OIF Approves 10 Gb/s Agreement

ANAHEIM, Calif., March 14 -- The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) announced last week at OFC/NFOEC 2005 that its membership has approved an implementation agreement (IA), "Interoperability for Long Reach and Extended Reach 10 Gb/s Transponders and Transceivers," involving a test methodology at the module level based on target ITU-T application codes for the suppliers of transponders and transceivers.

The OIF said establishing a uniform test methodology will ensure multivendor compatibility when compliant transponders and transceivers are installed in network equipment. The methodology specifies that testing is done against defined reference transmitters and receivers for back-to-back and over-fiber configurations.

"Currently, 10 Gb/s transponder modules don't necessarily interoperate or act as functional replacements," said Karl Gass of Sandia National Laboratories, and OIF Physical Layer User Group chair. "This IA was developed to help network equipment manufacturers assure interoperability between multiple vendors of long reach 10 Gb/s products and to get those products talking."

The agreement addresses long-reach (80 km) time division multiplex (TDM) applications, supporting direct upgrades to OC-192 and next-generation optical networks. Subsequent versions will include electronic dispersion compensation and alternate signaling schemes and will cover very-long-reach applications (120 km) and longer reaches, to 160 km.

For more information, visit: www.oiforum.com