The OIF: A Beacon for Industry Progressand Convergence

The Trends

• Users demanding lower cost, converged and personalized services

• Added complexity in networks, services, vendors and markets

• Increasing network diversity in:― Industry standards― Carrier models― Product architectures

The Challenge

• Allow network providers to manage the underlying technical complexity of their networks

• Support vendor innovation while:― Preserving

interoperability― Maximizing performance― Minimizing costs

Pre-competitive collaborationleading to:

The Goal

• Accelerated innovation, faster time-to-market

• Enhanced intelligence in networks

and devices• Reliable interoperation• Reduced risk• Global access

The Solution

• The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF)― A nonprofit, member-driven

collaborative organization that develops public-domain interoperability agreements for telecommunications and data networks

• Members include:― Carriers― Equipment vendors― Component manufacturers― Enterprise customers― Academics― Government agencies

Benefiting the Industry and its Customers

• Broad industry participation― All technology tiers― All market segments

• Accessible memberships― Principal― Small business― Auditing― Academic

• 90+ member companies• Contribution-driven, pre-

competitive cooperation to accelerate progress

Founding Member Comment:

“AT&T has a proud history of leadership and innovation in the Telecommunication industry as demonstrated by its participation in the OIF. As a founding member of the OIF we've seen tangible benefits from working with both service providers and equipment vendors to create implementation agreements and open interoperability throughout the industry. The OIF has influenced the direction of many of the optical standards which are driving innovative solutions to the complex networking issues that confront our collective customers and as such AT&T looks forward to collaborating with the Forum and its members on future projects.”

Monica Lazer, AT&T

Roadblocks to Progress

• Proprietary solutions• Lacking or lagging

standards• Lack of opportunities

for collaboration

OIF Removesthose Roadblocks

• Contributing to formal standard bodies

• Building industry consensus

• Accelerating progress through collaboration

OIF Offers a Formal Process for:

• Presenting new ideas • Selecting the best ideas

for formal projects• Managing and monitoring

projects• Proving concepts through

interoperability demos• Drafting and signing

Implementation Agreements• Presenting proposals to formal

standards bodies

Guiding-Light Groups

• Carrier― Members: representatives from carriers― Creates: consensus on requirements for new

servicesand functions

― Asks: “Does the industry need this capability?”

• Physical Layer Users Group― Members: representatives from system vendors ― Creates: consensus on requirements for new

interconnects― Asks: “What interconnects will our future systems

need?”

Working Groups that evaluate potential projects:

Technical Groups

• Physical andLink Layer

• Architectureand Signaling

• Operations Administration, Maintenance & Provisioning

• Software

Working Groups that forge details of Implementation Agreements:

Solution Validation Working Group

• Interoperability

Working Group that demonstrates project success:

The OIF Working Groupsin Action

Technology Update

Current Work Projects:• 40Gbps Optical Modulation Techniques• Common Electrical Interface - 25Gb (CEI-25)• E-NNI 2.0 Signaling• Electronic Dispersion Compensation (EDC)

Modeling• Extensions for the Interface Management API• Integrable Tunable Transmitter Assembly• Logging & Auditing Syslog• Neighbor Discovery Requirements• SERDES Framer Interface (SFI-S)• Serial Look Aside (SLA)• TFI-5/TDM-P Clause in CEI-P• UNI 2.0

The Output: Implementation Agreements

• Formal agreements between OIF members to adopt a particular technology

• Detailed technical specifications that ensure interoperability of compliant systems― Free for public download and

unlicensed use― Complementary to the work of

formal standards bodies

The Output: Interoperability Demonstrations

• Proof of concept based on working prototypes

• Presented at major industry trade shows around the world

• An opportunity to clarify and enhance the details of Implementation Agreements

• Measures of success:― Requests for more information or quotes for

the demonstrated technology― De facto market adoption― Incorporation in the work of formal standards

bodies

Success Story: Industry-Standard Chip-to-Chip Interfaces

• SerDes to Framer Interface Level 4 Phase 2― Interface for 10 Gbps applications ― Specifies the interconnection between the

