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Technical White Paper For Circuit Emulation Service Over PSN
Technical White Paper For Circuit Emulation Service Over PSN
Table of Contents
1 Forewords ...................................................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Background of TDM Circuit Emulation ................................................................................. 1
1.2 Technical Standards ............................................................................................................. 2
2 Technology Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1
2.1 TDM PWE3 Technical Solution ............................................................................................ 1
2.2 Other Technical Solutions..................................................................................................... 5
3 Key Technologies.......................................................................................................................... 6
3.1 Data Jitter Buffer ................................................................................................................... 6
3.2 Synchronous Timing Recovery............................................................................................. 6
3.3 Link Fault Detection .............................................................................................................. 6
3.4 Packet Delay Analysis .......................................................................................................... 7
3.5 Channelized and Nonchannelized Technologies ................................................................. 7
4 Typical Applications ..................................................................................................................... 9
4.1 Leased Line Access and Convergence of MAN ................................................................... 9
4.2 Cell Site Backhaul over Ethernet ........................................................................................ 10
5 Closing Remarks ......................................................................................................................... 12
Appendix A References .............................................................................................................. 13
Appendix B Abbreviations.......................................................................................................... 13
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1 Forewords
With the evolution of technology and the convergency of networks, it will be the main stream to
transmit and switch data in the unit of packets in a next generation network (NGN). An IP
network or an MPLS network is a typical PSN. An NGN, however, cannot be built in one day.
The existing PDH and SDH networks for the public voice service on PSTNs will exist for a long
time. A large amount of TDM devices in use will keep working. To protect the customers
investment on their TDM devices, we find it necessary to allow a PSN to access TDM services
and to transmit transparently TDM data.
Standards development organizations have released their standards and solutions for
transparent transmission of TDM circuit switched (CS) data over a PSN. Now, the TDM circuit
emulation is the most mature solution.
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2 Technology Introduction
IETF PWE3 Working Group plays a leading role in formulating standards for transparent
transmission of TDM service. Such standards they formulate are all-inclusive and thus become
a mainstream in the field. Now, we will introduce the transparent transmission of TDM service
based on our analysis of the TDM PWE3 technical solution.
PW principle
The PW solution provides a technical framework. Under the framework, all services can be
transmitted transparently over a PSN through PW emulation. The TDM PW emulation is a
technology that uses PWs to emulate TDM data over a PSN.
2)
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To use a PW to emulate the transmission of TDM service over a PSN, the following elements
must be carried to the other end of the PW.
TDM data
Frame format of TDM data
TDM alarm and signaling at the side of AC
Synchronous timing information of TDM
3)
To implement TDM circuit emulation, TDM data is encapsulated with a special circuit emulation
packet header, which carries frame format, alarm, signaling and synchronous timing of the
TDM data. The encapsulated packets are called PW packets, which are carried by a protocol
such as IP, MPLS or L2TP to traverse the PSN. After arrival at the egress of the PW tunnel,
they are decapsulated to reconstruct data streams of TDM CS service.
Below introduced are encapsulation protocols of the TDM circuit emulation.
a)
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outer layer tunnel through negotiation and to assign different Session IDs to different PWs
in the tunnel. This mode is used more flexibly than the IP/UDP mode but not as scalable
as desired.
In the MPLS mode, a PW packet is encapsulated with an MPLS label and LSP is used as
the outer layer tunnel of a PW. The PW label is the inner most label of the MPLS label
stack. Since labels can be assigned and managed dynamically through the LDP, so this
mode is used more easily than the UDP/IP mode that requires manual binding. Further,
MPLS labels are available in multiple layers. They support nesting of outer layer tunnels of
PW and can apply to networks of a large scale. PWE3 TDM circuit emulation implemented
in the MPLS encapsulation mode is more scalable and supports services more flexibly.
The TDM circuit emulation service that Huawei now is developing supports the MPLS
application mode.
MPLS Encapsulation
Table 2-1 SAToP MPLS label encapsulation format
0000
RTV
L
P
Tunnel Label
Exp
TTL
PW Label
Exp
TTL
RESV
CC
FRG
Length
Sequence Number
PT
Time Stamp
SSRC Identifier
TDM DATA
b)
CESoPSN protocol
Compared with SAToP, CESoPSN transmits emulated structured (NxDS0) Time Division
Multiplexed (TDM) signals. That is, it can identify and process the frame structure and
transmit signaling in TDM frames. Structured E1, for example, comprises 32 timeslots.
