ANT

MODULE - 2

Q.1] Draw and explain SONET frame structure?

It is a matrix of 9 rows and 90 octets each. Thus the total number of octets is equal to
810 octets. The first three columns i.e. 3x9=27 octets are reserved for the
administration overhead.
The remaining frame area i.e. 87x9=783 octets is called as synchronous payload
envelope (SPE). The SPE is made of transmission overhead and user data.
The administration overhead section is divided into two subsections namely section
overhead and line overhead.
The section overhead is used to provide framing, error monitoring and management
functions. It is interpreted and modified at every section termination. The line
 overhead is used to provide synchronization and multiplexing for the path layer as
well as protection-switching capability.
The remaining 87 columns of the frame consist of information payload that carries
the path layer information. The bit rate of the information payload for STS-1 is
given as, 8x9x87x8000=50.122 mbps.
The SPE consist of byte array of 87 columns by 9 rows. The path overhead
constitutes the first column of this array.

An STS-1 and an STS-n frame

STS-1 frames in transmission

STS-1 frame: line overhead

STS-1 frame: path overhead

Q.2] s SONET layers?
Answer: There are 4 types of layers:
1) Path
2) Line
3) Section
4) Photonic
1) Path: The path layer is responsible for the movement of a signal from its optical source to
its optical destination. At the optical source, the signal is changed from an electronic form
into an optical form, multiplexed with other signals, and encapsulated in a frame. At the
optical destination, the received frame is DE multiplexed, and the individual optical signals
are changed back into their electronic forms. Path layer overhead is added at this layer. STS
multiplexers provide path layer functions.

2) Line Layer: The line layer is responsible for the movement of a signal across a physical
line. Line layer overhead is added to the frame at this layer. STS multiplexers and add/drop
multiplexers provide line layer functions.

3) Section Layer: The section layer is responsible for the movement of a signal across a
physical section. It handles framing, scrambling, and error control. Section layer overhead is
added to the frame at this layer.

4) Photonic Layer: The photonic layer corresponds to the physical layer of the OSI model. It
includes physical specifications for the optical fiber channel, the sensitivity of the receiver,
multiplexing functions, and so on. SONET uses NRZ encoding with the presence of light
representing 1 and the absence of light representing 0
Q.3] Write short note on SONET?
Answer:

Definition: Synchronous optical network (SONET) is a standard for optical

telecommunications transport formulated by the Exchange Carriers Standards Association
(ECSA) for the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), which sets industry standards
in the U.S. for telecommunications and other industries. The comprehensive SONET
standard is expected to provide the transport infrastructure for worldwide
telecommunications for at least the next two or three decades.

The increased configuration flexibility and bandwidth availability of SONET Provides

significant advantages over the older telecommunications system. These Advantages include
the following:

Reduction in equipment requirements and an increase in network Reliability

Provision of overhead and payload bytesthe overhead bytes permit Management of the
payload bytes on an individual basis and facilitate Centralized fault sectionalization
Definition of a synchronous multiplexing format for carrying lower Level digital signals
(such as DS1, DS3) and a synchronous structure That greatly simplifies the interface to
digital switches, digital cross-connect switches, and add-drop multiplexers
Availability of a set of generic standards that enable products from Different vendors to be
connected
Definition of a flexible architecture capable of accommodating future Applications, with a
variety of transmission rates

2) Basic SONET Signal

SONET defines a technology for carrying many signals of different capacities through a
synchronous, flexible, optical hierarchy. This is accomplished by means of a byte-interleaved
multiplexing scheme. Byte-interleaving simplifies multiplexing and offers end-to-end
network management.

The first step in the SONET multiplexing process involves the generation of the lowest level
or base signal. In SONET, this base signal is referred to as synchronous transport signal
level 1, or simply STS1, which operates at 51.84 Mbps. Higher-level signals are integer
multiples of STS1, creating the family of STSN signals in Table 1. An STSN signal is
composed of N byte-interleaved STS1 signals. This table also includes the optical
counterpart for each STSN signal, designated optical carrier level N (OCN).

