Meeting highlights advancements in optical networking, including AI-driven interconnect solutions, a high-density connector project and new interoperability initiatives

OIF Wraps Q1 2025 Technical and MA&E Committees Meeting in San Diego, Announces High-Density Connector Project and New Industry Resources

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Leah Wilkinson
Wilkinson + Associates for OIF
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OIF successfully concluded its Q1 2025 Technical and MA&E Committees Member Meeting, held fully in-person in San Diego, from February 11-13.

During the meeting, OIF members launched a new high-density connector project to address current optical module electrical connector limitations. Additionally, OIF introduced a new Common Management Interface Specification (CMIS) Implementation Agreement (IA) and white papers focused on digital twin optical networks and data center storage coordination. The meeting also featured guest speaker Alan Weckel, Founder and Technology Analyst at 650 Group, who provided insights into emerging market trends and their impact on the optical networking industry.

NEW PROJECT – High-Density Connector

Current optical module electrical connector technology faces limitations in signal integrity, bandwidth density, power distribution and control connections. Meanwhile, high-density, high-pin count connector technologies, already in use in other applications, present a promising path forward for optical interconnects.

Recognizing this opportunity, OIF members have initiated a new project to define the requirements for a high-density (HD) connector tailored for optical interconnect applications. The High-Density Connector Project will produce a requirements document that addresses existing constraints and sets the stage for enhanced scalability and performance. Developing an HD connector will support high-bandwidth, high-density front pluggable and Near-Packaged Optics (NPO) applications, ensuring the industry is equipped to meet the increasing demands of next-generation networking solutions.

“This project is an important step toward advancing the connectivity solutions necessary for next-generation optical networking,” said Karl Bois, OIF Technical Committee Chair (Nvidia). “By identifying and documenting the requirements for high-density connectors, OIF continues its pathfinder role in defining new interface approaches. This effort also builds on our previous work in the OIF Physical and Link Layer (PLL) Working Group, leveraging established interoperability foundations to drive innovation and efficiency in high-speed interconnect applications.”

NEW IMPLEMENTATION AGREEMENT

OIF also announced the release of the CMIS Versatile Control Set (VCS) IA, which generalizes and extends the current CMIS base Control Sets to allow support and control of advanced Signal Integrity (SI) capabilities while maintaining compatibility with existing CMIS hosts. The CMIS-VCS IA defines an extensible list of SI parameters, including their characteristics and representation, and an optional versatile allocation within the CMIS Control Set. A CMIS-VCS-compliant module makes this module-specific list of SI parameters and their locations available to the host. The complete IA is available here.

NEW WHITE PAPERS

The newly released Digital Twin Optical Network as an Enhanced Network Operation white paper outlines interoperability requirements for digital twin optical networks as an enhanced network operation that interacts with management-control systems. It specifies the relationship between the digital twin optical network and management control (MC) system, interface operations, input/output data requirements and data collection. The document represents an essential first step in standardizing digital twin optical networks for intelligent control, enabling real-time interactive mapping between physical and digital twin optical networks.

Another white paper looks at frequent transaction failures caused by jitters, intermittent disconnections, and bit errors over unstable Data Center Interconnection (DCI) links, which present significant challenges in the financial industry. The Data Center Storage and Optical Multi-layer Coordination white paper was published to address these issues by exploring how fast fault detection and optical connection recovery can enhance storage applications and improve optical coordination in DCI networks. This white paper examines anticipated scenarios, technical requirements, potential solutions and provides a comprehensive gap analysis on storage and optical coordination.

GUEST SPEAKER

OIF welcomed guest speaker Alan Weckel, who discussed the data center market and how scale-up and scale-out networks for AI are driving the need for significantly more bandwidth, and how the customer will deploy different technologies (Ethernet, InfiniBand, NV-Link, UA-Link) across their infrastructures.

“OIF continues to drive industry consensus for next-generation technology, such as 800G/1.6T ZR and 448Gbps SerDes,” said Weckel. “Both of these are critical to AI data center buildouts and the trillion dollar markets that data centers support. We enjoyed participating in the 1Q25 meeting, where we saw significant attendance as OIF members are excited about contributing to the future of networking.”

OIF’s UPCOMING ACTIVITIES

OIF is continuing its mission to drive interoperability and innovation across the industry with key upcoming events:

• Today, OIF will continue its free Common Management Interface Specification (CMIS) Tutorial Webinar Series with an in-depth session on the Versatile Control Set (VCS), presented by Luz Osorio of Ciena. This session will provide engineers, developers and industry professionals with key insights into VCS and its role in CMIS, equipping them with the knowledge to navigate evolving industry standards. More details can be found here.
• PLL Interoperability Demo at OFC 2025 – 35 OIF members will showcase their latest interoperability advancements at OFC 2025, April 1-3, in San Francisco, demonstrating cutting-edge solutions for next-generation networking applications. This demo will highlight OIF’s work in performance, efficiency, and capacity, aligning with the evolving needs of future-oriented data centers. Participating members will demonstrate critical interoperability solutions addressing the demands of AI, machine learning and high-speed data processing. More details can be found here.
• 448Gbps Signaling for AI Workshop – Addressing the Next Rate Challenges – This public workshop, being held April 15-16 in Santa Clara, will bring together industry leaders to explore the next evolution of electrical and optical signaling, focusing on the demands of AI workloads and the transition to next generation signaling rates. Learn more here and register here.

OIF’s members-only Q2 2025 Technical and MA&E Committees Meeting will be held in-person in Tallinn, Estonia, during the week of May 5-9, 2025.

About OIF

OIF is where the optical networking industry’s interoperability work gets done. With more than 25 years of effecting forward change in the industry, OIF represents the dynamic ecosystem of 150+ industry-leading network operators, system vendors, component vendors, and test equipment vendors collaborating to develop interoperable electrical, optical, and control solutions. These efforts directly impact the industry’s ecosystem and facilitate global connectivity in the open network world. Connect with OIF on LinkedIn, on X at @OIForum, and at http://www.oiforum.com.

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