15 OIF Members to Demo Physical and Link Layer Interoperability At SUPERCOMM 2003; SUPERDemo Will Showcase Working Group's Technical Achievements.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SUPERCOMM 2003

Booth #10205, Hall C

FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 21, 2003

The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) announced that 15 member companies will demonstrate interoperability of the Forum's Physical and Link Layer (PLL) architecture at SUPERCOMM 2003 in Atlanta, June 3-5, Booth #10205, Hall C. As a part of SUPERCOMM's SUPERDemo program, the OIF will also introduce its newest project, the Common Electrical I/O (CEI).

"The OIF's PLL Working Group is producing some incredibly original technical work," said Joe Berthold, CIENA Corp., president of the OIF. "This demonstration will highlight the real progress that we are making in that area and give our members an opportunity to show the strides they have made in making their products work together to build a better network."

"It's not only the chips that have to be faster and more efficient. Today, it is increasingly essential that the development effort is also fast and efficient," said Karen Liu, managing director with RHK's Advisory Services group. "The broad range of companies participating in the OIF PLL Interoperability Demo demonstrates widespread recognition of that need. The activity of the OIF is a sign of increasing maturity in the optical communications industry."

The live SUPERDemo will feature the first demonstration of the OIF's CEI work in progress with demonstrations of electrical interfaces with signaling rates of 6+ and 11+ Gbit for chip-to-chip, chip-to-optical module and electrical backplane applications. Participant companies will include ASSP, FPGA, ASIC, optical module, transmission channel and test equipment vendors highlighting protocol testers, signal-integrity measurement equipment including eye diagrams and jitter measurements, video generation and display equipment.

The demonstration will also highlight the Serdes Framer Interface for a common electrical interface between SONET framer and serial/deserializer parts for OC-192 interfaces (SFI-4.1 IA), the System Packet Interface Level 4, Phase 2: System Interface for Physical and Link Layer Devices (SPI-4.2 IA) and the OIF's tunable laser IA. These electrical interfaces define the transport protocol between ICs in equipment chassis at 10 and 40 Gb/s aggregate rates.

The companies that will participate in the OIF's interoperability demonstration at SUPERCOMM 2003 include Agilent Technologies, AMCC, BitBlitz Communications, Gennum Corp., Ignis Optics, Infineon Technologies, Iolon, Multiplex, NEC Electronics America, Santur, Tyco Electronics, Velio, Vitesse, Winchester Electronics and Xilinx.

Multimedia Presentations

Members of the OIF will be providing technical presentations based on the Forum's ongoing work in the theater area of the booth. For the schedule of presentations visit: http://www.oiforum.com/public/supercomm_2003.html. The OIF booth will also include a multimedia presentation on the OIF's UNI/NNI interoperability demonstration that took place in early 2003.

Booth Materials Donated to Charity

Reinforcing the OIF's non-profit status, the forum will again donate its booth materials, live plants and flowers, to a local charity. The OIF's booth will feature a live English garden with colorful flowers, plants and trees along with tranquil water features. The environmentally friendly booth has been designed to promote the interoperability interests of the forum in an interesting and unique setting. In addition to seeing the latest technology demonstrated by the OIF members, show attendees will have a place to relax and discuss business in an environment that promotes an atmosphere of debate and the sharing of ideas.

About the OIF

Launched in April of 1998, the OIF is a growing, non-profit organization with more than 250+ international member companies, including many of the world's leading carriers and vendors. As the only industry group uniting representatives from data and optical networks, the OIF helps advance the standards and methods of optical networks. OIF's purpose is to accelerate the deployment of interoperable, cost-effective and robust optical internetworks and their associated technologies. Optical internetworks are data networks composed of routers and data switches interconnected by optical networking elements.

With the goal of promoting worldwide compatibility of optical internetworking products, the OIF actively supports and extends the work of national and international standards bodies. Formal liaisons have been established with The ATM Forum, IETF, ITU-T Study Group 15, MEF, NPF, T1M1, T1X1 and the TMF. More information on the OIF can be found at www.oiforum.com.