SONET - SDH

Dr. K. Rasadurai

Associate Professor
Dept of ECE/KEC

by Dr. Rasadurai 1
 Multiplexing
• Two stations are separated by a distance and are connected through a
transmission media
• The distance could be a few meters or thousands of Kilometers
• Multiplexing is nothing but sharing the common transmission media for
providing connection between number of pairs of parties separated by
the distance
• The number of connecting links through the common media are
termed
as channels

• Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM)

– Multiplexing done in frequency domain
– The frequency band is divided into segments and each is assigned to each
source

• Time Division Multiplexing (TDM)

– Multiplexing done in time domain
– The frame period is divided into slots and each is assigned to each source
by Dr. Rasadurai 2
 Time Division Multiplexing
1 1
2 Common transmission medium 2
3
shared in time 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
8 8
Frame

• Basic frame is formed to repeatedly send samples of each channel

• The frame period is divided into number of slots to accommodate the bits
of each channels

• For a PCM system the frame rate is 8 KHz and the frame period is
125usec

• Circuit switched telephone networks predominantly use Time Division

multiplexing

by Dr. Rasadurai 3
 Time Division Multiplexed stream

Composition of slots
• Synchronisation
• carries an unique pattern to identify the start of frame
• Signaling
• carries signaling for the payload slots
• Alarms
• carries link status bits
• Maintenance
• carries maintenance control information
• Payload
• carries the payload - voice or data

by Dr. Rasadurai 4
 Synchronisation

• Three levels of Synchronisation

• Bit level - use of PLL to extract a clock from incoming

stream

• Frame level - frame synch pattern identifies start of frame

• Multi-frame level - Multi frame synch pattern identifies the

Multi-frame
• Three phases of Synchronisation

• Hunting, Verifying, Locking

by Dr. Rasadurai 5
 Synchronisation

Input Ready Output Ready

flag flag

Data in First In First Out ( FIFO ) Buffer Data out

Shift in Clock - Shift out Clock -

Extracted Station reference clock
clock

Slippage

• Buffer becomes empty if shift out clock is faster than shift in clock
• Buffer becomes full if shift out clock is slower than shift out clock

by Dr. Rasadurai 6
 Synchronisation
Frame alignment

Incoming

Frames

Local Frame Reference

Aligned
with
local
reference

by Dr. Rasadurai 7
 Network Synchronisation

M
S
S Master S
M Clock

S
S Master
Clock

M Plesiochronous - near synchronous

Master
Clock S

by Dr. Rasadurai 8
 PCM frames

• North American DS1

- 24 channel
- ( 8 x 24 ) + 1 = 193 bits form a frame
- Gross bit rate 1.544Mbps (193 x 8000 )

• European E1 (CEPT)

- 30 voice/data channels
- 1 Sync and 1 Signaling channel
- ( 8 x 32) = 256 bits form a frame
- 16 frames form a super frame
- Gross bit rate ( 8 x 32 ) x 8000 = 2.048 Mbps

by Dr. Rasadurai 9
 E1 frame structure
500 Hz
2 msec
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15
Multi Frame

8 KHz
125 usec
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31
Frame
Speech Speech

Frame alignment pattern Frame 0

1011011 Multi Frame alignment pattern 3.9 usec
in even frames 0000 1Y11 in (Y- Multi frame alarm) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Frame alarm in odd Frames 1 to 15 Channel
frames 11AX XXXX Signalling bits for
Ch 1-15 and Ch 16-30
abcd abcd
by Dr. Rasadurai 10
 T1 framing
Two types of framing
• 12 frame - Super frame
• 24 frame - Extended Super frame

Super Frame
• F bit (1st bit in every frame) carry Sync pattern
• odd frames - 101010, even frames - 001110
• Signaling bits (A and B bits)
• every 6th and 12th frames, the LSB bits of every channel is
robbed to carry the A and B signaling bits for that channel

Extended Super Frame

• F bit• (1st
Syncbitframing
in every frame) carry
pattern - on 4,8,12,16,20 and 24th frames
• Data link bits (12 bits) - on 1,3,5,7,9,11,13,15,17,19,21 and 23 frames
• CRC bits (6 bits) - on 2,6,10,14,18 and 22 frames
• Signaling bits (A,B,C and D bits)
• every 6, 12, 18 and 24th frames, the LSB bits of every channel is
robbed to carry the A,B,C and D signaling bits for that channel
by Dr. Rasadurai 11
 T1 frame structure
193 bits
Frame rate 8 KHz
Frame period 125 usec

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24
Frame
Framing Channel
Bit Bits
(1 bit) (8 bits)