SerDes component, FEC process and framer― Enables parallel electrical bus operating

significantly slower than the optical data rate

• Has been highly successful in the market― Every 300-pin transponder that transports 10

Gbps data optically uses this electrical interface

SFI-4.2

Success Story: Paving the Way for ASON/GMPLS

• ASON/GMPLS defines a distributed control plane that automates switching across carrier domains

• The OIF was an important enabling force for the ITU’s ASON and IETF’s GMPLS standards:

Many essential aspects of ASON/GMPLS originated in the OIF’s Architecture and Signaling Working Group

― Carrier requirements of the OIF’s Carrier Working Group have set the reference for standardization work

― The OIF User Network Interface (UNI) and Network to Network Interface (NNI) specifications paved the way

― These signaling and routing protocols speed service provisioning and transport across heterogeneous networks.

Collaborationfor Innovation

• Mission: To foster the development and deployment of interoperable products and services for data switching and routing using optical networking technologies

• The OIF is the only industry group that brings together professionals from the data and optical worlds

• Its 90+ member companies represent the entire industry ecosystem:― Carriers and network users― Component and systems vendors― Testing and software companies

Member Companies

• Principal Members

ADVA AG Optical Networking

Agilent TechnologiesAlcatel-LucentAlteraAMCCAnalog DevicesAnritsuAT&TAvago TechnologiesAvanexBookhamBooz Allen HamiltonBritish Telecom

BroadcomChina TelecomCiena CommunicationsCisco SystemsClariPhy CommunicationsCoreOpticsCortina SystemsData ConnectionDepartment of DefenseDeutsche TelekomEricssonFinisarFlextronics

Member Companies

• Principal Members

Force 10 NetworksFoxconnFrance TelecomFreescale SemiconductorFujitsuHi/fnHuawei TechnologiesIBMIDTInfineraIntelIP InfusionJDSUKDDI R&D Laboratories

Level 3 CommunicationsLSI LogicMarben ProductsMergeOptics GmbHMinteraMITREMitsubishi ElectricMolexNECNeoPhotonicsNortel NetworksNokia SiemensNTTOpnext

Member Companies

• Principal Members

PMC SierraRSoft Design GroupSandia National

LaboratoriesSanturSierra MonolithicsSilicon Logic EngineeringStrataLight

CommunicationsSycamore NetworksSyntuneTektronixTelcordia Technologies

Telecom ItaliaTellabsTexas InstrumentsTime Warner CableTranswitch Tyco ElectronicsVerizonVitesse SemiconductorYokogawa ElectricZTE

Member Companies

• Auditing Members

ECI TelecomEnigma SemiconductorFiberHome TelecommunicationsJuniper NetworksKawasaki LSIMayo ClinicPirelli Broadband

SolutionsTelenor

• Academic Members

Centre Tecnologic de Telecomunicacions de

CatalunyaInternet2Stanford University

New Member Comment:

“As one of the world's leading carriers, BT is dedicated toserving the needs of its Consumer and Enterprise customers. We see standardized software interfaces as being a key technical innovation as we develop our future IT services on our 21C converged NGN platform. BTfeels that the OIF Software API Framework is an importantforward-looking implementation agreement that will benefit the entire industry, and we are keen to see howwe can support this and other key OIF initiatives.” Murray Cooke, BT Chief Business Services Architect in BT Group CTO

The OIF: Lighting the Way• For More Information:

Kimberly Chiu, Project ManagerOptical Internetworking Forum48377 Fremont Blvd, Suite 117Fremont, CA 94538 USAPhone: +1.510.492.4042Fax: +1.510.492.4001Email: kchiu@oiforum.com www.oiforum.com

• Press Contact:Deborah PorchivinaPorchivina & Associates Public Relations448 Ignacio Blvd, Suite 350Novato, CA 94949 USAPhone: +1.415.272.0943Fax: +1.415.883.2387Email: deborah@papr.com