The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) is a prominent non-profit consortium that was founded in 1998. It promotes the development and deployment of interoperable computer networking products and services through implementation agreements (IAs) for optical networking products and component technologies including SerDes devices.
OIF also creates benchmarks, performs worldwide interoperability testing, builds market awareness and promotes education for optical technologies. The Network Processing Forum merged into OIF in June 2006.
The OIF has around a hundred member companies and has four face-to-face meetings per year. It is managed by Association Management Solutions and operates using parliamentary debate rules and transparent decision making. The technical content is member-driven. The OIF operates under a RAND licensing framework. It maintains liaison relationships with many other standards-developing organizations including the ITU, IEEE 802.3, the ONF, the InfiniBand Trade Association, the TIA and the IETF.