Design of TU-ll/TU-12 Level Switching Structure in Optical Transmission Equipment

which supports SDH(Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) Standard

JiHoon Bang, YongSerk Kim, YongWhan Kim

ASIC Center, Corporate Operations, Samsung Electronics Co.,LTD

Suwon, Kyungki-Do, Korea
bangdam@asic.sec.samsung.co.kr

Abstract TU-12 signals are multiplexed into high level shall be

In the broadband communication, the design of switching
structure of TU-II/TzI-12 signals, the low level signals, is a
necessary element for ADM(Add-Drop Multiplex) and DCS
(Digital Cross-connection system) which compose the optical
transmission equipment. [ 1] This paper presents the multiplexing
process of the low level signals that compose STM-I frame. In
addition, it shows the design of the switching structure of TU-
11 and TU-I2 signals used as the input signals of the
transmission equipment, and suggests further the method of
designing the non-blocking switching structure which
effectively reduces the existing memory area for the multi-port
switching structure design. Actually, this memory saving
switching structure has shown effective performance in 4-port
STM- 1 frame, especially in the transmission equipment system
over STM-4(622.08Mbps), and will be used widely in the
system configuration that transmits data at IGbps or faster.
Introduction
One of important transmission technologies in the broadband
ISDN is the synchronous transmission technology based on
SDH, which takes NNI(Network Node Interface) [5] as its
standard. NNI standard established in 1988 defines STM-1
frame format as 270(bytes) x 9(rows) in the specifications of
ITU-T G.707 [2]. In accordance with this specification, the
basic structure of the transmission equipment applied to the
standard SDH network system is formed depending upon the
multiplexing type of per-channel time slot data which composes
STM-I frame. In other words, STM-I frame is formed by the
standardized multiplexing procedure of the signals which has
the lowest rate required for the optical transmission, and
transmitted via a physical medium. DS-I (NA type 1,544Mbps)
and DS-IE (European type 2.048Mbps) signals originated from
the existing PDH(P1esiochronous Digital Hierarchy) are
reconfigured into TU-11 and TU-I2 signals . the low level
signals of STM-I, in SDH class; and through this complex
multiplexing process, an STM-I frame is completed. [3]
Therefore, in order to configure an optical transmission
equipment based on SDH, the procedure in which TU-1 1 and
understood. In addition, the switching system for the switching
actions of certain channels of certain signals shall be designed
in accordance with the system requirements. This switching
design is called data switching by time slot or TSI(Time slot
Interchange). [I]
In each transmission equipment, a unit or an IC(1ntergrated
Circuit) which plays the role of TSI must exist : it shall
execute the inter-switching action among channel data in one
STM-I frame, as well as playing the role of a basic structure
for the inter-switching among STM-I multi-port input channel
data. In the actual ADM system configuration, it handles 2-port
STM-I frame data switching and also executes the TSI
function. [ l ]
In order to configure a system which has high speed, high
capacity and high data processing capability for much more
optical subscribers, however, a new switching method is
required to enhance the TSI function still more. To implement
the method, the method of multiplexing the low level signals
TU-1llIZT-12 shall be newly analyzed.
1. Architecture of STM-1 frame
To design the switching structure for the low level signals TU-
11 and TU-I2 in STM-I frame, the multiplexing process in
which an STM frame is made from low level to high level and
the mapping process of each signal shall be analyzed; and the
switching structure between the actually needed channel data
through de-multiplexing of each signal shall be designed.
1.1 STM-I Frame structure
STM-1 frame format suggested in ITU-T (3.707
Recommendation is configured as shown in Fig. 1. [2]
STM-I frame composes one row with 9 overhead data and 261
payload spaces, and has 9 rows in all. The overhead area is
divided into section overhead(S0H) area and pointer area. The
section overhead is subdivided into regenerator SOH(RS0H)
and multiplex SOH(MS0H). The SOH mainly contains frame
Configuration information, maintenance and operation
information, and other operation information. The pointer in
STM-I frame has the address which informs the actual data

