OIF Approves Agreement on Multivendor Compatibility for Long, Extended Reach 10gbps

The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) announced this week at OFC/NFOEC 2005 that its membership has approved an Implementation Agreement (IA), "Interoperability for Long Reach and Extended Reach 10Gb/s Transponders and Transceivers."

The agreement specifies a test methodology at the module level based on target ITU-T application codes for the suppliers of transponders and transceivers.

By establishing a uniform test methodology, the agreement aims to 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 10gbps transponder modules don't necessarily interoperate or act as functional replacements," says 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 10gbps products and to get those products talking."

The agreement addresses long reach (80 km) TDM applications, supporting direct upgrades to OC192 and next-generation optical networks. Subsequent versions will include Electronic Dispersion Compensation (EDC) and alternate signaling schemes and will cover very long reach applications (120 km) and longer reaches extending to 160 km.

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