OIF says it has adopted responsibility for the Common Management Interface Specification (CMIS) developed by the Quad Small Form Factor Pluggable Double Density (QSFP-DD) Multi Source Agreement (MSA). The move follows the announcement last August that OIF would create a Physical & Link Layer (PLL) Working Group Management track that would accommodate this move (see "OIF launches CEI-112G-Extra Short Reach (XSR)+ project").
In addition to revealing creation of the PLL Working Group Management track, OIF also revealed the launch of a project that would create CMIS extensions for co-packaging implementations. Future CMIS revisions, enhancements, and extensions will occur within this track, which is co-vice-chaired by Gary Nicholl of Cisco and Ian Alderdice of Ciena.
In addition to QSFP-DD optical modules, CMIS can be applied to OSFP, COBO, and QSFP optical transceivers as well as future module developments for applications such as co-packaged optics with a host-to-module management communication based on a two-wire interface. Systems manufacturers, system integrators, and suppliers of CMIS-compliant optical and copper modules likely will follow this work closely.
“The QSFP-DD MSA initiated the CMIS effort to address an industry need for commonality in managing pluggable modules, and it has been broadly and successfully adopted across the industry,” said Mark Nowell of Cisco, QSFP-DD MSA Group founding member and MSA co-chair. “OIF is very well suited to maintain and extend the development of this effort and I look forward to seeing their progress.”
“Adopting CMIS from the QSFP-DD MSA, with the goal to build on and extend the specification is an ideal expansion of OIF’s work,” said TE Connectivity’s Nathan Tracy, who is OIF vice president of marketing and TE Connectivity. “OIF is where the cloud gets its work done, and extending CMIS is a giant step forward and an integral linkage to the other work that OIF members are doing to enable an interoperable ecosystem.”
The current CMIS and prior revisions (from QSFP-DD MSA) are now available to members on the OIF website. “Archived Non-OIF Generated Specifications” can be found on the home page, on the “Documents” pull-down menu.
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