OIF Leads Optical Industry with Integratable Tunable Laser Agreement; New Multi-Source Agreement Complements Existing Efforts.

FREMONT, Calif. -- The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) today announced that its membership has approved a new multi-source agreement-implementation agreement (MSA-IA) for integratable tunable laser assemblies, known as ITLA-MSA. The new agreement specifies a compact, standardized form factor for incorporation into a 300pin 3.5"x4.5" transponder. The OIF recognizes the industry trend to use an off-the-shelf transponder and the ITLA-MSA defines a standardized component, which simplifies the manufacture of tunable 300pin transponders as well as providing multiple sources for the same component. The agreement complements a previous OIF tunable laser MSA-IA that addresses communication protocols and electrical interfaces for standalone continuous wavelength (CW) lasers.

"With each additional TL MSA-IA, vendors and customers have to further increase the degree of cooperation in order to make them achievable, thus resulting in components which meet market needs in size and cost. The OIF continues to give these vendors and customers a platform to reach these goals," said Karl Gass, Sandia National Laboratories, OIF PLL Working Group vice chair of optical interfaces. "In addition, we have learned that the adoption of these OIF tunable laser protocols have found use outside the telecom space as some test & measurement applications have adopted them."

The OIF's Physical Link Layer Working Group began work on the ITLA-MSA in October 2003 to focus on the standardization of a CW laser subassembly for integration into transponders for both the 3.5"x4.5" and the small form factor transponder. The new agreement is a direct response to network equipment vendors' constant desire for components with reduced size and power needs.

About the OIF

Launched in April of 1998, the OIF is a non-profit organization with 170+ 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. Liaisons have been established with the ATM Forum, IEEE 802.3 HSSG, IETF, ITU-T Study Group 13, ITU-T Study Group 15, MEF, NPF, T1M1, T1X1, TMF and the XFP MSA Group. More information on the OIF can be found at www.oiforum.com.