Except slot 0, the other 31 timeslots each carries a line of 64Kbps voice service. Timeslot
0 transmits signaling and frame delimiters. The CESoPSN protocol can identify frame
structure of TDM service. It may not transmit idle timeslot channels, but only extracts
useful timeslots of CE devices from the E1 traffic stream and then encapsulates them into
PW packets for transmission. In addition, it can identify and transmit CAS and CCS in E1
traffic streams.
Likewise, the CESoPSN solution provides three encapsulation modes for outer layer
tunnels of PWs: IP/UDP, L2TPv3 and MPLS. Unlike SAToP, CESoPSN carries TDM traffic
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data in a frame structure inside PWs and adds an M field to the PW control word in a PW
packet to identify the signaling check at the side of some ACs. CESoPSN that uses the
MPLS encapsulation has more advantages than the other two modes. Huawei products
supporting transparent transmission of TDM services support the CESoPSN that uses the
MPLS encapsulation.
MPLS Encapsulation
Table 2-2 CESoPSN MPLS label encapsulation format
0000
RTV
Tunnel Label
Exp
TTL
PW Label
Exp
TTL
CC
FRG
Length
Sequence Number
PT
Time slot1
Time slot2
Time slot3
Time slot5
Time slot4
Time slotN (Frame 1#)
Time slot1
Time slot2
Time slot3
Time slot5
Time slot4
Time slotN (Frame 2#..)
CESoPSN provides a solution for identifying and transmitting CAS in addition to TDM
traffic data. The encapsulation format of CAS is shown in the following table:
Table 2-3 CESoPSN signaling encapsulation formatMPLS mode
0000
RTV
L
X
R
CC
FRG
Length
Sequence Number
PT
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and low-order paths. TDM traffic data such as VC11/VC12 and VC2 is transparently
transmitted through PWE3. These solutions are not detailed here.
Adaptation Function
Ethertype
Emulated Circuit Identifier (ECID)
CESoETH Control Word
RTP (optional)
TDM Payload
In MEF8.0, the CESoETH control word is completely compatible with the PW control word
defined by IETF. The RTP control word also complies with the IETF RFC 3550. It is designed
on the framework of transparent transmission of TDM service along a PWE3 tunnel, except
that the bearer layer is bare Ethernet.
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3 Key Technologies
3.1 Data Jitter Buffer
After PW packets traverse a PSN and arrive at the egress PE, they may align out of order or
arrive at different intervals. For the reconstruction of TDM data streams at the egress PE, jitter
buffer is needed to smoothen the intervals of PW packets and to re-order the mis-ordered
packets. It is necessary to come to a compromise between the jitter buffer size and the
performance. The jitter buffer of a large size can absorb great jitters of packet transmission in
the network but results in a large delay in reconstructing the TDM data streams. It will be a
good approach that the size of this buffer can be locally configurable to allow accommodation
to the PSN-specific packet delay variation. The TDM circuit emulation products now developed
by Huawei allow users to configure different sizes for jitter buffer with a command.
Adaptive packet recovery algorithm. At the egress of PW packets, the synchronous timing
information is extracted through the time window smoothing and adaptation algorithm so
that the reconstructed TDM data streams can be roughly synchronous with those at the
transmitting end. But this algorithm has a great limitation. In particular, it cannot restore the
synchronous timing information when the network loses many packets or has a sharp
change of transmission delay.
2)
3)
TDM circuit emulation transmits service data only, while the synchronous timing
information is transmitted by a separate synchronous timing system. For example, use the
GPS system or synchronous clock network to transmit the clock.
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fault is detected. Now, there are technical drafts that define the link fault detection at the AC
side and notification to the peer. As to link fault detection for PW tunnels, many technologies
are available, for example, MPLS-OAM and Ethernet OAM.
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segment TDM bit streams according to integer multiples of E1 frame length and then
encapsulate them into PW packets. In addition, the RFC 4553 requires unstructured T1 circuit
emulation to support service processing of 192 bytes as a basic payload unit. It requires
unstructured E3/T3 circuit emulation to support service processing of 1024 bytes as a basic
payload unit.
The counterpart is channelized service, which is emulation of structured TDM PW. It must
identify frame format in TDM traffic. TDM bit streams must be segmented at frame delimiters.
