Sonet/Sdh and GFP: Topics

Connection-Oriented Networks Wissam FAWAZ 1
Chapter 2:
SONET/SDH and GFP
TOPICS
T1/E1
SONET/SDH - STS 1, STS -3 frames
SONET devices
Self-healing rings
Generic frame protocol, and Data over SONET
T1/E1
Time division multiplexing allows a link to
be utilized simultaneously by many users
The transmission is organized into frames.
Each frame contains a fixed number of time slots.
Each time slot is pre-assigned to a specific input
link. The duration of a time slot is either a bit or a
byte.
If the buffer of an input link has no data, then its
associated time slot is transmitted empty.
A time slot dedicated to an input link repeats
continuously frame after frame, thus forming a
channel or a trunk.

Pulse code modulation
TDM is used in telephony
Voice analog signals are digitized at the end
office using Pulse Code Modulation.
A voice signal is sampled 8000 times/sec,
or every 125 msec.
A 7-bit or 8-bit number is created every 125
msec.
The Digital Signal (DS) and
ITU-T standard
A North American standard that specifies how to
multiplex several voice calls onto a single link.
The DS standard is a North American standard and
it is not the same as the international hierarchy
standardized by ITU-T.
Both standards are independent of the transmission.

T carrier / E carrier
The DS signal is carried over a carrier system
known as the T carrier.
T1 carries the DS1 signal,
T2 carries the DS2 signal etc
The ITU-T signal is carried over a carrier system
known as the E carrier.
The DS and ITU-T hierarchy is known as the
plesiochronous digital hierarchy (PDH). (Plesion
means nearly the same, and chronos means
time in Greek).

Digital signal number Voice channels Data Rate (Mbps)
DS0 1 0. 064
DS1 24 1. 544
DS1C 48 3. 152
DS2 96 6. 312
DS3 672 44. 736
DS3C 1344 91. 053
DS4 4032 274.176
Table 2.1: The North Ameri can Hierarchy
Level number Voice channels Data Rate (Mbps)
0 1 0. 064
1 30 2. 048
2 120 8.448
3 480 34. 368
4 1920 139.264
5 7680 565.148
Table 2.2: The i nternational (ITU-T) hie rarchy
The DS1 signal
24 8-bit time slots/frame
Each time slot carries 8 bits/ 125 msec, or the channel
carries a 64 Kbps voice.
Every 6th successive time slot (i.e, 6th, 12th, 18th,
24th, etc), the 8 bit is robbed and it is used for
signaling.
F bit: Used for synchronization. It transmits the
pattern: 10101010
F
Time
slot 1
Time
slot 2
Time
slot 3
Time
slot 24
. . .
T1:
Total transmission rate: 24x8+1 = 193 bits per 125
msec, or 1.544 Mbps
E1
30 voice time slots plus 2 time slots for synchronization
and control
Total transmission rate: 32x8 = 256 bits per 125 msec,
or 2.048 Mbps

Fractional T1/E1
Fractional T1 or E1 allows the use of only a
fraction of the T1 or E1 capacity.
For example: if N=2, then only two time
slots are used per frame, which corresponds
to a channel with total bandwidth of 128
Kbps.
Unchannelized frame signal
The time slot boundaries are ignored by the
sending and receiving equipment.
All 192 bits are used to transport data followed by
the 193
rd
framing bit.
This approach permits more flexibility in
transmitting at different rates.
This scheme is implemented using proprietary
solutions.

