SDH / SONET

Engr. Zain Ul Abiden Akhtar

Assistant Professor - UCET
Telecommunication Systems
&
Applications
SDH/SONET
SDH/SONET, created in the mid-1980s, is
the second generation of digital hierarchy.
Whereas PDH involves a lot of overhead
because it includes three standards
throughout the world, SDH/SONET uses
one common standard that applies to
networks worldwide.
SDH
International Telecommunication Union
(ITU) documented in standard G.707 and its
extension G.708
Uses single master clock for
synchronization.
Basic transmission rate is 155.52Mbps
SDH/SONET
SONET is the American National Standards
Institute (ANSI) standard, which is part of
SDH, and it is used in North America.
SDH/SONET was created to be an industry
standard for high-speed transmission over
optical fiber.
It was actually part of a much bigger
standard in the works at that time
Broadband ISDN.
Broadband ISDN
Two technologies were required in order to
support such applications: a transport
infrastructure (SDH/SONET) that had the
significant bandwidth needed to support the
applications and a switching technology
(ATM)
SDH/SONET for Optical Fiber
SDH/SONET is a family of transmission
standards designed to achieve compatibility
between different fiber-optic transport
products as well as to provide compatibility
with the existing digital hierarchy, PDH.
SDH defines a new table of data rates that
are much higher than older transmission
rates.
SDH/SONET RING
ARCHITECTURE
Ring Example
F
C B
D
E
A
SONET: Bi-Directional Line-Switched Ring (BLSR)
SDH: Multiplex Section Shared Protection Ring (MS-SPRING)
S
S
S
S
S
S
S: Service
P
P
P
P
P
P
P: Protection
Original Circuit
Protection Switch
Ring Example
F
C B
D
E
A
S
S
S
S
S
S
S: Service
P
P
P
P
P
P
P: Protection
Original Circuit
Protection Switch
X
SONET/SDH Dual Rings
SONET/SDH Ring
SONET/SDH Ring
Telephone
Switch
Telephone
Switch
Telephone
Switch
Telephone
Switch
Rings can be
Wrapped if a
Trunk line
is Broken
SDH/SONET Frame
In the case of SONET, this frame is called the
Synchronous Transport Signal (STS).
In SDH, the frame is called the Synchronous
Transport Module (STM).
The electrical side of the SONET signal is
known as the STS, and the electrical side of the
SDH is known as the STM.
The optical side of a SONET/SDH signal is
known as the Optical Carrier (OC).
SDH/SONET Hierarchy
The SDH/SONET signal hierarchy deals with
Optical Carrier (OC) levels, which refer to
the optical aspect of the transmission the
optical pulse as it travels through the fibers.
These optical pulses go through electronic
muxes, and when the signal is going through
these network elements, the bits are packaged
in a frame for transport across the fiber.
The SDH/SONET Hierarchy
SONET Electrical
Signal
Optical Signal Bit Rate (Mbps) SDH
Electrical Signal
STS-1 OC-1 51.84 N/A or STM-0
STS-3 OC-3 155.52 STM-1
STS-9 OC-9 466.56 STM-3
STS-12 OC-12 622.08 STM-4
STS-18 OC-18 933.12 STM-6
STS-24 OC-24 1244.16 STM-8
STS-36 OC-36 1866.24 STM-12
STS-48 OC-48 2488.32 STM-16
STS-192 OC-192 9953.28 STM-64
STS: Synchronous
Transport Signal
OC: Optical Channel STM: Synchronous
Transfer Module
Find the data rate of an STS-1 signal
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.
Solution
STS-1, like other STS signals, sends 8000 frames per
second. Each STS-1 frame is made of 9 by (1 90)
bytes. Each byte is made of 8 bits. The data rate is
SONET Framing
STM-N FRAME STRUCTURE
270 x N
Columns
261 x N
Columns 9 x N Columns
9

