Chapter 17.

SONET/SDH

17.1 Architecture
17.2 SONET Layers
17.3 SONET Frames
17.4 STS Multiplexing
17.5 SONET Networks
17.6 Virtual Tributaries

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 SONET/SDH
• Digital transmission standards for fiber-optic cable
• Independently developed in USA & Europe
– SONET(Synchronous Optical Network) by ANSI
– SDH(Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) by ITU-T
• Synchronous network using synchronous TDM multiplexing
• All clocks in the system are locked to a master clock
• It contains the standards for fiber-optic equipments
• Very flexible to carry other transmission systems (DS-0, DS-1, etc)

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 SONET/SDH Architecture
• Architecture of a SONET system: signals, devices, and connections
• Signals: SONET(SDH) defines a hierarchy of electrical signaling levels
called STSs(Synchronous Transport Signals, (STMs)). Corresponding
optical signals are called OCs(Optical Carriers)

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 SONET/SDH Architecture
• SONET devices: STS multiplexer/demultiplexer, regenerator,
add/drop multiplexer, terminals

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 SONET/SDH Architecture
• Connections: SONET devices are connected using sections, lines, and
paths
• Section: optical link connecting two neighbor devices: mux to mux,
mux to regenerator, or regenerator to regenerator
• Lines: portion of network between two multiplexers
• Paths: end-to-end portion of the network between two STS
multiplexers

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 SONET Layers
• SONET defines four layers: path, line, section, and photonic
• Path layer is responsible for the movement of a signal from its optical source
to its optical destination
• Line layers is for the movement of a signal across a physical line
• Section layer is for the movement of a signal across a physical section,
handling framing, scrambling, and error control
• Photonic layer corresponds to the physical layer of OSI model

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Device-Layer Relationship in SONET

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 SONET Frames
• Each synchronous transfer signal STS-n is composed of 8000 frames. Each
frame is a two-dimensional matrix of bytes with 9 rows by 90 × n columns.

• A SONET STS-n signal is transmitted at 8000 frames per second

• Each byte in a SONET frame can carry a digitized voice channel

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 SONET Frames
• In SONET, the data rate of an STS-n signal is n times the data rate of an STS-1
signal
• In SONET, the duration of any frame is 125 μs

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 SONET Frames: STS-1

• Section overhead () is recalculated

for each SONET device

• Line overhead ()

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 SONET Frames: SPE

• SPE(Synchronous Payload Envelope) contains the user data and the

overhead related to the user data (path overhead)
• Path overhead is only calculated for end-to-end at STS multiplexers

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Overhead Summary

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 SPE Encapsulation

• Offsetting of SPE related to frame

boundary

• Use of H1 and H2
pointers to show
the start of an SPE
in a frame

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 STS Multiplexing
• STS multiplexing/demultiplexing and byte interleaving

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 An STS-3 Frame
• Byte interleaving preserves the corresponding section and line overhead

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 Concatenated Signal
• The suffix c (for concatenated) means that the STS-n is not considered
as n STS-1 signals. So, it cannot be demultiplexed into n STS-1 signals
• An STS-3c signal can carry 44 ATM cells as its SPE
• SPE of an STS-3c can carry 9 x 260 = 2340 which can
accommodate approximately 44 ATM cells, each of 53 bytes

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 Add/Drop Multiplexer
• Only remove the corresponding bytes and replace them with the new
bytes including the bytes in the section and line overhead

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 SONET Network

• Point-to-point network

• Multipoint network

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 Automatic Protection Switching
• To create protection against failure in linear networks

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 Ring Network: UPSR
• Unidirectional Path Switching Ring (UPSR)

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 Ring Network: BLSR
• Bidirectional Line Switching Ring (BLSR)

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 Ring Network: Combination
• Combination of UPSR and BLSR

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 Mesh Network
• Ring network has the lack of scalability
• Mesh network has better performance

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 Virtual Tributaries
• Partial payload that is inserted into an STS-1 frame
• Each component of subdivided SPE
• Provides backward compatibility with the current hierarchy
• Four types of VTs
– VT1.5 : For DS-1(T-1: 1.544Mbps)
– VT2: For European CEPT-1(E-1: 2.048Mbps)

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 VT Types

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