The Synchronous Optical NETwork
(SONET)
Proposed by Bellcore (Telecordia).
It was designed to multiplex DS-n signals and
transmit them optically.
ITU-T adopted the Synchronous Digital
Hierarchy (SDH), as the international
standard.
It enables the multiplexing of level 3 signals
(34.368 Mbps)
STS, STM, OC
The electrical side of the SONET signal is
known as the synchronous transport signal
(STS)
The electrical side of the SDH is known as
the synchronous transport module (STM).
The optical side of a SONET/SDH signal is
known as the optical carrier (OC).
The SONET/SDH hierarchy
Optical
level
SONET
level
(el ectrical)
SDH
level
(el ectrical)
Data rate
(Mbps)
Overhead
rate
(Mbps)
Payload
rate
(Mbps)
OC-1 STS-1 - 51.840 1.728 50.112
OC-3 STS-3 STM-1 155.520 5.184 150.336
OC-9 STS-9 STM-3 466.560 15.552 451.008
OC-12 STS-12 STM-4 622.080 20.736 601.344
OC-18 STS-18 STM-6 933.120 31.104 902.016
OC-24 STS-24 STM-8 1244.160 41.472 1202.688
Oc-36 STS-36 STM-12 1866.240 62.208 1804.932
OC-48 STS-48 STM-16 2488.320 82.944 2405.376
OC-96 STS-96 STM-32 4976.640 165.888 4810.752
OC-192 STS-192 STM-64 9953.280 331.776 9621.504
OC-768 STS-768 STM-256 39813.120 1327.104 38486.016
OC-N STS-N STM-N/3 N*51.840 N*1.728 N*50.112
SONET/SDH is channelized.
STS-3 consists of 3 STS-1 streams, and each STS-
1 consists of a number of DS-1 and E1 signals.
STS-12 consists of 12 STS-1 streams
Concatenated structures (OC-3c, OC-12c, etc)
The frame of the STS-3 payload is filled with
ATM cells or IP packets packed in PPP or HDLC
frames.
Concatenated SONET/SDH links are commonly
used to interconnect ATM switches and IP routers
(Packets over SONET).
The STS-1 frame structure
1 2 3 4 5 6 90
1 1 2 3 4 5 6 90
2 91 92 93 94 95 96 180
3 181 182 183 184 185 186 270
4 271 272 273 274 275 276 360
5 361 362 363 364 365 366 450
6 451 452 453 454 455 456 560
7 561 562 563 564 565 566 630
8 631 632 636 634 635 636 720
9 721 722 723 724 725 726 810
Main features
The frame is presented in matrix form and it is
transmitted row by row.
Each cell in the matrix corresponds to a byte
The first three columns contain overheads
The remaining 87 columns carry the
synchronous payload envelope (SPE), which
consists of user data, and additional overheads
referred to as the payload overhead (POH)
An SPE may straddle between
two successive frames
Frame i
Frame i+1
1 2 3 4 5 6 . . . 90
1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9
276
276
275
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9
The section, line, and path overheads
Section
Line
STS-1
STS-1
A B
regenerator regenerator
STS-1
A1
A12
STS-12
.

.

.

STS-1
B1
B12
STS-12
Section
Section
Section
Section
Line
Line
Path
Section: a single link with a SONET device
or a regenerator on either side of it.
Line: A link between two SONET devices,
which may include regenerators
The section overhead in the SONET frame
is associated with the transport of STS-1
frames over a section, and the line overhead
is associated with the transport of SPEs over
a line.
The SONET stack
Section
Line
Path
Photonic
Section
Line
Path
Photonic
Section
Line
Photonic
Section
Photonic
Section
Photonic
Section
Line
Photonic
A
i
A
Regenerator Regenerator
B
i
B
STS-1: Section and line overheads
SOH
LOH
The following are some of the bytes in the
section overhead (SOH) :
A1 and A2: These two bytes are called the
framing bytes and they are used for frame
alignment. They are populated with the value
1111 0110 0010 1000 or 0xF628, which
uniquely identifies the beginning of an STS-
frame.
J0: This is called the section trace byte and it
is used for to trace the STS-1 frame back to its
originating equipment.