Synchronous and non synchronous line rates and the relationships between each are shown
in Tables 1 and 2.
 Table 1. SONET Hierarchy

Signal Bit Rate (Mbps) Capacity

STS1, OC1 51.840 28 DS1s or 1 DS3
STS3, OC3 155.520 84 DS1s or 3 DS3s
STS12, OC12 622.080 336 DS1s or 12 DS3s
STS48, OC48 2,488.320 1,344 DS1s or 48 DS3s
5,376 DS1s or 192 DS
STS192, OC192 9,953.280 3s
Note:
STS = synchronous transport signal
OC = optical
carrier

Table 2. Nonsynchronous Hierarchy

Signal Bit Rate (Mbps) Channels

DS0 0.640 1 DS0
DS1 1.544 24 DS0s
DS2 6.312 96 DS0s
DS3 44.736 28 DS1s

3) Frame Format Structure

SONET uses a basic transmission rate of STS1 that is equivalent to 51.84 Mbps. Higher-
level signals are integer multiples of the base rate. For example, STS3 is three times the rate
of STS1 (3 x 51.84 = 155.52 Mbps). An STS12 rate would be 12 x 51.84 = 622.08 Mbps

STS1 Building Block

The frame format of the STS1 signal is shown in Figure 1. In general, the frame can be
divided into two main areas: transport overhead and the synchronous payload envelope
(SPE) Figure 1. STS1 Frame Format
The synchronous payload envelope can also be divided into two parts: the STS path
overhead (POH) and the payload. The payload is the revenue-producing traffic being
transported and routed over the SONET network. Once the payload is multiplexed into the
synchronous payload envelope, it can be transported and switched through SONET without
having to be examined and possibly demultiplexed at intermediate nodes. Thus, SONET is
said to be service-independent or transparent.

Transport overhead is composed of section overhead and line overhead. The STS1
POH is part of the synchronous payload envelope.

STS1 Frame Structure

STS1 is a specific sequence of 810 bytes (6,480 bits), which includes various overhead
bytes and an row-by-row from top to bottom and from left to right (most significant bit
first).
As shown in Figure 1, the first three columns of the STS1 frame are for the transport
overhead. The three columns contain 9 bytes. Of these, 9 bytes are overhead for the section
layer (for example, each section overhead), and 18 bytes are overhead for the line layer (for
example, line overhead). The remaining 87 columns constitute the STS1 envelope capacity
(payload and POH).
As stated before, the basic signal of SONET is the STS1. The STS frame format is
composed of 9 rows of 90 columns of 8-bit bytes, or 810 bytes. The byte transmission order
is row -by-row, left to right. At a rate of 8,000 frames per second, that works out to a rate of
51.840 Mbps, as the following equation demonstrates:
(9) X (90 bytes/frame) x (8 bits/byte) x (8,000 frames/s) = 51,840,000 bps = 51.840
Mbps

This is known as the STS1 signal ratethe electrical rate used primarily for transport
within a specific piece of hardware. The optical equivalent of STS1 is known as OC1,
and it is used for transmission across the fiber.

The STS1 frame consists of overhead, plus an SPE (see Figure 2). The first three columns
of each STS1 frame make up the transport overhead, and the last 87 columns make up the
SPE. SPEs can have any alignment within the frame, and this alignment is indicated by the
H1 and H2 pointer bytes in the line overhead.

Figure 2. STS1 Frame Elements

STS1 Envelope Capacity and Synchronous
Payload Envelope (SPE)

Figure 3 depicts the STS1 SPE, which occupies the STS1 envelope capacity. The STS1
SPE consists of 783 bytes, and can be depicted as an 87-column by 9-row structure. Column
1 contains 9 bytes, designated as the STS POH. Two columns (columns 30 and 59) are not
used for payload but are designated as the fixed-stuff columns. The 756 bytes in the
remaining 84 columns are designated as the STS1 payload capacity.