193 x 8 KHz = 1544 KHz 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

12 Frame - Super Frame

24 Frame - Extended Super Frame

1 2 3 4 5 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
6 7 8

by Dr. Rasadurai 12
 Higher Order Multiplexing
Fourth Order
Third Order Multiplexer
Multiplexer 1
Second Order 2
Primary 3
Multiplexer 1
Multiplexer 4 E4
1 2
1 2 3 139264 Kbps
E3
2 3 4 34368 Kbps
E0 3 4
64 Kbps E2
E1 8448 Kbps
30 2048 Kbps

by Dr. Rasadurai 13
 Second Order Multiplexer

• Frame structure

- Gross Bit rate 8448 Kbps

- Number of tributaries multiplexed 4
- Tributary bit rate 2048
- Number of bits per frame without justification Kbps
- Number of justification bits per frame 844
- Average number of bits per frame 4
- Number of bits arriving during frame 205
- Extra capacity of bits per tributary per frame 204.6
0.39 bits
Set 1 Set 2 Set 4
Sy A Sp Tr1 - 200 bits JC Tr2 - Set 3
208 JC Tr3 - 208 JC JB Tr4 - 204

Sy - Synchronising pattern - 1111010000

A - Alarm
Sp - Spare
JC - Justification Control bit 4+4+4= 12 bits, 3 bits per tributary
JB - Justification Bit (4 bits per frame)

by Dr. Rasadurai 14
 Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy - PDH
Three regional digital hierarchies
Europe, India USA Japan
Mbps Mbps Mbps
E0 – 0.064 DS0 – 0.064 J0 – 0.064

E1 – 2.048 DS1 – 1.544 J1 – 1.544

E2 – 8.448 DS2 – 6.312 J2 – 6.312

E3 – 34.368 DS3 – 44.736 J3 – 32.064

E4 – 139.264 DS4 – 274.176 J4 – 397.2

by Dr. Rasadurai 15
 Evolution of Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH)
• High transmission rates
• It meets the ever growing demand for higher bandwidth
• Most suitable technology for backbone networks
• Simplified add & drop functions
• Compared to PDH hierarchy it is very simple to add or drop payloads
• High availability and capacity matching
• Network management functions are built to monitor and control the network
from a central location.
• Leased lines can be switched in a matter of minutes
• Reliability
• Failure of a link does not lead to network failure
• Effective repair mechanisms
• Future-proof platform for new services
• Handle variety of services from POTS, ISDN, ATM and Video on demand
• Interconnections
• Easier to provide connectivity to SONET, and the three regional PDH
hierarchies

by Dr. Rasadurai 16
 Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH)

• SDH is a wide band Transmission Carrier System.

• Uses optical fiber as the communication medium
• Transmission rate ranges from 155 Mbps to 9.9 Gbps
• SDH is the ITU-T standard for the European networks and
SONET
(Synchronous Optical Network) is the American equivalent.
• SONET/SDH networks compared to PDH networks are
- reliable
- fully manageable with built in OAM functions
- adaptable to growth
- flexible to carry mixed payloads
• Provides containers to carry all the existing payloads of
the PDH networks.

by Dr. Rasadurai 17
 140 Mbps Digital Network
TM
2 Mbps

DXC

ATM Double
Switch ADM ADM
Ring fiber
PDH
Muxs

LAN
DXC

ADM – Add & Drop Multiplexer

DXC – Digital Cross connect STM1

TM – Terminal Multiplexer
STM4 To SONET
STM1 Gateway
by Dr. Rasadurai 18
 SDH / SONET Levels
No. of
SDH SONET Bit rate 64 kbps
channels

STS-1 51.84Mbps 672

STM-1 STS-3 155.52Mbps 2,016

STM-4 STS-12 622.08Mbps 8,064

STM-16 STS-48 2.488Gbps 32,256

STM-64 STS-192 9.953Gbps 129,024

STM - Synchronous Transport Module - European, Indian

STS - Synchronous Transport Signal - American
by Dr. Rasadurai 19
 x1 xN
C-4 VC-4 AU-4 AUG STM-N
139264 kbps
x3

C-3 VC-3 TU-3 x1 TUG-3

C -
44736 kbps
34368 kbps x7
Containers
VC - Virtual
x1
containers
C-2 VC-2 TU-2 TUG-2 TU - Tributary Units
6312 kbps
x3
TUG - Tributary Unit Group
C-12 VC-12 TU -12
AU - Administrative Unit
2048 kbps

AUG - Administrative Unit

Group
C-11 VC-11 STM - Synchrounous Transport Module
1544 kbps

Multiplexing PDH signals into STM streams

by Dr. Rasadurai 20
 SDH frame format
• STM-1 is a sequence of 270 x 9 = 2430 bytes (19,440 bits),
which includes various overhead bytes and an envelope
capacity for transporting payloads
• It has 270 column by 9 row structure. The frame duration is
125 us