1997 IEEE TENCON - Speech and Image Technologies for Computing and Telecommunications 97
 In the level higher than TUG-2, in fact, TUG-3 signal by
starting point in the payload space, and is composed of the
mapping of an independent C-3 signal and AU-3 signal by
data space for data justification. In the payload space, there
multiplexing of TU-I 1, TU-12 and TU-2 signals undergo the
are channel data having the multiplex sequence prescribed by
SDH, and overhead data to be added at the time of same multiplexing process to high level in the aspect of the
speed. Therefore, there is no difficulty in the switching.
multiplexing from low level to high level in accordance with the
However, the multiplexing procedure of low level signals TU-1
multiplexing procedure (which is called the path overhead).
l/TU-12/TU-2 assumes a very complicated aspect. This is
In the payload space, various signals from the lowest level
because the signals have to support both TI level signal (1.544
signals TU-I 1 and TU-12 to TUG-3 signal can be multiplexed
Mbps) - corresponding to C-11 - which is Northern American
depending upon the system configuration requirement. [2]
type signaling system in SDH standard and E l level signal (2.
1 9 270 048Mbps) - corresponding to C-12 - which is European type
1
RSOH
I signaling system. Therefore, TU-2 signal is directly multiplexed
to TUG-2. On the other hand, 4 time slot data for TU-I1
(Regenerator signal and 3 time slot data for TU-12 signal at the same level
are byte interleaving multiplexed to TUG-2 signal. The TUG-2
Section O\ erhead)
signal formed in this way composes a VC-3 or TUG-3 signal
4 Pointcr Payload through 7 byte interleaving multiplexing procedures. VC-3
signal is assigned to AU-3 signal and thus 3 AU-3 signals are
multiplexed to AUG signal to which the overhead area is
added to compose one STM-I frame. Similarly. TUG-3 signal is
composed into one VC-4 signal through 3 byte interleaving
multiplexing procedures, and assigned to one AU-4 to develop
the multiplexing process to AUG signal. Here. the overhead is
Fig. I . STM-1 Frame structure added in the process of multiplexing of each phase or in the
process of mapping. [5]

1.2 Multiplexing procedure of STM-1

Fig. 2. shows how each level signal is multiplexed in the
payload space. [2]
C-11, C-2 and C-12 signals which are marked as the lowest
level In the multiplex structure indicate DS-l(1.544Mbps) and
DS-2(6.312Mbps) signal in North American PDH class which is
the class prior to SDH, and DS-IE(2.048Mbps) signal in
European PDH. [4] These signals are mapped into VC(Virtua1
Container) level signals respectively, and assigned to the signals
of TU(Tributary Unit) level in which the substantial multiplexing
is developed. As for the multiplexing structure, TU-1 I,TU-12
and TU-2 signals except TU-3 signal which is independently
mapped undergo a very complicated multiplexing procedure.
X signals at the time of switching structure design.
2. Multiplexing o f TU-ll/l"U-12 Time Slot Data
Let's suppose that the channel data of the payload space of
STM-I frame are composed only of time slot data of the same
rate - that is, they are composed only of TU-11 signals or only
of TU-12 signals.
In order to compose one TUG-3 signal, TU- 11 signal
composes 84 channel data with 27 time slots; TU-12 signal
composes 63 channel data with 36 time slots, and TU-2 signal
composes 21 channel data with 108 time slots. Fig. 3., in
consideration to one channel of TU-1 1/TU-12/IzT-2 signals,
shows the case that it is byte interleaved to STM-1 frame. [ 3 ]
In case of the channel of TU-11 signal only, as shown in Fig.
3.(a), the time slot data 1 from 27 are assigned to the
payload space in STM-1 frame, while in case of TU-12 signal
the time slot data are byte interleaved (Fig. 3.(b)).
Now, let's consider one byte row (270 bytes) of STM-I frame.
For TU-I 1 signal data which compose one same channel, 3
time slot data are assigned to a row. And for TU-12 signal, 4
time slot data are assigned (Fig. 4).
As the actual SDH standard supports the case in which these
signals compose a frame all together, careful attention shall be
paid to the byte interleaved structure of TU-II and TU-12

3. Switching Methods of TU-11/TU-12

In case TU-I 1 and TU-12 signals are inter-mixed in the

payload space except the overhead area In STM-I frame, the
switching block design for these signals first shall undergo the
de-multiplexing process from high level to low level. In
Fig. 2. Multiplexing structure addition. as the internal block shall be designed as the non-

