OIF Day, hosted by Microsoft, provided participants the opportunity to exchange ideas relating to current network challenges

FREMONT, Calif. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — November 19, 2019 — OIF, where the optical networking industry’s interoperability work gets done, today announced election results for its Board of Directors and working group representatives (positions took effect Oct 1). OIF also announced the launch of a network operator survey designed to gather specific input on next generation coherent optics application requirements, features and timing.

OIF member activity in October also included the Q419 Technical and MA&E Committee meetings held October 22-24, 2019 in Singapore and a member only OIF Day at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, WA.

Election Results

• Board of Directors:
  • Nathan Tracy, TE Connectivity, continues to serve on the Board and was re-appointed as President
  • Tad Hofmeister, Google, was re-elected (two-year term) and re-appointed as Vice President
  • Martin Bouda, Fujitsu, continues to serve on the Board and was re-appointed as Secretary/Treasurer
  • Ian Betty, Ciena, was re-elected to the Board (two-year term)
  • Mike Li, Intel, was re-elected to the Board (one-year term)
  • Cathy Liu, Broadcom Inc., was re-elected to the Board (one-year term)
  • Gary Nicholl, Cisco, continues to serve on the Board

• Officers:
  • Ed Frlan, Semtech, was elected as Technical Committee Chair
  • Klaus-Holger Otto, Nokia, was elected as Technical Committee Vice Chair
  • Lyndon Ong, Ciena, was re-elected as Market Awareness & Education Committee Co-Chair, Networking
  • Richard Ward, Intel, was appointed by the Board as Market Awareness & Education Committee Co-Chair, PLL (filling the vacant position)
  • Dave Brown, Nokia, continues to serve as Director of Communications

• Technical Committee:
  • Junjie Li, China Telecom, was re-elected as Network Operator Working Group Chair

“As a member-driven organization, the strength and support of our leadership is critical,” said Nathan Tracy, TE Connectivity and OIF president. “Congratulations to all the new and returning members serving on the Board of Directors and in other leadership positions. Your work to further OIF’s mission and drive interoperability solutions is vital to our industry’s ecosystem.”

Network Operator Survey

The OIF Network Operators Working Group is reaching out to global operators to identify technology challenges for future generation architectures beyond 2020 with the goal of stimulating work projects to meet operator needs. Building on significant participation in two recent invitation-only executive summits, the group has issued a formal coherent optics survey to operators. The group will discuss the survey results at a member only workshop planned for February 10 prior to the 1Q 2020 Technical Committee meeting (February 11-13) in New Orleans.

OIF Day

OIF Day held on October 9 and hosted by Microsoft, was a live educational workshop program designed to expand awareness of, and educate member company employees on, the work of the OIF. The full day program included an overview of OIF work, including 400ZR, CEI-112G and FlexE and updates from Microsoft on cloud hardware futures, rack-level interconnect architecture and row architectures.

“We received fantastic feedback from OIF membership and Microsoft employees from the OIF Day hosted by Microsoft. The event served to further clarify numerous use cases and problem sets with the OIF membership in an interactive manner, hopefully establishing requirements for next gen products that the interworking community can rally around. It also provided greater awareness and context for Microsoft employees on the great work and benefits of the OIF,” said Mark Filer, Principle Optical Engineer, Azure Networking, Microsoft.

About OIF

OIF is where the optical networking industry’s interoperability work gets done. Building on 20 years of effecting forward change in the industry, OIF represents the dynamic ecosystem of 100+ industry leading network operators, system vendors, component vendors and test equipment vendors collaborating to develop interoperable electrical, optical and control solutions that directly impact the industry’s ecosystem and facilitate global connectivity in the open network world. Connect with OIF at @OIForum, on LinkedIn and at http://www.oiforum.com.

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PR Contact:
Leah Wilkinson
Wilkinson + Associates for OIF
Email: leah@wilkinson.associates
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