Wednesday, July 27, 2011

OIF Approves OTN-capable E-NNI Routing

The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) approved the External Network-Network Interface (E-NNI) OSPFv2-based (Open Shortest Path First, version 2) Routing – 2.0 (Intra-Carrier) Implementation Agreement.


The new IA supports routing for digital connections using ITU-T Optical Transport Networking (OTN) standards and incorporates updates and extensions to the E-NNI Routing 1.0 IA (2007), including:



  • formats and encoding for routing of OTN ODUj connections


  • Ethernet layer routing information designed for supporting future multilayer control plane integration.


  • guidelines for topology abstraction for scalability in carrier deployments.


  • extensions supporting inter-domain ASON routing that are a product of joint OIF, ITU-T and IETF efforts.


Further control plane work on new OTN features is in progress under a separate OIF project titled UNI Signaling and E-NNI Signaling/Routing IA – G.709 edition 3 amendment. This project will update OIF Signaling and Routing IAs to support new OTN features defined in ITU-T G.709 edition 3 and G.709amd2, such as ODUflex and ODUflex hitless resizing.


"The completion of this IA is important to the industry as networks move towards an OTN routing capable control plane," said Remi Theillaud of Marben Products and the OIF's Networking & Operations Working Group chair. "OIF's E-NNI Signaling 2.0 and E-NNI Routing 2.0 IAs now provide a complete inter-domain control plane solution for OTN."


In a separate item, OIF members voted to merge the Architecture and Signaling Working Group with the OAM&P Working Group and renamed it the Networking & Operations Working Group. Remi Theillaud of Marben Products has been elected as the group's new chair. http://www.oiforum.com