270 columns

Section Payload
9 rows Overhead bytes
bytes Path
Overhead
bytes

Frame length - 125 usec

SDH STM - 1 frame structure

Gross bit rate = 8000 frames/sec x 19,440 bits per frame
= 155.52 Mbps

by Dr. Rasadurai 21
 SONET frame format
• STS-1 is a sequence of 810 bytes (6480 bits),
which includes various overhead bytes and an envelope
capacity for transporting payloads
• It has 90 column by 9 row structure. The frame duration
is 125 us
• Transport overhead occupies the first 3 column of 27
bytes
• The remaining 87 columns of 783 bytes are allocated to
synchronous payload (SPE) signal.
• This provides a channel capacity of 50.11 Mbps in the
STS-1 for carrying tributary payloads across the
synchronous payload
90 columns

9 rows

Transport
STS -1 Envelope Capacity
Overhead
by Dr. Rasadurai 22
SONET STS - 1 frame structure
 Mapping C4 to STM-1

AU4 + RSOH + MSOH = STM-1 STM-1

VC4 + AU pointer = AU4

AU4

C4 + POH = VC-4 VC4

C4 Container
VC4 Virtual Container C4
POH Path Overhead bytes
AU4 Administrative Unit
RSOH Regenerator Section Over head bytes
MSOH Multiplexer Section Over head bytes
by Dr. Rasadurai 23
 SDH End to End connection
H P
PD SDH DH

PTE STM-1 MSTE STM-N STM-N STM-N MSTE STM-1 PTE

Regenerator
Section

Multiplex section

Path

PTE - Path Terminating Equipment

MSTE - Multiplex Section Terminating Equipment

by Dr. Rasadurai 24
 Salient features of SDH

• Variety of containers for different payloads

• Pointers to point the start of payload envelope
• Powerful operations and maintenance facilities
• Dedicated data channels
• Engineering order wire channels
• Automatic Protection switching
• Frequency justification to match payload clocks

by Dr. Rasadurai 25
 STM-1 Section Overhead bytes
Over
A1 A1 A1 A2 A2 A2 J0 X X
head Function
bytes
B1 E1 F1 X X
A1, A2 Frame alignment

D1 D2 D3 B1, B2 Quality monitoring,

parity bytes
AU Pointer D1.. D3 Data channels for
network management
D4.. D12 Data channels for
B2 B2 B2 K1 K2
network management
E1, E2 For Voice channels
D4 D5 D6
F1 Maintenance
D7 D8 D9 J0 (C1) Trace identifier
K1, K2 Automatic protection
D10 D11 D12 switching
S1 Clock quality indicator
S1 M1 E2
M1 Transmission error ack

by Dr. Rasadurai 26
STM-1 Path Overhead bytes
Over
head Function
bytes
J1 Path indicator
B3 Quality monitoring
C2 Container format
G1 Transmission error ack
F2 Maintenance
H4 Super frame indicator
F3 Maintenance
K3 Automatic protection switching
N1 Tandem connection monitoring

by Dr. Rasadurai 27
 AU Pointer

Pay load in Virtual container VC4

Payload
frame #
n

AU Pointer

Pay load in Virtual container VC4 Payload

frame #
n+1

AU Pointer locates the start of the Virtual container

by Dr. Rasadurai 28
 AU Pointer

Pay load in Virtual container VC4

Payload
frame #
n

AU Pointer

Pay load in Virtual container VC4

3 dummy Payload
frame #
bytes n+1

Positive Justification
• Payload is slower than the STM transmission speed.
• Allocated bandwidth is reduced by adding dummy bytes

by Dr. Rasadurai 29
 AU Pointer

Pay load in Virtual container VC4

Payload
frame #
n

AU Pointer

Pay load in Virtual container VC4

3 extra Payload
frame #
bytes n+1

Negative Justification
• Payload is faster than the STM transmission speed.
• Extra bandwidth is created in the Pointer bytes

by Dr. Rasadurai 30
 Fibre-Optics Communication links
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Low attenuation 0.2db/km
• Repeaters separation around 100 Km
• Electromagnetic immunity
• Security
• Small size and light weight
• Expansion capabilities requires change in electronics only in most cases
• Wavelength bands 800nm, 1300nm and 1600nm

Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)

• Establishes independent optical channels on a single fiber
• Coupling (multiplexing) and separation (demultiplexing) of
multiple optical sources into a single fiber by Prismatic
refraction
• Enormous gain in bandwidth

by Dr. Rasadurai 31
 BSNL Network

Coaxial Microwave Optical fiber

Route 6024 1,15,036 3,52,411

Kilometers (1%) (24%) (74%)

Highest Bandwidth optical link

• Trans Pacific link by Mitsubishi Electric

• 9180 Km, single fiber
• 1.7 Tera bits / sec
• 85 numbers of 20 Giga bps streams
• Multiplexed using Dense Wave Division Multiplexing

by Dr. Rasadurai 32
 References

1. Understanding SONET/SDH Standards and

Applications – Ming-Chwan Chow, Andan Publisher
New Jersey

2. Digital Telephony (3rd Edition) – John C Bellamy,

John Wiley & Sons, Inc

by Dr. Rasadurai 33
T H A N K YOU

RASADURAI. K