STS1 SPE in Interior of STS1 Frames

The STS1 SPE may begin anywhere in the STS1 envelope capacity (see Figure 4).
Typically, it begins in one STS1 frame and ends in the next. The STS payload pointer
contained in the transport overhead designates the location of the byte where the STS1 SPE
begins.

STS POH is associated with each payload and is used to communicate various information
from the point where a payload is mapped into the STS1 SPE to where it is delivered.

Figure 4. STS1 SPE Position in the STS1 Frame

STSN Frame Structure

An STSN is a specific sequence of Nx810 bytes. The STSN is formed by byte-

interleaving STS1 modules (see Figure 5). The transport overhead of the individual STS1
modules are frame aligned before interleaving, but the associated STS SPEs are not required
to be aligned because each STS1 has a payload pointer to indicate the location of the SPE
(or to indicate concatenation).

Figure 5. STSN

Envelope capacity for transporting payloads. It can be depicted as a 90-column by 9-row

structure. With a frame length of 125 s (8,000 frames per second), STS1 has a bit rate
of 51.840 Mbps. The order of transmission of bytes is row-by-row from top to bottom
and from left to right (most significant bit first).

As shown in Figure 1, the first three columns of the STS1 frame are for the transport
overhead. The three columns contain 9 bytes. Of these, 9 bytes are overhead for the section
layer (for example, each section overhead), and 18 bytes are overhead for the line layer (for
example, line overhead). The remaining 87 columns constitute the STS1 envelope capacity
(payload and POH).
As stated before, the basic signal of SONET is the STS1. The STS frame format is
composed of 9 rows of 90 columns of 8-bit bytes, or 810 bytes. The byte transmission order
is row -by-row, left to right. At a rate of 8,000 frames per second, that works out to a rate of
51.840 Mbps, as the following equation demonstrates:

(9) X (90 bytes/frame) x (8 bits/byte) x (8,000 frames/s) = 51,840,000

bps = 51.840 Mbps

This is known as the STS1 signal ratethe electrical rate used primarily for transport
within a specific piece of hardware. The optical equivalent of STS1 is known as OC1, and
it is used for transmission across the fiber.

The STS1 frame consists of overhead, plus an SPE (see Figure 2). The first three columns
of each STS1 frame make up the transport overhead, and the last 87 columns make up the
SPE. SPEs can have any alignment within the frame, and this alignment is indicated by the
H1 and H2 pointer bytes in the line overhead.

Figure 2. STS1 Frame Element

STS1 Envelope Capacity and Synchronous

Payload Envelope (SPE)

Figure 3 depicts the STS1 SPE, which occupies the STS1 envelope capacity. The STS1
SPE consists of 783 bytes, and can be depicted as an 87-column by 9-row structure. Column
1 contains 9 bytes, designated as the STS POH. Two columns (columns 30 and 59) are not
used for payload but are designated as the fixed-stuff columns. The 756 bytes in the
remaining 84 columns are designated as the STS1 payload capacity.

Figure 3. STS1 SPE Example

STS1 SPE in Interior of STS1 Frames

The STS1 SPE may begin anywhere in the STS1 envelope capacity (see Figure 4).
Typically, it begins in one STS1 frame and ends in the next. The STS payload pointer
contained in the transport overhead designates the location of the byte where the STS1 SPE
begins.STS POH is associated with each payload and is used to communicate various
information from the point where a payload is mapped into the STS1 SPE to where it is
delivered.

Figure 4. STS1 SPE Position in the STS1 Frame

STSN Frame Structure

An STSN is a specific sequence of Nx810 bytes. The STSN is formed by byte-
interleaving STS1 modules (see Figure 5). The transport overhead of the individual STS1
modules are frame aligned before interleaving, but the associated STS SPEs are not required
to be aligned because each STS1 has a payload pointer to indicate the location of the SPE
(or to indicate concatenation).