B1: This byte is the bit interleaved parity byte
and it is commonly referred to as BIP-8. It is
used to perform an even-parity check on the
previous STS-1 frame after the frame has been
scrambled. The parity is inserted in the BIP-8
field of the current frame before it is scrambled
E1: This byte provides a 64 Kbps channel can
be used for voice communications by field
engineers.
The following are some of the bytes in the line
overhead (LOH) that have been defined:
H1 and H2: These two bytes are known as the pointer
bytes, and they contain a pointer that points to the
beginning of the SPE within the STS-1 frame. The
pointer gives the offset in bytes between the H1 and H2
bytes and the beginning of the SPE.
B2: This is similar to the B1 byte in the section
overhead and it is used to carry the BIP-8 parity check
performed on the line overhead section and the payload
section. That is, it is performed on the entire STS-1
frame except the section overhead bytes.
The path overhead bytes
J1
B3
C2
G1
F2
H4
Z3
Z4
Z5
J1
B3
C2
G1
F2
H4
Z3
Z4
Z5
Location of the POH The POH bytes
The following are some of the bytes that have
been defined:
B3: This byte is similar to B1 used in the section
overhead and B2 used in the line overhead. It is used to
carry the BIP-8 parity check performed on the payload
section. That is, it is performed on the entire STS-1
frame except the section and line overhead bytes.
C2: This byte is known as the path signal label and it
indicates the type of user information carried in the
SPE, such as, virtual tributaries (VT), asynchronous
DS-3, ATM cells, HDLC-over-SONET, and PPP over
SONET.
The STS-1 payload
The payload consists of user data and the
path overhead.
User data:
Virtual tributaries: sub-rate synchronous data
streams, such as DS-0, DS-1, E1, and entire
DS-3 frames
ATM cells and IP packets
Virtual tributaries
The STS-1 payload is divided into seven
virtual tributary groups (VTG).
Each VTG consists of 108 bytes (12 columns)
Each VTG may carry a number of virtual
tributaries, i.e., sub-rate streams.
The following virtual tributaries have been
defined:
VT1.5: This virtual tributary carries one DS-1
signal and it is contained in three columns, that
take up 27 bytes. Four VT1.5s can be
transported in a single VTG.
VT2: This virtual tributary carries an E1 signal
of 2.048 Mbps. VT2 is contained in four
columns, that is it takes up 36 bytes. Three
VT2s can be carried in a single VTG.
VT3: This virtual tributary transports the
unchannelized DS-1 signal. A VT3 is
contained in 6 columns that takes up 54 bytes.
This means that a VTG can carry two VT3s.

VT6: This virtual tributary transports a DS-2
signal, which carries 96 voice channels. VT6 is
contained in 12 columns, that is it takes up 108
bytes. A VTG can carry exactly one VT2.
ATM cells
Mapped directly onto the SPE. An ATM
cells may straddle two SPEs.
10
Cell 1 Cell 2
Cell 2 Cell 3
Cell 14 Cell 15
Cell 15
90 4
1
9
2
8
3
POH

IP packet over SONET
IP packets are first encapsulated in HDLC and the
resulting frames are mapped into the SPE payload
row by row as in the case above for ATM cels.
10 90
4
1
9
2
8
3
POH

7E 7E 7E
7E 7E 7E
IP packets can also be encapsulated in
PPP instead of HDLC.
A frame may straddle over two
adjacent SPEs, as in the case of ATM.
The interframe fill 7E is used to
maintain a continuous bit stream
The STS-3 frame structure
Overhead section Payload section
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 270
The channelized STS-3 frame is constructed by
multiplexing byte-wise three channelized STS-1
frames. As a result:
Byte 1, 4, 7, , 268 of the STS-3 frame contains byte
1, 2, 3, , 90 of the first STS-1 frame.
1, 2, 3, , 90 of the second STS-1 frame
1, 2, 3, , 90 of the third STS-1 frame.
This byte-wise multiplexing, causes the columns
of the three STS-1 frames to be interleaved in the
STS-3 frame


The first 9 columns of the STS-3 frame
contain the overhead part and the remaining
columns contain the payload part.
Error checking and some overhead bytes are
for the entire STS-3 frame, and they are
only meaningful in the overhead bytes of
the first STS-1 frame.

SONET/SDH devices
Several different equipment exist:
Terminal multiplexer (TM)
Add/drop multiplexer (ADM)
Digital cross connect (DCS)

It multiplexes a number of DS-n or E1 signals
into a single OC-N signal
It consists of a controller, low-speed interfaces
for DS-n or E1 signals, an OC-N interface, and a
time slot interchanger (TSI)
It works also as a demultiplexer
. . .
DS-n
OC-N
DS-n
TM
The terminal multiplexer (TM):
It is a more complex version of the TM
It receives an OC-N signal from which it can
demultiplex and terminate (i.e., drop) any number
of DS-n or OC-M signals, where M<N, while at
the same time it can add new DS-n and OC-M
signals into the OC-N signal.

