OIF Start QSFP-DD MSA Common Management Interface Specification Development

OIF says it starts to develop QSFP-DD MSA CMIS Common Management Interface Specification, Taking up the CMIS work strengthens and expands OIF’s tremendous contribution to the ecosystem.

Through the addition of the Common Management Interface Specification (CMIS) work launched by the Quad Small Form Factor Pluggable Double Density (QSFP-DD) Multi-Source Agreement, OIF is expanding its role in advancing industry interoperability (MSA).

CMIS can be utilized with pluggable or on-board modules such as QSFP-DD optics, OSFP optics, COBO optics, and QSFP optics, and future module advancements such as co-packaged optics with a two-wire interface for the host to module management communication. This specification is intended for system makers, system integrators, and optical and copper module suppliers that comply with CMIS.

“The QSFP-DD MSA Group established the CMIS project to meet an industry requirement for uniformity in managing pluggable modules. It has been widely and successfully adopted across the industry,” stated Mark Nowell, Cisco, QSFP-DD MSA Group founding member, and MSA co-chair. “OIF is very well qualified to continue and expand the growth of this work, and I eagerly await their progress.”

“Adopting CMIS from the QSFP-DD MSA to build on and expand the specification is a perfect extension of OIF’s efforts”, said Nathan Tracy, OIF’s VP of Marketing and TE Connectivity. “OIF is where the cloud does its job. Expanding CMIS is a huge step forward and an important link to the other work that OIF members are undertaking to enable an interoperable ecosystem. “

For co-packaging implementations, OIF announced a new Physical & Link Layer (PLL) Working Group Management track in August that includes the QSFP-DD MSA transitioning ownership and maintenance of CMIS to OIF. This track will see OIF take over ongoing CMIS modifications, upgrades, and extensions. Gary Nicholl (Cisco) and Ian Alderdice (Ciena) co-chair this track.

The current CMIS and previous versions (from QSFP-DD MSA) are now accessible to members on the OIF website. “Archived Non-OIF Generated Specifications” may be accessed on the main page, under the “Documents” pull-down menu.

For more information about OIF, visit OIF homepage.

For more information about QSFP-DD transceivers, check the OPTCORE portfolio.