Light Reading - Optical Networking Resources

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Associations

Name: Fiber Optic Association
URL: http://world.std.com/~foa/foa.htm
The Fiber Optic Association Inc., is an international non-profit professional society for the fiber optic industry. It has developed a training curriculum and certification program, participated in standards activities, and become involved in other programs to promote fiber optics. The site also provides links to other organizations focused on the optics industry.

Name: Optical Society of America
URL: http://www.osa.org/
The OSA is an organization focused on the photonics community and is comprised of more than 12,000 optical scientists, engineers, and technicians in some 50 countries. It sponsors a few journals including Applied Optics and Optics Letters. It also sponsors conferences.

Name: International Society for Optical Engineers
URL: http://www.spie.org/
Similar to the Optical Society of America.

Name: The IT Web Telecoms Certification
URL: http://www.theitweb.f2s.com/links/telecomscertification.html
This site provides resources for training and certification in various areas of interest telecom workers and those interesting in networking in general.

Name: The Fibre Channel Industry Association
URL: http://www.fibrechannel.com/
The professional organization for Fibre Channel technology, this group offers similar services to the above-mentioned organizations.

Optical Coalitions

Name: Optical Domain Service Interconnect
URL: http://www.odsi-coalition.com/
The Optical Domain Service Interconnect (ODSI) is an open, informal coalition made up of more than 100 service providers and equipment vendors. Since its inception in January 2000, this organization has progressed rapidly to develop an industry proposal for an open interface to the optical switched network.

Name: Optical Internetworking Forum
URL: http://www.oiforum.com/
The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) promotes the development and deployment of interoperable products and services for data switching and routing using optical networking technologies. The OIF is made up of over 100 companies from the telecom industry including equipment manufacturers, telecom service providers and consumers.

Standards Bodies

Name: International Telecommunication Union
URL: http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/forums/forums.html
The ITU focuses on telecommunications standardization on a worldwide basis. It includes groups studying technical, operating, and tariff questions and creating policies on them. Participation in ITU activities can be undertaken only by national or regional standards-setting groups. Therefore, the ITU maintains a list about standards organizations on the site. Some of the organizations on the ITU's list are included here.

Name: Telecommunications Industry Association
URL: http://www.tiaonline.org/standards/
The TIA promotes the interests of telecommunications manufacturers and service providers. It also sets standards for the industry. The TIA site offers (for a fee) a list of standards that affect its constituents. The standards cover areas of the optical networking industry, including DWDM systems and cabling.

Name: Fiber Optics LAN section of the TIA
URL: http://www.fols.org/
This is a division of the TIA that focuses on fiber optic, local area network (LAN) technologies and reports on the standards in this area.

Name: European Telecommunications Standards Institute
URL: http://www.etsi.org
ETSI promotes standards in Europe for all areas in telecommunications, including fiber optics. Included is work on standards for ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) equipment, VPNs (virtual private networks), and VOIP (voice over IP). ETSI is an international organization with 773 members from 52 countries inside and outside Europe. Its membership is varied and includes network operators, manufacturers, service providers, research bodies, and users.

Name: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
URL:http://standards.ieee.org/
The IEEE maintains standards for LAN/MAN equipment. The user has to pay for a subscription to access published specs.

Name: Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers URL: http://www.scte.org/standards/standards.html
The SCTE is a non-profit professional association dedicated to advancing the careers of telecommunication professionals by providing technical training, certification, and other pertinent industry information. The group also formulates specs related to hybrid fiber/coaxial networks.

Name: Telecommunication Technology Committee
URL: http://www.ttc.or.jp/e/index.html
This group seeks to contribute to standardization efforts in the telecom industry. Its main work is focused on defining protocols and standards for interconnection of telecom gear.

Name: The Technical Committee T11
URL: http://www.t11.org
A standards committee for Fibre Channel technology. Site provides access to past and current specifications.

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