. . .
DS-n. OC-M
OC-N
OC-N
ADM
The add/drop multiplexer (ADM)
SONET rings
ADM
1
ADM
2
ADM
3
ADM
4
OC3
OC3
OC3
OC3
SONET/SDH ADM devices are typically connected to
form a SONET/SDH ring.
SONET/SDH rings are self-healing, that is they can
automatically recover from link failures.
An example of a connection
A
B
TM
1
TM
2
ADM
1
ADM
2
ADM
3
ADM
4
DS1
OC12
DS1
OC12
OC12
OC12
OC3
OC3
A transmits a DS-1 signal to TM 1
TM 1 transmits an OC-3 signal to ADM 1
ADM 1 adds the OC-3 signal into the STS-
12 payload and transmits it out to the next
ADM.
At ADM 3, the DS-1 signal belonging to A
is dropped from the payload and transmitted
with other signals to TM 2.
TM 2 in turn, demultiplexes the signals and
transmits As DS-1 signal to B.
Connection setup:
Using network management procedures
the SONET network is provisioned
appropriately. This is an example of a
permanent connection.
It remains up for a long time.
The connection is dedicated to user A
whether the user transmits or not.
A digital cross connect (DCS)
Ring 1

Ring 2

ADM

ADM

ADM

ADM

ADM

ADM

DCS

It is used to interconnect multiple SONET rings
It is connected to multiple incoming and outgoing OC-N
interfaces. It can drop and add any number of DSn and/or
OC-M signals, and it can switch DSn and/or OC-M
signals from an incoming interface to any outgoing one.
SONET rings
ADM
1
ADM
2
ADM
3
ADM
4
OC3
OC3
OC3
OC3
SONET/SDH ADM devices are typically connected to
form a SONET/SDH ring.
SONET/SDH rings are self-healing, that is they can
automatically recover from link failures.
Self-healing SONET/SDH rings
SONET/SDH rings have been specially
architected so that they are available 99.999% of
the time (6 minutes per year!)
Causes for ring failures:
Fiber link failure due to accidental cuts, and
transmitter/receiver failure
SONET/SDH device failure (rare)
Automatic protection switching (APS)
SONET/SDH rings are self-healing, that is, the
rings services can be automatically restored
following a link failure or degradation in the
network signal.
This is done using the automatic protection
switching (APS) protocol. The time to restore the
services has to be less than 50 msec.
Protection schemes: point-to-point
Schemes for link protection
dedicated 1+1
1:1
Shared 1:N
ADM
Working
Protection

ADM
Working/protection fibers
The working and protection fibers have to
be diversely routed. That is, the two fibers
use separate conduits and different physical
routes.
Often, for economic reasons, the two fibers
use different conduits, but they use the same
physical path. In this case, we say that they
are structurally diverse.
Classification of self-healing rings
Various ring architectures have been
developed based on the following three
features:
Number of fibers
2 or 4 fibers
Direction of transmission
Unidirectional bidirectional
Line or path switching
Number of fibers: 2- or 4-fiber rings
Two-fiber ring: fibers 1, 2, 3, and 4 are used
to form the working ring (clockwise), and
fibers 5, 6, 7, and 8 are used to form the
protection ring (counter-clockwise).
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
ADM 1
ADM 2
ADM 3
ADM 4
ADM 1
ADM 2
ADM 3
ADM 4
In another variation of the two-fiber ring, each set
of fibers form a ring which can be both a working
and a protection ring. The capacity of each fiber is
divided into two equal parts, one for working
traffic and the other for protection traffic.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
ADM 1 ADM 2
ADM 3
ADM 4
In a four-fiber SONET/SDH ring there are two
working rings and two protection rings, one per
working ring.

