Dave Stauffer re-elected as Chair of OIF Physical & Link Layer Working Group

FREMONT, Calif. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — March 16, 2022 — Highlights from OIF’s first member meeting of the year include four new Common Electrical I/O (CEI) projects, two new Common Management Interface Specification (CMIS) project launches, an OIF Working Group election, and an industry talk from Scott Wilkinson, Lead Analyst, Networking Components, Cignal AI. The Q122 Technical and MA&E Committees Meeting was held virtually February 7-11.

NEW PROJECTS
CEI
OIF launched four new CEI projects during the meeting: CEI-224G-Extra Short Reach (XSR) Common Electrical On-Package Interface Project, CEI-224G-Very Short Reach (VSR) Common Electrical Chip-to-Module Interface Project, CEI-224G-Medium Reach (MR) Common Electrical Chip-to-Chip Interface Project, and CEI-224G-Long Reach (LR) Common Electrical Backplane and Copper Cable Interface Project. These projects are the first set to target the 224G generation of electrical interfaces.

In addition to these 224G project launches, OIF membership approved publishing the 224G Framework Project white paper that was kicked off in August 2020. “OIF’s CEI-224G framework project white paper provides a roadmap for the applications, challenges and projects needed to support new specifications and technologies – these four new projects will develop the Implementation Agreements (IAs) to address that roadmap,” said Dave Stauffer, Kandou Bus and Chair, OIF Physical and Link Layer (PLL) Working Group.

CMIS: Form-Factor Specific Hardware Management
OIF initiated a new project to create supplemental specifications to CMIS for Form-factor Specific Hardware Management (FSHM). CMIS has been adopted to manage future generation of small form-factor pluggable (SFP) 112, SFP-DD/SFP-DD112, and quad small form-factor pluggable (QSFP) 112. Currently, CMIS does not provide hardware management control for these form-factors. FSHM will define form-factor specific module hardware management registers in CMIS allocated page 05h.

CMIS: Adding CMIS Support for Host-Module Link Training
OIF started another new project that will add CMIS Support for Host-Module Link Training. This project will provide an optional out-of-band, protocol agnostic, management mechanism for optimizing link tuning and training.

OIF ELECTION
Stauffer was re-elected to serve a two-year term as Chair of OIF’s PLL Working Group. Dr. Stauffer has served in this role since 2006. The OIF PLL Working Group develops IAs related to physical and data link layer interfaces between optical internetworking elements and their internal components, reusing existing standards when applicable. The OIF PLL Working Group is guided by requirements developed by the Physical Layer User Group (PLUG) Working Group and Network Operators Working Group and OIF members.

GUEST SPEAKER
The meeting’s guest speaker, Scott Wilkinson, provided attendees with an overview of the pluggable coherent optical technologies market, including trends, forecasts, and expected changes.

“The OIF’s wildly successful 400ZR specification is largely responsible for the recent growth of 400Gbps coherent pluggables and the emergence of IP-over-DWDM as a valid network configuration,” said Wilkinson. “The group’s quarterly meetings are an invaluable source of information on what’s next in optical interfaces.”

About OIF
OIF is where the optical networking industry’s interoperability work gets done. Building on more than 20 years of effecting forward change in the industry, OIF represents the dynamic ecosystem of 130+ 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:
Leah Wilkinson
Wilkinson + Associates for OIF
Email: leah@wilkinson.associates
Office: 703-907-0010