Optical forum working on provisioning standard

The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) says it has a working draft of guidelines for carriers that want to be able to automatically provision optical bandwidth from the local loop across the carrier core.

Written by carrier members of the OIF, the document spells out requirements of an optical user-to-network interface (UNI). Both service providers and users could use a standard UNI to support basic provisioning work as well as bandwidth-on-demand and optical virtual private networking (OVPN).

Once such a UNI has been standardized, carriers can use it to link their networks to customer sites as well as to one another's networks with minimal provisioning by hand. From the perspective of customers who order bandwidth, the optical links they buy will appear as if they are part of a single carrier network, even when they aren't.

The document specifically deals with how control planes of optical devices communicate with one another to provision bandwidth and react to fluctuating demand for bandwidth by individual customers.

Service providers will be able to rely on the network to automatically configure network devices to respond to customer requests. In turn, enterprise customers will be able to buy services that are easy to change as corporate needs change.

The OIF document, known as the Carrier Optical Services Framework and Associated Requirements for UNI, still needs OIF approval, which is expected by the end of the year. Even then, the OIF will have to submit the report as a proposal to other organizations that actually set standards.

The group working on the documents includes such service provider heavyweights as AT&T, Cable & Wireless, UUNet and Deutsche Telekom.

OIF: www.oiforum.com