OIF Projects Will Shrink Tunable Laser Assembly and Ease Control Plane Deployment for Carriers

FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) members started two projects at their third quarter meeting. The first provides a specification for a micro-integrable tunable laser assembly (uITLA). The new form factor for tunable lasers is needed as the industry moves to an XFP form factor with reduced power dissipation. The second newly created project addresses OSS Control Plane Management. Both of these projects will provide equipment vendors and carriers with important tools for bringing products to market and deploying control plane technology.

Dana Cooperson, Practice Leader for Network Infrastructure at analyst firm Ovum, spoke to 115 OIF members at their quarterly meeting about the key technology themes and challenges that factor into the evolution to the next generation, converged packet-optical network. She cited the widely adopted ‘100G Framework’ as “one key example of how the OIF helps accelerate the technology adoption cycle. The OIF will continue to play a critical role in increasing network and market efficiency.”

The new uITLA project shall propose changes to the assembly electrical interfaces, optical specifications, and mechanical specifications. The uITLA implementation agreement (IA) will provide an alternative laser solution for ITLA customers contemplating the integration of a specific vendor “gold box” laser on the host PCB due to space constraints. A greater than 2X reduction in the base plate area of the uITLA relative to the ITLA-MSA-1.2 IA is desired.

The new OSS Control Plane Management project output will be a white paper or framework document that addresses the OSS Control Plane challenges associated with Optical Transport Evolution. As the networks evolve from TDM to Packet and to MPLS-based Transport, there will be additional challenges associated with OSS integration and management of control plane-initiated services spanning multiple layers (TDM OTN and SONET, Photonic and MPLS). Adding to the OSS challenges are the operational challenges associated with these converged networks. This new project will address these OSS challenges in operationalizing the TDM control plane including multilayer TDM CP (SONET/SDH, OTN).

Other news out of the OIF meeting

The following leadership positions were elected by acclamation:

Technical Committee Chair: Jonathan Sadler, Tellabs (beginning Oct 1)

Technical Committee Vice Chair: Klaus-Holger Otto, Alcatel-Lucent

Market Awareness & Education Chair, Networking: Dave Brown, Alcatel-Lucent

Market Awareness & Education Chair, PLL: Rod Smith, Tyco Electronics

About the OIF

Launched in 1998, the OIF is the first industry group to unite representatives from data and optical networking disciplines, including many of the world's leading carriers, component manufacturers, and system vendors. The OIF promotes the development and deployment of interoperable networking solutions and services through the creation of Implementation Agreements (IAs) for optical, interconnect, network processing, component, and networking systems technologies. The OIF actively supports and extends the work of standards bodies and industry forums with the goal of promoting worldwide compatibility of optical internetworking products. Information on the OIF can be found at http://www.oiforum.com.

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Porchivina & Associates Public Relations
Deborah Porchivina, 415-272-0943
deborah@papr.com

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