OIF Releases Tunable Laser MSA

FREMONT, Calif. -- The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) today announced that its membership has approved a new multi-source agreement-implementation agreement (MSA-IA) for integratable tunable laser assemblies, known as ITLA-MSA. The new agreement specifies a compact, standardized form factor for incorporation into a 300pin 3.5"x4.5" transponder. The OIF recognizes the industry trend to use an off-the-shelf transponder and the ITLA-MSA defines a standardized component, which simplifies the manufacture of tunable 300pin transponders as well as providing multiple sources for the same component. The agreement complements a previous OIF tunable laser MSA-IA that addresses communication protocols and electrical interfaces for standalone continuous wavelength (CW) lasers.

"With each additional TL MSA-IA, vendors and customers have to further increase the degree of cooperation in order to make them achievable, thus resulting in components which meet market needs in size and cost. The OIF continues to give these vendors and customers a platform to reach these goals," said Karl Gass, Sandia National Laboratories, OIF PLL Working Group vice chair of optical interfaces. "In addition, we have learned that the adoption of these OIF tunable laser protocols have found use outside the telecom space as some test & measurement applications have adopted them."

Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF)