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3rd Fiber Optics in Access Network - FOAN2012

Clock Recovery Where GPON Used as a Mobile


Back-haul

Edvin Skaljo1, Boris Nemsic2 Aljo Mujčić3, Slobodan Babic4


1 BH Telecom, Bosnia and Herzegovina 3 University of Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina
2 Time-Tech GmbH, Austria 4 Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Canada

Abstract— Usage of Gigabit-capable passive optical network In the beginning state of MBH, the main links across MBH
(GPON) as mobile backhaul is described. Two clock recovery were primary multiplex signals known as E1 or T1 in US.
approaches for GPON-based mobile backhaul architecture for These signals bring a digitalized speech, but also they bring
2G / 3G GSM (Global System for Mobile communication) information about the main clock of the network. The quality
network are described and their performances are compared.
of recovery clock is very high in TDM based network. It is
Measurement of quality of recovered clock on real GPON is
performed and discussed. possible to get the accuracy of recovered clock close to 10-11.
In the final phase of the migration, operators are forced to use
Keywords-component; acces network, GPON, different techniques to transport E1 signal over Packet
Switched Network for the connection backlog 2G GSM BS.
I. INTRODUCTION The most popular protocol for Packet Switched Network is
Mobile data traffic surpassed voice in Q4 2009 and became Ethernet. The Ethernet protocol is based on using packets of
double that of voice traffic for the first time in Q1 2011 [1]. As variable length. As a consequence, it is difficult to predict the
a consequence, the mobile back haul (MBH) migrates from time of propagation, what leads to the appearance of the Jitter
TDM (Time Division Multiplex) to Packet Switched Network and Wander. It degrades the quality of the recovered clock in
(PSN) [2]. The migration path is shown on Figure 1, 2 and 3. reconstructed TDM signal (E1 from Ethernet in the BS).
Bandwidth that is required for the 3G BS (Base station) in the Different solutions of BSs synchronization with the rest of
direction from the network to the base station (Downstream), network are described in [4]. Adaptive Clock Recover - ACR,
is in the range of 21, 42, 84 and 168 Mb/s [3]. In the reverse differential Clock Recover - DCR and external devices such as
direction (Upstream), the speeds are about twice less. GPS (Global Position System) are commonly applied methods
in practice. ACR [5] has advantages over other methods
2G BS because it does not require a new clock source or additional
TDM devices in the BS.
SDH mobile backhaul 2G BS
It should be noted that are many methods for
BSC
or SONET (PDH, SDH, MiniLink..) synchronization of the whole network, such as [3]: Precision
2G BS
Time Protocol (PTP) - IEEE 1588, Network Time Protocol
(NTP), Simple Network Time Protocol (SNTP), etc. In general,
Figure 1. Beginning state, MBH based on TDM links
synchronization of the entire network is a better solution than
3 or 4 G BS ACR or DCR, but it requires complex implementation
BSC Data core PSN procedures and a great investment.
network mobile backhaul
2 and 2/3 G BS
TDM II. IMPACT OF RECOVERY CLOCK TO MOBILE NETWORK
3G SDH mobile backhaul
2G BS The required levels of accuracy of the recovered clock for
typical applications in mobile networks are given in Table 1
Figure 2. Transition state, parallel MBH [6, 7].
2/3 G BS Table 1. The required levels of accuracy of the recovered clock
BSC CORE or
2 and
PSN Application Required accuracy
Backbone mobile backha ul 3 or 4 G BS
(ppm)
3G
3 or 4 BS 1 E1 link 50
Figure 3. Final state, Packet-based MBH 2 Radio interface and handover 0,1 – 0,05
3 MBH 0,016
Frequency slips occur if the E1 link has a frequency
978-1-4673-2017-7/12/$31.00 ©2012 IEEE accuracy less than required (Table 1). These slips can cause

978-1-4673-2015-3/12/$31.00 ©2012 IEEE 524


„cracking noise" during a conversation between two users. • Using the GPON TDM card and TDMoverGEM (TDM
Also, total loss of connection is possible in the case of a large over GPON Encapsulation Method) [8];
number of slips per unit of time. • Using the Media Converter (MC) and virtual channel
In the second case, low accuracy leads to overlapping of thought IP/Ethernet network.
adjacent frequencies and appearing of noise during the In the paper we have investigated only the second
conversation. Also, a number of dropped calls during approach because it is more often used in practice.
handover between two base stations are increased. MC converts the TDM signal in packets implementing
The third case, the base station cannot allocate a frequency SAToP (Structure-Agnostic TDM over Packet) method.
channel with accuracy of 0.05 ppm if the BS is not Virtual channel can be achieved by different methods. In the
synchronized by clock signal with frequency accuracy better described example the PWE3 (Pseudo Wire Emulation 3)
than 0,016 ppm. method [9] is used. The reconstruction of the clock is realized
In practice, MTIE (Maximum Time Interval Error) is used as the ACR method. In this approach the GPON emulates
instead of frequency accuracy. MTIE is obtained by measuring Ethernet network. The conversion of Ethernet to GEM is
the accumulated error over time. The relationship between efficient [10].
frequency accuracy and MTIE depends on the time of The second approach for transmitting a TDM over GPON
measurement (T), and is given by: is well evaluated in [11]. It is stated that this method can
Accuracy = MTIE (T)/T (1) provide a frequency accuracy of 15 ppb. This value is enough
for all application from Table 1. Therefore, this method is
MTIE is measured in seconds (s), or fractions of second, while preferred in practical realizations.
Accuracy is a dimension less number. MTIE is usually not a Figure 5 shows a block diagram of TDM signal transmission
linear function through the GPON-based access network.