For example, E1 frames must be segmented at the start of timeslot 0. Since the segmentation
begins from the frame delimiter, 32 timeslots in an E1 frame can all be identified, making the
structured processing very easy. T1 and E3/T3 apply the same structured processing mode as
E1.
The unstructured mode does not identify frame format in TDM data streams. It is implemented
more simply and generally, compared with the structured mode. The emulation solution for
unstructured TDM PW applies easily to devices in a traditional data network that take E1/T1 as
a synchronous serial interface, that is, ignore the frame format and use net channel
transmission.
Implementation of the structured (channelized) mode is complex. It must identify frame
delimiters in TDM data streams. In addition, it must identify and process timeslots in a frame
and the signaling carried by specific timeslots. If a TDM interface works in the frame mode,
emulation of structured TDM PW helps improve the bandwidth utilization in case of
communications through some timeslots of E1/T1. Emulation of structured TDM PW can
discriminate the timeslots in use from idle timeslots in an E1 circuit. On this basis, it can
encapsulate the timeslots in use in PW packets for transmission and discards the idle timeslots.
This saves the network transmission bandwidth. In addition, the structured mode allows
timeslots of different E1/T1 interfaces to be interleaved for higher bandwidth utilization.
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4 Typical Applications
4.1 Leased Line Access and Convergence of MAN
As shown in Figure 4-1, the TDM circuit emulation technology can be used for leased line
access and convergence of MAN. For example, each branch in the LAN campus network
accesses the campus network through a PBX switch. The PBX switches provide E1 voice
access to implement communications inside the campus. They can access the PSTN through
the campus network. Since the TDM circuit emulation service emulates the physical TDM
transmission, it does not perceive the actual service transmitted inside E1. DDN, FR and ATM
services carried on E1 can all be transmitted transparently through TDM circuit emulation.
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The traditional Cell Site backhaul is transmitted over a PDH/SDH network. Some wireless
carriers do not have fixed network infrastructure, so the cell site backhaul requires leasing an
expensive E1 trunk transmission line on a fixed network. The advent of transparent
transmission of TDM service presents a new choice to wireless carriers. The metro Ethernet
technology and transparent transmission of TDM service are combined to transmit services
between cell sites and the cell site controller (CSC) in the same city. This method is simple and
cost-effective. At present, the transparent transmission of TDM service does not function well
in the perspective of synchronous clock transmission. In the scenarios where adaptive packet
recovery algorithm is used to transmit clock synchronization information, it has high
requirements for QoS such as transmission delay and jitter. Some equipment vendors
recommend that carriers transmit synchronous timing information by an external synchronous
timing system (for example, GPS clock system) outside the TDM service transmission system
to ensure clock synchronization of the wireless access network.
For the fractional E1 interface between a GSM cell site and the CSC, data can be transmitted
by structured TDM circuit emulation.
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5 Closing Remarks
TDM Circuit Emulation Service (CES) appears as a competitive technology to VoIP to transmit
voice over IP networks. With the emerging metro Ethernet, it will develop to a major technology
for transparent transmission of PDH/SDH services over a PSN. IP based NGN is a trend that
will lead to elimination of the PDH or SDH technology. The abundant TDM devices running on
the existing networks will continue to be used for a long time. As an equipment vendor
providing overall solutions for the NGN, Huawei launches data communication products that
provide the TDM circuit emulation function. The products comply with the technical
specifications for TDM circuit emulation defined by IETF PWE3 Working Group. They adopt
the MPLS encapsulation mode, which is characterized by good network interworking and
flexibly function scalability. In addition, Huawei presents featured solutions for link fault
detection and protection strategy, and the combination of physical synchronous clock and
packet recovered clock. These protect users investment on the traditional TDM devices. They
are an innovation and experiment that help users smoothly evolve to the NGN.
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Appendix A
References
1)
2)
3)
4)
RFC 4553, Structure-Agnostic Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) over Packet (SAToP),
IETF
5)
6)
7)
MFA 8.0.0, Emulation of TDM Circuits over MPLS Using Raw Encapsulation
Implementation Agreement, MFA
Appendix B
Abbreviations
Abbreviation
Full name
CES
PWE3
PSN
TDM
PDH
SDH
SONET
IETF
PSTN
CE
Customer Edge
PE
Provider Edge
AC
Attachment Circuit
SAToP
CESoPSN
CAS
CCS
MEF
MFA
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Full name
International Telecommunication Union - Telecommunication
Standardization Sector
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