FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ten of the world’s leading optical networking equipment vendors are making control plane technology and Ethernet Virtual Private Line (EVPL) services a top priority by dedicating three months to interoperability testing during the OIF’s Worldwide Interoperability Demonstration 2009 - Enabling Broadband On-Demand Services. The participating vendors are coming together from across the globe including Alcatel-Lucent, Ciena Corporation, Ericsson, Huawei Technologies, Marben Products, NEC Corporation of America, Nokia-Siemens Networks, Sycamore Networks, Tellabs and ZTE. The test phase of the event has been underway in the following Carrier labs since March 2009: China Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, Orange Labs -France Telecom Group, KDDI R&D Labs, NTT, Telecom Italia and Verizon. OIF participating members are testing the interoperability of EVPL services in the control and data planes over diverse transport technologies. Carriers are testing, in varying configurations, EVPL over the following transport types:

• Next generation TDM and wavelength transport using OTN
• Legacy TDM transport using SONET/SDH
• Packet transport technologies using PBB-TE and MPLS-based transport (Testing is based on ITU-T T-MPLS Recommendations that are being updated to align with the Joint IETF/ITU-T work on MPLS-TP)

The OIF’s UNI 2.0 supports Ethernet (EPL and EVPL) services, so the client can signal for EVPL service without regard to the technology layer used in the carrier network. Participants are also demonstrating multi-domain end-to-end service restoration utilizing E-NNI between vendor domains. The E-NNI is a key enabler, not only for interconnecting vendor control planes and technologies, but for value-added features such as Ethernet service delivery and end-end restoration.

"Participating vendors are testing a diverse range of technologies supporting carrier Ethernet services, using the OIF’s control plane IAs to demonstrate dynamic multi-vendor interoperability,” said Lyndon Ong of Ciena and the OIF’s Technical Committee chair. “The OIF global demo tests vendors’ ability to meet carrier transport needs in advanced technology, requiring vendors to install their products in carrier labs and support round the clock testing of the functionality and reliability of their optical equipment under the parameters of the OIF’s IAs.”

Interoperability testing of heterogeneous network equipment includes multi-service optical network platforms, optical transport switches, ROADMs, NG SONET/SDH ADMs, digital and optical cross connects, carrier Ethernet multi-service switches, and carrier packet transport products.

The OIF’s 2009 Worldwide Interoperability Demonstration - Enabling Broadband On-Demand Services begins with intra-lab testing among each of the seven participating Carrier sites. The test sites are linked via virtual or real E-NNI connections, forming a global test network topology. The event enables testing with more vendor implementations, allowing carriers to access additional network resources beyond the boundaries of their existing networks on a global scale.

The demo will culminate in regional live showcases at iPOP (June 11, Tokyo, Japan); OIF Carrier Day (June, USA - invitation-only); and IIR WDM and Next Generation Networking (June 25, Nice, France, stand 24).

About the OIF

Launched in April of 1998, the OIF unites representatives from data and optical networking disciplines, including many of the world's leading carriers, component manufacturers and system vendors. The OIF promotes the development and deployment of interoperable networking solutions and services through the creation of Implementation Agreements (IAs) for optical, interconnect, network processing and component technologies, and optical networking systems. The OIF actively supports and extends the work of standards bodies with the goal of promoting worldwide compatibility of optical internetworking products. Working relationships or formal liaisons have been established with the Ethernet Alliance, IEEE 802.3, IETF, ITU-T Study Group 13, ITU-T Study Group 15, IPv6 Forum, MEF, ATIS OPTXS, ATIS TMOC, Rapid I/O, TMF, UXPi and the XFP MSA Group. Information on the OIF can be found at http://www.oiforum.com.