ECOC 2023: Vendors and providers stepped up to the interoperability plate

Interoperability was a key theme at the fall ECOC 2023 show. During the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF), the Ethernet and Open XR Forum held multi-vendor interoperability demonstrations.

The OIF interoperability demonstration included 39 companies demonstrating interoperability work in four areas - 400ZR+, Co-Packaging solutions, CEI-112G & CEI-224G, and CMIS implementations. During ECOC, OIF also commemorated 25 years dedicated to driving meaningful progress in the industry.

In celebration of the 50^th anniversary of Ethernet, the Ethernet Alliance conducted a multivendor interoperability demonstration. The Ethernet Alliance’s experiential exhibit at ECOC booth #460 encompassed a broad cross-section of Ethernet products and solutions.

With speeds ranging from 10GbE to 800GbE, the demo showcased optical cabling and interconnects, switches, routers, transceivers, test and measurement equipment, and pluggable form factors such as OSFP, QSFP-DD, QSFP, and SFP.

Finally, the Open XR Forum, a multi-source agreement (MSA) working group for XR optics that are developing the emerging point-to-multipoint coherent pluggable transceiver technology, hosted a symposium. The symposium featured the latest transceiver specifications, including thermal, mechanical form factor and electro-optical characteristics.

These interoperability efforts, while highlighting different elements of the optical ecosystem, will be significant as vendors and service provider customers scale products and networks. 

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