ADM 1 ADM 2
ADM 3
ADM 4
Direction of transmission
Unidirectional ring:
signals are only transmitted in one
direction of the ring.
Bidirectional ring:
signals are transmitted in both directions.
Line and path switching
Path switching: Restores the traffic on the paths
affected by a link failure (a path is an end-to-
end connection between the point where the
SPE originates and the point where it
terminates.)
Line switching: Restores all the traffic that
passes through a failed link.
Based on these three features, we have the
following 2-fiber or 4-fiber possible ring
architectures:
Unidirectional Line Switched Ring (ULSR)
Bidirectional Line Switched Ring (BLSR)
Unidirectional Path Switched Ring (UPSR)
Bidirectional Path Switched Ring (BPSR)
Of these rings the following three are
used:
Two-fiber unidirectional path switched ring
(2F-UPSR)
Two-fiber bidirectional line switched ring
(2F-BLSR)
Four-fiber bidirectional line switched ring
(4F-BLSR)
Two-fiber unidirectional
path switched ring (2F-UPSR)
ADM 1
ADM 2
ADM 3 ADM 4
5
2 6
4 8
3
7
A
Protection ring
Working ring
1
B
Features:
Working ring consists of fibers 1, 2, 3 and 4,
and the protection ring of fibers 5, 6, 7, and 8.
Unidirectional transmission means that traffic is
transmitted in the same direction. A transmits to
B over fiber 1 of the working ring, and B
transmits over fibers 2, 3, and 4 of the working
ring.
Used as a metro edge ring to interconnect PBXs
and access networks to a metro core ring
Self-healing mechanism:
Path level protection using the 1+1 scheme. The
signal transmitted by A is split into two. One
copy is transmitted over the working fiber 1, and
the other copy is transmitted over the protection
fibers 8, 7, and 6.
During normal operation, B receives two
identical signals from A, and selects the one with
the best quality. If fiber 1 fails, B will continue
to receive As signal over the protection path.
The same applies if there is a node failure.
Two-fiber bidirectional line switched
ring (2F-BLSR)
ADM 1 ADM 2 ADM 3
ADM 4
7
3 9 6 12
5
11
A B
1
8
4
2
10
ADM 5 ADM 6
C
Features:
Used in metro core rings.
Fibers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 form a ring, call it ring 1, on
which transmission is clockwise. Fibers 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,
and 12 form another ring, call it ring 2, on which
transmission is counter-clockwise.
Both rings 1 and 2 carry working and protection traffic.
This is done by dividing the capacity of each fiber on
ring 1 and 2 to two parts. One part is used to carry
working traffic and the other protection traffic.
A transmits to B over the working part of fibers 1 and 2
of ring 1, and B transmits to A over the working part of
fibers 8 and 7 of ring 2.
Self-healing mechanism:
The ring provides line switching. If fiber 2 fails
then the traffic that goes over fiber 2 will be
automatically switched to the protection part of
ring 2.
That is, all the traffic will be re-routed to ADM
3 over the protection part of ring 2 using fibers
7, 12, 11, 10, and 9. From there, the traffic for
each connection will continue on following the
original path of the connection.
Four-fiber bidirectional line switched
ring (4F-BLSR)
Working rings
ADM 1 ADM 2
ADM 3
ADM 4
A B
ADM 5 ADM 6
Protection rings
Features
Two working rings and two protection rings.
The two working rings transmit in opposite
directions, and each is protected by a
protection ring which transmits in the same
direction.
The advantage of this four-fiber ring is that it
can suffer multiple failures and still function. In
view of this, it is deployed by long-distance
telephone companies in regional and national
rings.
Self-healing operation (span switching):
If a working fiber fails, the working traffic will
be transferred over its protection ring. This is
known as span switching.
ADM 1 ADM 2 ADM 3
ADM 1 ADM 2
ADM 3
Normal operation Span switching
Self-healing operation (ring switching):
Often, the working and protection fibers are
part of the same bundle of fibers. When the
bundle is cut the traffic will be switched to the
protection fibers. This is known as ring
switching.
ADM 4
Working rings
Protection rings
ADM 1
ADM 2 ADM 3
B
ADM 1 ADM 2 ADM 3
ADM 4
A
ADM 5 ADM 6
Working
Protection
ADM 1
ADM 2
ADM 3
ADM 4
A
B
ADM 5 ADM 6
Working
Protection
B
Ring switching: Rerouting a connection:
Generic Framing Procedure (GFP)
This is a light-weight adaptation scheme
that permits the transmission of different
types of traffic over SONET/SDH and in
the future, over G.709.

