OFC Attendees Give Optical Internetworking Forum -OIF- Interoperability Demo High Marks.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

OFC 2003

FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 7, 2003

The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) today announced that the real-time interoperability demonstration at the Optical Fiber Communications (OFC) Conference in Atlanta last week was a huge success for the forum and its participating vendors. Twenty-four vendor companies participated in the interoperability demo of the UNI/NNI and Physical & Link Layer (PLL) protocols. At the show, 12 companies displayed interoperability between six electrical and optical interfaces on the PLL side. An additional 12 companies demonstrated for the first time the integrated UNI/NNI solution representing a significant industry milestone towards achieving an open network layer.

"The most cost effective method to move the industry forward in the development of optical networking equipment is to create basic interface agreements for electrical, optical and control planes," said Joe Berthold, CIENA Corporation, president of the OIF. "The measure of the OIF's success is the verification of our implementation agreements via interoperability events. These events not only prove that the agreements are robust, but are being commercially implemented. Additionally, the live demo included the largest public display of multi-vendor interworking of an optical signaling and routing control plane based on the OIF UNI and NNI specifications."

"At the show the OIF assembled all of the transport circuits necessary for a network element by connecting demo boards and modules from each vendor using OIF interface implementation agreements from the PLL working group," said Steve Joiner, Ignis Optics, technical committee chairman of the OIF. "It was incredible to see the OIF's Implementation Agreements in action. The SPI 4.2, SFI-5, TFI-5, SFI-4.1, VSR-4 interfaces and the tunable lasers all performed beyond expectations."

The PLL participants include ASSP, FPGA, ASIC, optical module and test equipment vendors highlighting protocol testers, signal integrity measurement equipment including eye diagrams and jitter measurements, video generation and display equipment. The PLL participating companies included AMCC, Big Bear Networks, Intel Corporation, Iolon, Multiplex, Inc., NEC Electronics, Network Elements, Santur Corp., Tyco Electronics, Velio and Vitesse. Agilent Technologies and Tektronix supported the event with their optical test equipment.

The UNI/NNI participants include manufacturers of IP routers, optical cross connects, metro and long haul optical transport equipment and add/drop multiplexers. Protocol test equipment and software was also highlighted. In conjunction with the UNI/NNI event, the OIF's Call Detail Records Implementation Agreement (CDR 1.0 IA), which enables billing for UNI 1.0 connections, was demonstrated publicly for the first time. The UNI/NNI participating companies included Alcatel, Avici Systems, CIENA Corporation, Data Connection, ELEMATICS, Mahi Networks, Motorola Computer Group/NetPlane, NEC, Nortel Networks, Sycamore Networks, Inc., Tellabs and Tellium, Inc.

At the close of the show, the OIF donated its booth materials, which included hundreds of flowers, plants, trees and stones totaling approximately $60,000, to the Atlanta chapter of Habitat for Humanity to help generate much-needed additional funds. The Atlanta Habitat ReStore held a community plant sale in conjunction with the OIF's donation on April 3-5. For additional information contact the ReStore at [phone].

About the OIF

Launched in April of 1998, the OIF is a rapidly 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.