15 August 2014

OIF adds long-reach to CEI-56G roadmap

Members of the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) have provided feedback to start another Common Electrical Interface (CEI) 56G project to complement the existing 400G roadmap that was started last year. The project defines 56Gb/s-generation electrical interfaces for full-sized backplane channels for long reach of up to 1m with two connectors.

“Given the lead times, development of standards for the next-generation backplane electrical links needs to start now,” says David Stauffer of Kandou Bus and the OIF Physical and Link Layer working group chair and board member. “Feedback from our membership indicates that the industry needs the OIF to start the long-reach project now so that a complete roadmap can be supported.”

The CEI-56G-LR specification will increase the data rate by a factor of two over the data rate of CEI-28G-LR. It will provide for one or more electrical specifications for lane operation at data rates of 40 to 56Gb/s. The reach range will be 0 to 1000mm using advanced printed circuit board materials plus two connectors.

The OIF is currently working on a full roadmap for 400G applications. The roadmap is addressing interfaces that are medium reach (MR) for chip-to-chip and mid-range backplane, very short reach (VSR) for chip-to-module, extra short reach (XSR) for chip to nearby optics engine, and ultra short reach (USR) for 2.5D/3D applications. LR is needed to complete this roadmap for chip-to-chip backplane applications with approximately 35dBs of loss at 14GHz.

Tags: OIF

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