At its first technical meeting of the year, the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) approved its External Network-Network-Interface (E-NNI) OSPF-based Routing Implementation Agreement (IA). The Forum's working groups also launched two new projects.
The E-NNI defines key requirements for the exchange of network topology and status information between control domains with an Automatic Switched Optical Network (ASON). This allows for path computation across optical domains managed individually by different methods, such as Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS) Protocols. E-NNI will support scalable routing and interoperability across a carrier's multi-vendor optical network for services such as Ethernet transport and bandwidth on demand. The IA document includes results from multi-vendor interoperability testing performed from 2003 to 2005. The IA is available for public viewing at oiforum.com/public/impagreements.html.
The Software Working Group has started the Extensions for the Interface Management API project, which will enrich the existing Rev. 3.0 IA that was released in 2004. The project will support features added to Ethernet, Sonet, SDH, and PDH by the most recent standardization work in the IEEE, ITU-T, MEF, and OPTXS. The second project, led by the Physical Link Layer Working Group, focuses on 40-Gbit/s optical signaling. In conjunction with the ITU-T, the project will study modulation techniques suitable for higher dispersion links, including longer transmission distances and operation without dispersion compensation.