OPTICAL NETWORKS

SONET & SDH

General structure and functions of the seven-layer OSI reference model.
 Advantages of Layering
1. Independently control and manage each logical network
simplifying these functions.
2. Share the total resources of the physical layer among
several logical network  exploiting them more efficiently.

3. Customize each logical network to provide specialized user

services  improving the QoS.

4. Dynamically reconfigure each logical network  equipment

failures and changing traffic patterns.

5. Use both optical and electronic degrees of freedom

provide flexibility, survivability, manageability and capacity
for growth and change.
 Optical Layer

The physical layer provides a physical connection between two nodes,

the optical layer provides lightpath services over that link.

A lightpath is an end-to-end optical connection that may go through one or

more intermediate nodes. For example, in an eight-channel WDM link there are
eight lightpaths, which may go over a single physical line.

Optical layer processes: wavelength multiplexing, adding and

dropping of wavelengths, and support of optical cross-connects or
wavelength switching.

Networks which have these optical layer functions are referred to as

wavelength-routed networks.
Functions Of The Optical Layer
• Multiplexes lightpaths into a single fiber.

• Allows individual lightpaths to be extracted efficiently from the

composite multiplex signal at the network nodes.

• Incorporates sophisticated service restoration techniques.

• Incorporates management techniques.

• Provides lightpaths – used by SONET and IP network

elements.
The optical layer is a wavelength-based concept and lies just above the
physical layer.
 The Optical Layer
Layered View of the Optical Network
Optical Splitter and Combiner
Fiber optic splitter is
used to split the fiber optic
light into several parts at a
certain ratio.
For example, a 1X2 50:50
fiber optic splitter will split a
fiber optic light beam into two
parts, each get 50 percent of
the original beam.

An optical combiner is a
passive device that
combines the optical power
carried by two input fibers
into a single output fiber.
Synchronous Optical Network
 Contd….
• In SONET all circuits are synchronized to
an atomic clock.
• Widely used in telephone network.
• In synchronous signaling the digital
transition in signal occur at same rate.
• SONET defines a technique for carrying
multiple signals of different capacities
through a synchronous, flexible optical
hierarchy.
 Principle of SONET

All signal transitions are fixed with

reference to a very accurate atomic
clock called Primary Reference Clock
(PRC)
SONET/SDH Speeds
 STS, OC, etc.
A SONET signal is called a Synchronous Transport Signal
The basic STS is STS-1, all others are multiples of it - STS-N
The (optical) physical layer signal corresponding to an STS-N is an OC-N

SONET Optical rate

STS-1 OC-1 51.84M
STS-3 OC-3 155.52M *3
STS-12 OC-12 622.080M *4
STS-48 OC-48 2488.32M *4
STS-192 OC-192 9953.28M *4
SONET/SDH ARCHITECTURE
Protection
and
Rings
 SONET/ SDH Rings
•SONET and SDH are configured as either ring or mesh architecture.
•So Loop diversity is achieved in case of link or equipment failure.

•SONET/SDH rings are commonly called self-healing rings. Means

automatic switching to standby link on failure or degradation of the link.

Three main features of SONET/SDH rings:

1. There can be either two or four fibers running between the nodes on a
ring.
2. Operating signals can travel either clockwise only (unidirectional ring) or
in both directions around the ring (which is called bidirectional ring).
3. Protection switching can be performed either via line-switching or a path
switching scheme.
• Line switching moves all signal channels of an entire STM-N
channel to a protection fiber.
• Path switching can move individual payload channels within a
STM-N channel to another path.
 What is protection ?
SONET/SDH need to be highly reliable
Down-time should be minimal (less than 50 msec)
So systems must repair themselves (no time for manual intervention)