Figure 5. STSN

`
Q.4] Draw and explain architecture of SONET.

Three basic devices used in the SONET system are shown in Fig. above. Functions of the
three devices are mentioned below:

Synchronous Transport Signal (STS) multiplexer/DE multiplexer: It either

multiplexes signal from multiple sources into a STS signal or DE multiplexer an
STS signal into different destination signals.
Regenerator: It is a repeater that takes a received optical signal and regenerates it.
It functions in the data link layer.
Add/drop Multiplexer: Can add signals coming from different sources into a given
path or remove a desired signal from a path and redirect it without DE multiplexing
the entire signal.

SONET LAYERS:

SONET defines 4 layers, namely photonic layer, Section layer, Line layer and Path layer.
The photonic layer is the lowest and performs the physical layer activities while all other 3
layers correspond to Data link layer of OSI model. The photonic layer includes physical
specifications for the optical fiber channel, the sensitivity of the receiver, multiplexing
functions and so on. It uses NRZ encoding.

Section Layer and Overhead: This layer is responsible for movement of a signal
across a physical section. It handles framing, scrambling, and error control. Section
overhead which is added in this layer contains 9 bytes of the transport overhead
accessed, generated, and processed by section-terminating equipment.
Line Layer and Overhead: This layer is responsible for the movement of a signal
across a physical line. STS multiplexer and add/drop multiplexers provide line
layer functions. Line overhead contains 18 bytes of overhead accessed, generated,
and processed by line-terminating equipment.
Section Layer: The section layer is responsible for the movement of a signal across
a physical section. It handles framing, scrambling, and error control. Section layer
overhead is added to the frame at this layer.
Photonic Layer: The photonic layer corresponds to the physical layer of the OSI
model. It includes physical specifications for the optical fiber channel, the
sensitivity of the receiver, multiplexing functions, and so on. SONET uses NRZ
encoding with the presence of light representing 1 and the absence of light
representing 0.

Q.5] Write short note on DWDM?

DWDM is the short form of Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing. DWDM is an
important technology in nowadays fiber optic network. DWDM use WDM technology to
arrange several fiber optic lights to transmit simultaneously via the same single fiber optic
cable, DWDM carry more fiber channel. DWDM is usually used on fiber optic backbones
and long distance data transmission and DWDM system has higher demand of fiber
amplifiers.
Single optical fiber capacity nowadays could reach 400 GB/s, and this capacity may even
enlarge with more channels are added in DWDM. A critical advantage of DWDM is its
protocol is not related to its transmission speed, thus IP, ATM, SONET/SDH, Ethernet, these
protocols could be used and transmission speed between 100Mb/s to 2.5Gb/s. DWDM could
transmit different type of data at different speed on the same channel.
There are two types of WDM:
1. Broadband WDM: broadband WDM uses the 1300nm and 1550nm wavelength for
full duplex transmission, that is to say, if a signal is sent in one direction by 1300nm, it
can be sent back by 1550nm via the same optical fiber.
2. Narrowband WDM: Narrowband WDM, which is the DWDM we are talking here, is
the multiplexing of 4, 8, 16, 32 or more wavelengths in the range of 1530nm to
1610nm range with a very narrow separation between the wavelengths.

DWDM Hardware:
DWDM equipment typically works only in the optical domain. Here is quick summary of
DWDM equipment types:
1) DWDM Multiplexer/Demultiplexer: combines multiple optical Signals into
single optical fiber and separates optical signals. Stated differentially, it separates
optical wavelengths into a single wavelength per fiber.
2) Optical add/drop multiplexer (OADM): Acts like a SADM, except that it
functions exclusively in the optical domain. It allows wavelengths to be split or
added to a DWDM fiber.
3) OXC: Acts as a cross-connect between n-input ports and m-output ports .it
provides efficient network management of wavelengths at the optical layer. The
functions that can be performed are signal monitoring are signal monitoring
restoration, provisioning, and grooming (similar to an electrical DXC)
 4) Optical amplifier: Amplifies the optical signals so that the signalling strength
can travel over long distances.
5) Regenerator: provides the functionality of an optical amplifier with reshaping and
retiming capabilities.
Because DWDM is not as interface specific as, say, SONET,DWDM can support
many different types of interfaces . DWDM equipment can support the following
interfaces;