GFP permits the transport of
a) frame-oriented traffic, such as Ethernet, and
b) block-coded data for delay-sensitive storage
area networks (SAN) transported by networks
such as Fiber Channel, FICON, and ESCON
over SONET/SDH and G.709.
GFP is a result of joint standardization effort
by ANSI committee T1X1.5 and ITU-T.
It is described in ITU-T recommendation
G.7041
Private
lines
Ethernet ESCON FICON
Fiber
Channel
Frame Relay
POS
ATM
SONET/SDH
WDM/OTN
GFP
Voice Data (IP, MPLS, IPX) SAN
DM
Video
Existing and GFP-based transport options
for end-user applications
HDLC
The GFP stack
GFP
GFP client-dependent aspects

GFP client-independent aspects

SONET/SDH G.709
Ethernet IP over PPP SAN data
GFP frame structure
Payload
Core header
Payload length
Payload length
Core HEC
Core HEC
Payload header
Payload
Payload FCS
GFP core header
Payload length indicator
(PLI) - 2 bytes. It gives
the size of the payload.
Core HEC (cHEC) - 2
bytes. It protects the PLI
field. Standard CRC-16
enables single bit error
correction and multiple
bit error detection.
The GFP payload structure
Payload header
Payload
Payload FCS
Payload type
Payload type
Type HEC
Type HEC
0-60 bytes
of
extension header
Payload FCS
Payload FCS
Payload FCS
Payload FCS
PTI
UPI
PFI EXI
GFP payload header
variable-length area from 4 to 64 bytes.
Payload type - 2 bytes
Payload type identifier (PTI) - 3 bits.
Identifies the type of frame:
User data frames , Client mgmt frames
Payload FCS indicator (PFI) - 1 bit.
Identifies if there is a payload FCS
Extension header identifier (EXI) - 4 bits.
Identifies the type of extension header.
User payload identifier (UPI) - 8 bits.
Identifies the type of payload
Frame-mapped Ethernet
Frame-mapped PPP (IP, MPLS)
Transparent-mapped Fiber Channel
Transparent-mapped FICON
Transparent-mapped ESCON
Transparent-mapped GbE
Type HEC (tHEC) - 2 bytes. It protects the
payload header. Standard CRC-16.
Payload type
Payload type
Type HEC
Type HEC
0-60 bytes
Of
Extension header
PTI
UPI
PFI EXI
GFP payload trailer
Payload header
Payload
Payload FCS
Payload FCS
Payload FCS
Payload FCS
Payload FCS
Optional 4-byte FCS.
CRC-32
Protects the contents of
the payload information
field.
GFP-client independent functions
The client independent sublayer supports
the following functions:
Frame delineation
Client/frame multiplexing
Payload scrambler
Client management
Frame delineation
The frame delineation
mechanism is similar
to the one used in
ATM.
The cHEC is used to
assure correct frame
boundary
identification
hunt
Presync
Sync
Correct
cHEC
2nd
cHEC match
Non-correctable
core header error
No 2nd
cHEC
Operation:
Under normal conditions, the GFP receiver
operates in the Sync state. The receiver
examines the PLI field, validates the cHEC, and
extracts the framed higher-level PD. It then
moves on to the next GFP header.
When an uncorrectable error in the core header
occurs (i.e., cHEC fails and more than one bit
error is detected), the receiver enters the Hunt
state.
Hunt state:
Using the cHEC it attempts to locate the
beginning of the next GFP PDU, moving one
bit at a time (Same as in ATM - see Perros An
introduction to ATM networks, Wiley 2001.
Once this is achieved it moves to the Pre-Sync
state, where it verifies the beginning of the
boundary of the next N GFP PDUs.
If successful, it moves to the Sync state,
otherwise it moves back to the hunt state.
Frame multiplexing
Client data frames and client management
frames are multiplexed, with client data
frames having priority over client
management frames.
Idle frames are inserted to maintain a
continuous bit flow (rate coupling)
GFP client-specific functions
The client data can be carried in GFP
frames using one of the two adaptation
modes:
Frame-mapped GFP (GFP-F) applicable to
most packet data types
Transparent-mapped GFP (GFP-T) applicable
to 8B/10B coded signals
Frame-mapped GFP
Variable length frames such as:
Ethernet MAC frames,
IP/PPP packets
HDLC-framed PDUs
can be carried in the GFP payload.
One frame per GFP payload.
Max. size: 65,535 bytes