R
o
w
s
= 8
bits/byte
SDH Rate
ITU-T defines the frequency to be 8000 frames per
second for all levels in STM hierarchy
STM-1 Rate :
9 rows x 270 columns x 8 bits/byte x 8000 frames
per second
= 155.52 Mb/s
STM-4 Rate :
9 rows x (270 x 4) columns x 8 bits/byte x 8000 frames
per second
= 622 Mb/s
Find the data rate of an STS-3 signal.
Solution
STS-3, like other STS signals, sends 8000 frames per
second. Each STS-3 frame is made of 9 by (3 90) bytes.
Each byte is made of 8 bits. The data rate is
Duration of an STS frame
What is the duration of an STS-1 frame? STS-3 frame?
STS-n frame?
Solution
In SONET, 8000 frames are sent per second. This means
that the duration of an STS-1, STS-3, or STS-n frame is the
same and equal to 1/8000 s, or 125 s.
What is the user data rate of an STS-1 frame (without
considering the overheads)?
A SONET System
STS Mux/Demux beginning & end points
Regenerator repeater that regenerates the optical signals
Add/drop mux add signals into a given path or remove a desired signal
from a path
An Example of a SONET Network
Section optical link connecting 2 neighbor devices
Line portion of a network between 2 muxes
Path - end to end portion of the network between 2 STS muxes
SONET/SDH Reference Model
Path Layer (close to OSI layer 3 Network)
Line Layer (close to OSI layer 2 Data Link)
Section Layer (close to OSI layer 2 Data Link)
Photonic Layer (close to OSI layer 1 Physical)
Manages end-to-end connection, Monitoring and
management of user connection.
-Also responsible for the movement of signal
from its optical source to its optical destination
-Transformation of signals
-STS mux provides path layer functions
Path Layer
Multiplexing of several path-layer connection
among nodes, Protection and Fault
Management.
- STS mux and add/drop mux provide line
layer functions
Line Layer
-Responsible for the movement of a signal
across a physical section
-Framing, error control
Section Layer
Defines all the transmission requirements
of signals.
-Specs for optical fiber channel, sensitivity
of the receiver
Photonic Layer
Device-Layer Relationship in SONET
STS-1 Frame Overhead
SPE
Synchronous
Payload Envelope
- Contains user
data
Path overhead
- end-to-end
tracking
information
Mapping
Is the procedure through which signals are packed
inside an SDH frame
PDH signal passes through the following steps
before emerging as an SDH Signal
Container (C-X)
Virtual Container (VC-X)
Tributary Unit (TU-X)
Tributary Unit Group (TUG-X)
Administrative Unit (AU-4)
STM Signal
How 2 Mb signals are mapped into an SDH stream?
C-12
VC-12
2 Mb/Sec
Container
Virtual Container
Path Overhead (POH)
How 2 Mb signals are mapped into an SDH stream?
VC-12
STM-1/4/16
Payload
Pointer
SOH
SOH
270
9
TU
(Tributary Unit)
Formation of Synchronous Signal
Pointer
Phase relation between
virtual container (payload)
and subordinate frame
Plesiochronous signal
Path overhead
Additional information for
end-to-end monitoring
Tributary
unit (TU)
Virtual
container
(VC)
Container
(C)
Synchronous Signal
MAPPING OF PDH SIGNAL INTO
SDH SIGNAL
SDH Elements
SDH Multiplexing
PDH attributes scheme carry into different
containers. Note that first digit of lowest level
container is 1 and the second digit indicates
whether it contains 1.5 Mbps (C11) or 2Mbps
(C12).
The container and its path overhead collectively
form virtual container VC. The VC and its pointer
are known as Tributary Unit (TU) if VC carries a
lower order tributaries. The largest VC in an STM-
1 frame is known as Administrative Unit (AU).
SDH Network Elements
PathTerminatingElement
These are the end point devices where the lower
speed channels enter and leave the SDH Network.
These are known as Path Level devices.
Digital CrossConnect
These devices can x-connect at the STM level
down to individual E1 streams. So an E1 stream
on one STM trunk could be x-connected to
another STM trunk.
SDH Network Elements
Regenerator
Is a device that regenerates the signal.
Add/DropMultiplexer
The Add/Drop mux has the ability to breakout
and insert low speed channels into an STM
stream.
SDH Network Elements