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Technical White Paper for Circuit

Emulation Service over PSN

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

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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Technical White Paper for Circuit Emulation Service over PSN

Technical White Paper for


Circuit Emulation Service over PSN
Abstract: Circuit Emulation Service over PSN technology carries the conventional TDM data over
a Pocket Switched Network (PSN). Under PWE3, this technology transmits PDH and
SDH data streams from edge to edge over a PSN through circuit emulation. This White
Paper describes the background, implementation and scenarios of the technology.
Key words: PSN, TDM, PWE3, circuit emulation, transparent transmission of service

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.

1.1 Background of TDM Circuit Emulation


The TDM circuit emulation technology was originally developed for providing competitive
solution of voice transmission over PSNs. Competitive with the VoIP technology, it provides a
simpler handling process than the VoIP protocol and transmits voice service over an IP
network. Early devices providing transparent transmission of TDM service can transparently
transmit E1 and DS1/DS0 services only. PSN turns to a dominant solution for the NGN. In
particular, the metro Ethernet technology is emerging. As a result, TDM circuit emulation
develops to a major technology in the solutions for transmitting TDM service over a PSN. Now,
protocol drafts or technical standards have been formulated on structure-aware (or structured)
and structure-agnostic (or unstructured) transparent transmission of TDM E1, T1, E3 and T3
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services, structure-aware transparent transmission of SDH service, and transmission of PDH


and SDH signaling.

1.2 Technical Standards


There are four industry bodies working on standard for TDM circuit emulation: IETF, ITU-T,
MEF and MFA. They cooperate with each other, and the standards on transparent
transmission of TDM service they develop are similar except the minor differences in technical
details, for example, data encapsulation format. Among these organizations, IETF PWE3
Working Group plays a leading role in formulating the standards on transparent transmission of
TDM service. Its standards not only deal with the data plane of the technology, but also the
control and management planes. The standards of other organizations focus on the data
encapsulation method.
MEF standards describe how to encapsulate the raw TDM traffic directly into Ethernet frames.
MFA standards describe how to carry TDM traffic over an MPLS network. ITU-T
recommendations also deal with the data plane. They set down how to carry TDM data over
MPLS and how to transport TDM data using IP. ITU-T also defines a clock transmission
solution, which is important for TDM service.

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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.

2.1 TDM PWE3 Technical Solution


1)

PW principle

PW is a mechanism that carries the essential elements of an emulated service from a PE to


another one or more PEs over a Packet Switched Network (PSN). It emulates a variety of
services (ATM, FR, HDLC, PPP, TDM, and Ethernet) through a tunnel (IP, L2TP or MPLS) over
a PSN. PSN can transmit the data payload of diversified services. Such a tunnel is called PWs.
The internal data service carried by a PW is invisible to the core network. In other words, the
core network is transparent to the CE data streams.

Figure 2-1 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)

Elements of TDM emulation service

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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)

How to implement the TDM emulation service

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)

SAToP (RFC 4553)


RFC 4553 describes a method for encapsulating Time Division Multiplexing (TDM)
bit-streams (T1, E1, T3, E3). It addresses only structure-agnostic transport, i.e., unframed
E1, T1, E3 and T3. It segments all TDM services as bit streams and then encapsulates
them for transmission over a PW tunnel. This protocol can transparently transmit TDM
traffic data and synchronous timing information, which are two of the elements of TDM
emulation service as described earlier. SAToP completely disregards any structure and
PEs have no need to interpret the TDM data or to participate in the TDM signaling. The
protocol is a simple way for transparent transmission of PDH bit-streams. The
implementation of the protocol is so easy that the IETF released it as the earliest formal
RFC.
RFC 4553 defines three encapsulation modes for outer layer tunnel of PWs: IP/UDP,
L2TPv3 and MPLS.
In the IP/UDP mode, a PW packet is encapsulated with an IP/UDP header and each outer
layer tunnel of PW is identified by a UDP port number. This encapsulation mode applies to
a pure IP network. At both ends of a PW tunnel, an egress UTP port number and an
ingress UTP port number must be manually bound to the same PW. This mode is applied
in a limited scope and cannot be applied to networks on a large scale.
In the L2TPv3 mode, a PW packet is encapsulated with an L2TPv3 header and each outer
layer tunnel of PW is identified by a Session ID. The L2TPv3 protocol is used to set up an

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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

RTP Sequence Number

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

RTP Sequence Number


Time Stamp
SSRC Identifier

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

MPLS Label Stack

0000
RTV

L
X

R
CC

FRG

Length

Sequence Number

PT

RTP Sequence Number


Time Stamp
SSRC Identifier

Encoded CE application state entry for the DS0 channel #1

| Encoded CE application state entry for the DS0 channel #N


In addition to a circuit emulation solution for E1, T1, E3 and T3 of PDH series, the IETF PWE3
Working Group defines a structure-aware circuit emulation solution for SONET/SDH high-order

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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.