The Network Element that detects the failure (tail-end NE)

initiates the protection switching
The head-end NE must change forwarding or to send duplicate traffic
Protection switching is unidirectional
Protection switching may be reverie (automatically revert to working channel)

working channel

protection channel
head-end NE tail-end
NE
 How does it work?
Head-end and tail-end NEs have bridges (muxes)
Head-end and tail-end NEs maintain bidirectional signaling channel
Signaling is contained in K1 and K2 bytes of protection channel
• K1 – tail-end status and requests
• K2 – head-end status

head-end tail-end bridge

bridge working channel

protection channel signaling channel

 Linear
Simplest form of protection
1+1 protection
Can be at OC-n level (different physical fibers)
or at STM level (called SubNetwork Connection Protection)
or end-to-end path (called trail protection)
Head-end bridge always sends data on both channels
Tail-end chooses channel to use based on BER etc.
No need for signaling
If non-revertive
there is no distinction between working and protection channels
BW utilization is 50%

channel A

channel B
 Linear 1:1 protection
Head-end bridge usually sends data on working channel
When tail-end detects failure it signals (using K1) to head-end
Head-end then starts sending data over protection channel
When not in use
protection channel can be used for (discounted) extra traffic
(pre-emptible unprotected traffic)

May be at any layer (only OC-n level protects against fiber cuts)

working channel

extra
traffic
protection channel
 Linear 1:N protection
In order to save BW
we allocate 1 protection channel for every N working channels
N limited to 14

working
channels
protection channel
 Two fiber vs. Four-fiber rings
Ring based protection is popular in North America
Full protection against physical fiber cuts
Simpler and less expensive than mesh topologies
Protection at line (multiplexed section) or path layer
Four-fiber rings
fully redundant at OC level
can support bidirectional routing at line layer
Two-fiber rings
support unidirectional routing at line layer

2 fibers in opposite
directions
 UPSR vs. BLSR (MS-SPRing)
UPSR Unidirectional Path switching Two-fiber
BLSR Bidirectional Line switching Four-fiber

Of all the possible combinations, only a few are in use

Unidirectional Path Switched Rings
protects tributaries
extension of 1+1 to ring topology
Bidirectional Line Switched Rings (two-fiber and four-fiber versions)
called Multiplex Section Shared Protection Ring in SDH
simultaneously protects all tributaries in STM
extension of 1:1 to ring topology
 SONET/ SDH Rings

Following two architectures have become popular for SONET and

SDH Networks:

1. Two fibers, unidirectional, path-switched ring (two-

fiber UPSR)
2. Two fiber or four fiber, bidirectional, line switched
ring( two fiber or four fiber BLSR)\

(They are also referred to as unidirectional or

bidirectional self healing ring , USHRs or BSHRs)
 SONET/ SDH Rings

Generic two fiber Flow of primary and protection

unidirectional path-switched traffic from node 1 to node 3
ring (UPSR) with counter
rotating protection path.
 SONET/ SDH Rings

Architecture of a four-fiber bidirectional line-switched ring (BLSR).

 SONET/ SDH Rings

Reconfiguration of a four-fiber BLSR under transceiver or line failure.

 SONET /SDH Networks
SONET/SDH equipment allows the configuration of a variety of network
architectures, as shown in next slide. For example
•Point-to-point links
•Linear chains
•UPSRs
•BLSRs
•Interconnected rings

Each of the individual rings has its own failure recovery mechanisms and
SONET/SDH network management procedures.

An important SONET/SDH network element is the add/drop multiplexer

(ADM). This piece of equipment is a fully synchronous, byte-oriented
multiplexer that is used to add and drop subchannels within an OC-N signal.

The SONET/SDH architectures also can be implemented with multiple

wavelengths. For example, Fig in next slide, will show a dense WDM
deployment on an OC-192 trunk ring for n wavelengths
 SONET /SDH Networks

Where
OC-3 = STM-1
OC-12 = STM-4
OC-48 = STM-16
OC-192= STM-64

Generic configuration of a large SONET network consisting of linear

chains and various types of interconnected rings.