February 16, 2006 Fremont, CA -- The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) says it will "galvanize three years' worth of work" into its External Network-Network-Interface (E-NNI) routing project, which was recently approved at the group's January meeting in Nashville, Tennessee.
According to a press release, the forum's Architecture & Signaling working group will lead the project to define information to be shared by ASON network elements and allow paths to be calculated for a connection through multiple network domains of optical switching equipment. The new specification, titled the E-NNI 1.0 Routing Implementation Agreement (IA), will be based on the provisional routing protocol used by the OIF in interoperability tests performed in 2003, 2004, and 2005.
"By formalizing its routing inter-domain interface, this implementation agreement will fill a critical gap for carriers as they look to complete specifications of their next generation transport networks," comments Deutsche Telekom's Hans-Martin Foisel, chair and board member of the OIF Forum's Carrier working group. "This is exactly the kind of work product that accelerates the global realization of interoperable optical networks."
The OIF plans to submit the completed E-NNI Routing IA to the IETF and other standards development organizations such as ITU-T, after the specification's ratification by the forum's members, set to happen later this year.
The OIF announced that it has established a liaison relationship with the IPv6 Forum and has joined the Mountain View Alliance, bringing the forum's total number of such industry contacts to 15.
"The OIF is the bridge for a number of organizations to unite work between them with an implementation focus," remarks Finisar's Steve Joiner, OIF's vice president of marketing. "We open lines of communication between groups and our work is important enough for others to take notice."
Also according to the release, David Stauffer of IBM has been elected as chairperson of the OIF's Physical and Link Layer (PLL) working group. The forum says its PLL working group specifies implementation agreements related to physical and data-link layer interfaces between optical internetworking elements, reusing existing standards when applicable.