2.2 Other Technical Solutions


In addition to IETF PWE3 Working Group, MEF, MFA and ITU-T define protocols and
standards for circuit emulation. For example, MEF8.0 standards define TDM circuit emulation
packets encapsulated by bare Ethernet. Emulated TDM CS data is distinguished based on the
emulated circuit identifier (ECID).
Destination Address
Source Address

Ethernet Services Layer

VLAN tags (optional)

Adaptation Function

Ethertype
Emulated Circuit Identifier (ECID)
CESoETH Control Word
RTP (optional)

TDM Payload

CES Application Data

Figure 2-2 Mapping between functional layers and packet encapsulation

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.

3.2 Synchronous Timing Recovery


A circuit switched TDM network (for example, SDH network) is naturally capable of transmitting
synchronous timing information of the network. But a majority of PSNs, in particular, the
present Ethernet networks, do not provide this function. Such networks can use the following
solutions.
1)

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)

Clock transmission over synchronous Ethernet. Based on the idea of network-wide


synchronous timing transmission of the SDH system, reconstruct the present Ethernet
network of asynchronous clock system.

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.

3.3 Link Fault Detection


Link fault detection comprises a series of actions: link fault detection for the AC side, link fault
detection for the PW tunnel, and notification to the peer and switching of the faulty link after a
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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.

3.4 Packet Delay Analysis


For real time services such as voice transmission, data delay and jitter greatly affect the quality
of service and thus should be considered. When TDM services are transparently transmitted
by TDM PW emulation, data delay is made up of packetization latency, service processing
delay and network transmission delay.
Packetization latency is the time spent in encapsulating TDM traffic streams into PW packets.
This latency is specific to the TDM circuit emulation technology. For example, the rate of E1 is
2.048 Mbps, each frame includes 32 timeslots totaling to 256 bits, 8000 frames are transmitted
per second, and the transmission of each frame takes 0.125ms. In the structured
encapsulation mode, every four frames are encapsulated into one PW packet, and the
packetization latency for encapsulating a PW packet is 0.5ms (4 X 0.125ms). The
encapsulation time increases in a linear manner with the number of data frames encapsulated
in a PW packet. More frames encapsulated in a PW packet lead to a larger packetization
latency.
Service processing delay is the time spent in packet processing, including packet validity check,
packet filtering, checksum calculation, packet encapsulation, and packet receiving and sending.
This delay depends on the service processing capability of devices, and is invariable for a
certain device.
Network transmission delay is the time that a PW packet spends in traveling from the ingress
PE to the egress PE through a PSN. This delay varies greatly with the topology and traffic of
the network. It is a main contributor to service jitter. At present, jitter can be absorbed by a jitter
buffer technology, but delay cannot be absorbed. The delay of TDM services is a combination
of the above factors.

3.5 Channelized and Nonchannelized Technologies


In TDM PW emulation, nonchannelized service transmission is unstructured transmission,
which does not identify data format in TDM traffic but only processes TDM data as serial bit
streams. RFC 4553 (SAToP) structure-agnostic encapsulation protocol requires the
unstructured circuit emulation of E1 to support service processing of 256 bytes as a basic
payload unit. In other words, although it does not identify the E1 frame structure, it must
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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

Figure 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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4.2 Cell Site Backhaul over Ethernet

Figure 4-2 Cell Site backhaul over Ethernet

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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Figure 4-3 An example of channelized E1

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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)

RFC 3916, Requirements for Pseudo-Wire Emulation Edge-to-Edge (PWE3),IETF

2)

RFC 3985, Pseudo Wire Emulation Edge-to-Edge (PWE3) Architecture,IETF

3)

RFC 4197, Requirements for Edge-to-Edge Emulation of Time Division Multiplexed(TDM)


Circuits over Packet Switching Networks,IETF

4)

RFC 4553, Structure-Agnostic Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) over Packet (SAToP),
IETF

5)

Internet Draft, draft-ietf-pwe3-cesopsn-07, IETF

6)

MEF8.0 , Metro Ethernet Forum

7)

MFA 8.0.0, Emulation of TDM Circuits over MPLS Using Raw Encapsulation
Implementation Agreement, MFA

Appendix B

Abbreviations

Abbreviation

Full name

CES

Circuit Emulation Service

PWE3

Pseudo Wire Emulation Edge-to-Edge

PSN

Packet Switched Networks

TDM

Time Division Multiplex

PDH

Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy

SDH

Synchronous Digital Hierarchy

SONET

Synchronous Optical NETwork

IETF

Internet Engineering Task Force

PSTN

Public Switched Telephone Network

CE

Customer Edge

PE

Provider Edge

AC

Attachment Circuit

SAToP

Structure-Agnostic TDM over Packet

CESoPSN

Circuit Emulation Services over Packet Switch Network

CAS

Channel Associated Signaling

CCS

Common Channel Signaling

MEF

Metro Ethernet Forum


MPLS Forum

MFA

Frame Relay Forum


The ATM Forum

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Abbreviation
ITU-T

Full name
International Telecommunication Union - Telecommunication
Standardization Sector

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