1997 IEEE TENCON - Speech and Image Technologies for Computing and Telecommunications
98
,.
-
T U 11

U
27

TU12

3G

TU2
n
4 ? *

125 p s
4

12
12
blocking structure, the memory block of FIRO(First In Random
Out) structure shall be set, which stores the data by the unit
of frame row (270 bytes) and then randomly reads in the data
at the output end. Therefore, in order to switch certain time
slot data of TU-1 1 and TU-12 signals, 2 memories having the
capacity of 270(bytes) X 8(bits) are needed. Fig. 5. shows the
switching methods of TU-I1 and TU-12 signals. In order to
switch TU-11 and TU-12 signals together when they are inter-
mixed in a frame, two memories which have as much capacity
as the least common multiple of the repetition cycles of those
signals shall be provided and the non-blocking switching shall
be executed by causing the memory swapping at the moment
when the repetition cycles of the signals are matched (14 /1 s).
To STM-1 frame, 3 TUG-3 signals are multiplexed, and Fig. 6.
shows the memory block diagram inside the IC which
implements the switching structure of TU-11 m - 1 2 level signal
data which actually belong to one TUG-3. Input is written on
the memory by the unit of time slot byte and output is done
by reading the connection information given by CPU and
sending the data in the desired memory address. The control
signal which causes R e a m r i t e swapping makes the time slot
data select and write on one of two memories, and in the
other memory area of the same timing, it reads the data of
the corresponding address in accordance with the connection
information.

output

Input

(a) In case of TU-I1 switching, it needs 3 times access for

Memory swapping
(C)

Fig. 3. Multiplexing structure of TU-11Rt.J-12 TIme slot data

output

4 270 Ii>Ir> b

Input

Fig. 4. TU-111121-12 Time slot data in a row Fig. 5. Switching Method of TU-llKU-l2

1997 IEEE TENCON - Speech and Image Technologies for Computing and Telecommunications 99
 -
data[7:0] = )switching 8 Tu-11 0 1411s

addr[8:0] 7 )Memory 0 ' Random access +

f-
b output
wen (page 1) MUX

swap .
L
c se1
-
dout[7:0] Input

Tu-12
switching
Memory 1 output

Fig. 6. Memory block dagram

Input

4. Memory saving switching structure of TU-1mU-12

The switching block design of STM-1 frame data requires

many memory areas in its structural characteristics. Memory
required for TU-11m-12 switching design needs the capacity
of 270(bytes) x 8(bits) = 2160(bits) for one STM-I frame
except the memory area containing the connection information.
Thus, in order to design the switching structure which
executes ADM function to support multi ports, for example to
design STM-4 non-blochng switching structure, the size of
total memory area is 270(bytes) x 2 x 16(memories) = 34560
(bits). Furthermore, the switching design which supports 8 port
input data needs the memory capacity of 270(bytes) x 2 x 64
(memories) = 138240(bits). However, an appropriate application
of the multiplexing method of TU-11 and TU-12 signals can
reduce the memory capacity to one third. This corresponds to
the design method using the delay difference of those signals
which occurs at the time of de-multiplexing from TUG-2 signal
level to TU-I 1 and TU-12 signals.
Table 1 compares the memory capacity of the existing
switching structure with that of the memory saving structure.
As the size of the memory capacity saving is the same as the
swapping structure of TUG-3 size, the memory capacity used
for STM-1 frame format composed of 3 TUG-3s enables the
switching only with one third of the memory capacity of
existing switching structure. Fig. 7. shows how to design this
memory saving type switching structure.
I I
l l l , , ,
uu
Time i I
I 1)
O P 14~s 28 ills
Fig. 7. Memory saving switching structure
Conclusion
In configuring the transmission equipment in broadband
communication network, the switching structure has an
influence upon the performance of high speed and high
capacity transmission of subscriber data. In consideration to
this point, this paper describes the method which reduces the
memory capacity in designing STM-1 multi-frame switching
structure, which is more effective in designing the IC that
will execute large-capacity high-speed data processing over 16
ports or more, and more excellent in the integration effect.
Actually, we have designed the STM-4 switching IC using
this memory saving method. The result shows that memory
capacity has reduced to one third. But the gate size of the
part of control logic has increased a little.

Table 1. Compare the memory capacity of the exsiting

switching structure with that of the memory saving structure Reference

1 1
STM-N Rate(bps) 1 Exsiting method
(bits)
Saving Method
(bits)
[ l ] Harry F. Jordan, "Serial Array Time Slot Interchangers
and Optical implementations", IEEE Transaction on
Computers. vol 43, No 11, 1994.
1 155.52M 2,160 I68 [2] ITU-T Recommendation G.707
[3] Byeong Gi Lee. "Broadband Telecommunications
4 622.08M 34.560 1 1.520 Technology", Artech House, 1993.
[4] Mike Sexton, Andy Reid, "Transmission Networking :
8 1244.16M 138,240 46,080 SONET and the Synchronous Digital Hierarcht",
Artech House, 1992.
[5] Balaji Kumar, "Broadbang Communications". MaGraw-
Hill. Inc, 1995.

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