SONET

Ethernet(1 gbps,10 gbps,and fast)

Fiber channel

ATM
Most industry studies show that a majority of the traffic on todays service providers fiber
backbone is data. That data traffic is predominately Internet protocol (IP) packets, frame
relay frames, ATM cells or LAN frames (that is Ethernet) transporting a public SONET
backbone, which is designed to transport voice. This protocol layering creates a significant
amount of overhead. For example, many backbones utilize an ATM core over SONET,
which results in an IP over ATM contribute another 21 to 22 percent overhead for a grand
total of 28 percent overhead.

The last overhead calculation points out protocol independence as one advantage of
DWDM.In MAN designs, many implementations are utilizing DWDM to transport Giga bits
Ethernet directly without SONET or a fiber channel connection between hospital campuses
.Remember that DWDM is a technique to add capacity to the fiber physical layer on point-
to-point implementations and does not provide the reliability and flexible bandwidth
management that SONET does.

DWDM network configurations:

Dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) networks are classified into four
major topological configurations: DWDM point-to-point with or without add-drop
multiplexing network, fully connected mesh network, star network, and DWDM ring
network with OADM nodes and a hub. Each topology has its own requirements and, based
on the application, different optical components may be involved in the respective designs.

Point-to-point topology: It is predominantly for long-haul transport that requires

ultrahigh speed (10-40 GB/s), ultrahigh aggregate bandwidth (in the order of several
terabits per second), high signal integrity, great reliability, and fast path restoration
capability. The distance between transmitter and receiver may be several hundred
kilometres, and the number of amplifiers between the two end points is typically less
than 10 (as determined by power loss and signal distortion). Point-to-point with add-
drop multiplexing enables the system to drop and add channels along its path. Number
 of channels, channel spacing, type of fiber, signal modulation method, and component
type selection are all important parameters in the calculation of the power budget.

Ring-configured mesh and star networks: A variety of proprietary ring DWDM

networks have been deployed. In general, a DWDM ring network consists of a fiber in
a ring configuration that fully interconnects nodes; some systems have two fiber rings
for network protection. Such a ring may cover a local or a metropolitan area and span
a few tens of kilometres. The fiber ring may contain few to many wavelength
channels, and few to many nodes. The bit rate per wavelength channel may be 622
Mb/s or lower, or 1.25 GB/s or higher. One of the nodes on the ring is a hub station
where all wavelengths are sourced, terminated, and managed; connectivity with other
networks takes place at this hub station. Each node and the hub have optical add-drop
multiplexers (OADM) to drop-off and add one or more designated wavelength
channels. In DWDM ring networks, the hub station may source and terminate several
types of traffic [e.g., synchronous transport module (STM) IP, video]. The hub
manages all channels (wavelengths) assigned to a path between nodes and also the
traffic type. At an OADM, one (or more) optical frequency is dropped off and added,
whereas the remaining frequencies pass through transparently.

Advantages of DWDM:

The capability to support 160 wavelengths means that over 1 Tbps of traffic can be
carried.

Each wavelength can be a different traffic type such as SONET, gigabit Ethernet or IP
over PPP, and can operate at different speeds. This provides bandwidth and protocol
flexibility with payload efficiency.

Disadvantages of DWDM:
Vendor interoperability issues exist.

Ring architecture protection schemes are not supported and PPP, 1 for 1 protection is
used, which wastes bandwidth.

Extremely difficult to troubleshoot, manage and provision.