OIF Marks 25th Anniversary, Launches New Physical & Link Layer Working Group Electrical Project and Adds 112G VSR Clause to CEI 5.0 IA at Q1 Technical and MA&E Committees Meeting

Fremont, Calif.—January 23, 2023 – OIF’s first Technical and MA&E Committees Meeting of the year kicked off a year-long celebration of OIF’s 25^th anniversary, the launch of an enhanced SGMII project – a Physical & Link Layer (PLL) Working Group Electrical track project – and the completion of the Common Electrical I/O (CEI)-112G-VSR, as well as featured guest speakers, Vladimir Kozlov, CEO, LightCounting; and Alan Weckel, Founder and Technology Analyst, 650 Group.

The Q1 Technical and MA&E Committees Meeting was held in person and virtually January 10-12, 2023, in Indian Wells, California.

25^th Anniversary

For 25 years, OIF has accelerated progressive transformation in optical networking by serving as the only global industry forum driving the electrical, optical and control interoperability that enables a more efficient and reliable network. Its active member ecosystem of more than 140 companies collaborates through a transparent and fast-paced process to develop, validate and publish Implementation Agreements (IAs) and technical white papers critical to accelerating market adoption of interoperable optical networking technologies.

Opening the week of celebration, Stephen Hardy, Editorial Director of Lightwave, welcomed attendees with a special virtual greeting – a “Friday 5” featuring the five OIF IAs that Hardy believes have been the most transformative to the industry.

Approval of Common Electrical I/O (CEI)-112G-VSR

CEI-112G-VSR-PAM4 specifies a 112 Gb/s chip-to-module PAM4 electrical interface for use in the range 36 to 58 Gsym/s with up to 16 dB loss at the Nyquist frequency, including one connector. Hosts and modules compliant to CEI-112G-VSR-PAM4 from different manufacturers are interoperable.

“CEI-112G-VSR allows for an interoperable environment using optical pluggable modules critical to networking and challenging AI/ML connectivity,” said Dr. Karl Bois, OIF Technical Committee Vice Chair, NVIDIA Corporation. “The networking and data center ecosystems have a new powerful implementation recipe to increase throughput and capacity, especially when the network is part of the Compute infrastructure.”

New Electrical Project – Enhanced SGMII Electrical Specifications

The enhanced SGMII (E-SGMII) specifications will be based on modernized current mode logic (CML) electrical specifications instead of legacy LVDS and provide an optional high-speed 1 GbE interface to supplement the management of modules. Specifically, it will define a 1 GbE (1.25 GBd) high-speed serial interface for modules based on a modernized, enhanced SGMII. E-SGMII will have applications both for next-generation modules and for existing form factors with sufficient pins available.

Guest Speakers – Vladimir Kozlov, Founder and CEO, LightCounting; and Alan Weckel, Founder and Technology Analyst, 650 Group

Kozlov, Founder and CEO of LightCounting, an optical communications market research company:

“It takes a collective mind of the industry experts to filter out the best product ideas enabled by cutting-edge technologies,” said Kozlov. “OIF created a framework to keep the collective mind productive by letting the experts debate respectfully, yet often passionately. Some projects turn into success stories in 2-3 years, with 400ZR being the most recent example. Others take up to 7 years to complete, and many never make it to the market, but they all help chart the industry’s future. I am looking forward to the 50th anniversary of OIF. The next 25 years will be even more fun since the industry has many diverging routes to consider.”

Weckel, Founder and Technology Analyst of 650 Group, a trusted market research firm:

“As OIF celebrates its 25th anniversary, the organization continues to push critical standards and efforts forward that help shape almost every data center and network in the world today,” said Weckel. “If we look at all the recent and upcoming announcements on 56/112/224 Gbps SERDES and ZR optics, the OIF was critical in bringing those products to market.”

About OIF

OIF is where the optical networking industry’s interoperability work gets done. Celebrating 25 years of effecting forward change in the industry, OIF represents the dynamic ecosystem of 140+ 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 http://www.oiforum.com.