OIF approves four new implementation agreements
25 November 2002 -- The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) has approved four Physical and Link Layer (PLL) Implementation Agreements (IA) for tunable lasers, SFI-4, Phase 2, VSR4-05 and VSR5.
These include:
-- A tunable laser IA that addresses the communication protocol, electrical interface and mechanical form factor interoperability for tunable continuous wavelength (CW) lasers. This agreement defines a common form, fit, interface and function of a tunable
laser subsystem. Optical specifications are not included.
-- A SFI-4, Phase 2 - 10Gbit/s interface IA for physical layer devices. SFI-4, Phase 2 determines aggregate data bandwidths of OC-192 ATM and Packet over SONET/SDH (POS), as well as other applications at the 10Gbit/s data rate. The typical line interface of a communications system with 10Gbit/s optical links may consist of three separate devices: an optical module containing a SERDES component, a forward error correction (FEC) processor and a framer. The IA includes objectives and requirements for the interconnection between these devices requiring a parallel electrical bus operating significantly slower than the optical data rate.
-- VSR4-05 - Very Short Reach (VSR) OC-192 serial interface, including optical cross connects (OXC). VSR4-05 includes both 4dB and 11dB optical link budgets, which covers distances from 2m to 600m. The 11dB option can be deployed in an optical network where the optical path includes a passive (transparent) photonic cross-connect (PXC), patch panels and up to 600m of single-mode fibre.
-- VSR5 - SONET/SDH OC-768 interface for VSR applications. VSR5 is capable of nominal 40Gbit/s aggregate bit rate intra-office systems for link distances up to 2km. The IA specifies a set of functional SONET/SDH OC-768/STM-256 interfaces for VSR applications.
The OIF has approved eight IAs this year.
In June the OIF approved an IA for SerDes Framer Interface Level 5 (SFI-5), which can be used for packet and cell transfer in 40Gbit/s applications such as OC-768 ATM and Packet-over-SONET/SDH. SFI-5 defines an interface between the SerDes component, the forward-error-correction processor and framer devices within the Physical Layer at a data rate of 40Gbit/s.
In May the OIF's Carrier Working Group agreed on the requirements for a Network-to-Network Interface (NNI) for the establishment and control of automatic connection between SONET/SDH and optical transport layers. The NNI would allow carriers to more easily build and operate intelligent optical networks consisting of multiple vendors. The NNI work addresses the automatic connection management within a single carrier across various control domains The OIF plans a number of IAs to support this work.
In February the OIF approved the first in a planned series of agreements addressing the interfaces for packet and cell transfer in OC-768, 40Gbit/s applications like OC-768 ATM and Packet-over-SONET/SDH (POS). The System Packet Interface Level 5 (SPI-5) builds on the previously approved OIF SPI specifications (SPI-3 for 2.5 Gbps and SPI-4 for 10 Gbps).