viewed at http://www.oiforum.com/public/impagreements.html and the whitepapers are available for download at http://www.oiforum.com/public/whitepapers.html.