Transparent-mapped GFP
Fiber Channel, ESCON, FICON, Gigabit
Ethernet high-speed LANs use 8B/10B
block-coding to transport client data and
control information.
Rather than transporting data on a frame-
by-frame basis, the GFP transparent-
mapped mode, transports data as a stream of
characters.
Specifically, the individual characters are
de-mapped from their client 8B/10B block
codes and then mapped into periodic fixed-
length GFP frames using 64B/65B block
coding.
This reduces the 25% overhead introduced
by the 8B/10B block-coding.
Also, transparent mapping reduces latency,
which is important for storage related
applications
The first step, is to decode the 8B/10B
codes. The 10 bit code is decoded into its
original data or control codeword value.
The decoded characters are then mapped
into 64B/65B codes. A bit in the 65-bit code
indicates whether the 65-bit block contains
only data or control characters are also
included
8 consecutive 65-bit blocks are grouped
together into a single superblock.
A GFP frame contains N such superblocks.
Data over SONET/SDH (DoS)
The DoS architecture provides an efficient
mechanism to transport efficiently data
(Ethernet, Fiber Channel, ESCON/FICON)
and voice over SONET/SDH.
It relies on a combination of
GFP
Virtual concatenation, and
Link capacity adjustment scheme (LCAS)
Virtual concatenation
Sub-rate streams:
The bandwidth of a SONET link is divided into a
fixed number of sub-rate streams. (A SONET
STS-48 link is divided into 48 sub-rate OC-1s)
Each sub-rate stream or a group of sub-rate
streams can be used independently by a user to
carry data (GFP framed) or voice.
This provides more flexibility than the rigid
SONET/SDH STS-N hierarchy
Example: bandwidth partitioning
using sub-rate streams
STS-48/
2.4 Gbps
STS-1
STS-1
36 STS-1/
1.8 Gbps
VT1.5
VT1.5
VT1.5
VT1.5
TDM Services
(600 Mbps)
GFP Services
(600 Mbps)
Virtual concatenation:
This scheme maps an incoming traffic
stream into a number of individual sub-rate
payloads.
The sub-rate payloads are switched through
the SONET/SDH network independently of
each other. An intermediate node is not
aware of the relation between these sub-rate
streams
At the destination, they are used to
reconstruct the original traffic stream.
Example
A 1 GbE can be carried over SONET using
7 independent STS-3c (7x155,520 =
1,088).
If virtual concatenation was not available, it
would have required an OC-48c (2.488
Gbps), since it cannot fit into an OC-12c.
This would have resulted to major waste of
the capacity of the OC-48c.
Link capacity adjustment scheme
(LCAS)
This scheme permits to dynamically adjust
the number of sub-rate streams allocated to
a specific input stream, whose transmission
rate may vary over time.
This feature is useful in adjusting
bandwidth requirements on a time-of-day
basis.
LCAS can be also used to re-route traffic
due to a link failure or maintenance..
Data over SONET Architecture
GFP, virtual concatenation, and LCAS are the
building blocks of an integrated voice/data service
over SONET/SDH (DoS)
Bandwidth is allocated in increments of 50 Mbps (OC-
1bit rate minus overheads)
Efficient framing with small overhead
Coexistence of legacy services (voice) with data service
in a single SONET/SDH frame
Dynamic bandwidth allocation
Network management through SONET/SDH existing
network management system
Layer 1/2 hybrid network via DoS
This DoS scheme permits coexistence of
TDM and data services (GFP).
TDM is handled at layer 1
Data is handled using GFP which can be seen as
layer 2.
Can be implemented on a SONET/SDH ring
to add/drop both TDM and data at each node.

Sonet/Sdh and GFP: Topics

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Connection-Oriented Networks Wissam FAWAZ 1

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