Source of E1
III. MBH BASED ON GPON Sync Int.

(Cesium)

BERT
In the urban area, MBH overlaps with broadband access

PRC
network (AN). The base stations are often placed on the top of
residential buildings whose residents already have access to

E1
broadband services over certain access technology such as
ADSL2 +, VDSL, FTTH, etc. Considering the speed required IP/MPLS

SDH
by BSs [3], we note that only FTTH technologies can be used
for MBH. Figure 4 shows the usage of GPON technology for
E1
simultaneous connection of resident users and 2/3G BS. nc

E1
GPON Sy

SyncC
G_MAC

Eth. OLT MC
2,5/1,25
CESoP AS (CESoP)
E1 client
2/3 G BS GE
PRC ONT
(Cesium)
two n
ne ibut io
Residentall users

k
di s Clo c

Figure 5. Transmission of E1 through the GPON-based access


rk

network
tr

SDH
Backbone
Service layer

Bit Error Tester (BERT) emulates E1 source. BERT is directly


MC synchronized with PRC (Primary Rate Clock) through a
(CESoP)
GPON synchronization interface. PRC is based on Cesium standard.
SyncC

DATA SDH network carry E1 signal to MC. MC is directly


TDM
OLT

AS

Backbone connected to AS (card) at GPON chassis by GE interface. The


(IP/M PLS)
backplane of chassis connect AS and GPON card. Ethernet
over GEM is used for transmission of the signal from OLT to
Splitter 1/N ONT. ONT contains an inner CESoPSN (Circuit Emulation
GE link(s) TDM link(s) Service over Packet Switched Network) client. ONT has
several outputs as 4xE1, 4xFE, 1x GE. If the MC and the
Figure 4. Integration of MBH and AN by GPON technology
GPON chassis are not in the same building the IP/MPLS
The residential users and BS use a common splitter and a network should be used.
port on GPON OLT (Optical Line Terminal) card. The
A. The synchronization in GPON
separation of services takes place on the Aggregate Switch
(AS) in the form of different VLANs (Virtual Local Area Traffic between the OLT and the ONT is organized in packets
Networks). TDM signals (E1) for 2G network can be that are long of 125 µs long. The length of packet corresponds
transmitted through the GPON network in two ways: to the length of primary TDM frame (E1) (Figure 6). Psync is
used for marking the beginning of frame. Payload can be
ATM or GEM packets.

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PONs are synchronized using master slave principle where Interfaces 4x E1, 4xFE, 1x GE 4x E1, 4xFE, 1x GE
OLT is the master and ONTs are slaves. Levels of Clock ACR From PCR over OLT
synchronization between the OLT and ONU are defined by
Recommendation [12]. There are three modes: The main difference between two measurement setups is in the
clock of GPON chasse. In the first configuration, the free
• when OLT and the end office [ONT] are in their normal
mode was used. In second configuration, the clock is provided
state then clock accuracy is 10-11, which corresponds to the from PRC over SDH.
Stratum -1 level by ANSI;
B. The measurment results and discusion
• when the end office is in free mode then the accuracy falls
to 4.6 x10-6 (Stratum 3) and MTIE and normalized frequency error (∆F/F) for two
configurations were measured.
• when OLT and the end office are in free mode then the
Values for MTIE after 1000 seconds are shown from the
accuracy is 3.2 x 10-5 (Stratum 4) figure 8 and 9. On these diagrams, the acceptable border
defined by Recommendation G.8261 Case 2A for CES 2048
125 micro secund
Payload
kb/s is plotted by dashes line. From the Figure 8 and 9, it is
possible to see limits for the stricter conditions (G.2861 Case 1
and PDH limit), but MBH doesn’t require that..
Psync

Psync
PCBd ATM segment GEM segme nt PCBd
Maximum Time Interval Error (M TIE )
Network limit CES 20148 Case 2A G.8261
Figure 6. Structure of GPON frame
Network limit CES 20148 Case 1 G.8261
GPON indicate possibilities to get a large bandwidth and high
level of accuracy of the recovered clock [12, 13]. The
expected value of the accuracy of the recovered clock is
between Stratum-1 and Stratum-2 levels (0.0016 to 0.00001
ppm).
IV. THE MEASURMENT OF MTIE AND FRQUENCY
ACCURANCY

A. Two configurations for measurmets


The measurements are performed in two configurations on the
Figure 8 MTIE in the first configuration
GPON system. The key parameters are presented in Table 2.
The fifteen residential users are connected to the common
GPON port. Residential users usually use the triple play
service (Internet, voice and video), Figure 7.

OLT
Residental
users

1/8

½
ONT Figure 9 MTIE in the second configuration
E1 loop
1/8 Table 3. Calculated values for accuracy from MTIE
Figure 7. Residential users and E1 service on the common GPON MTIE
Configuration Accuracy by (1)
port After 1000 s
1 (Figure 8) 1.1x10-5 s 0,011 ppm
Table 2. The measurement parameters 2 (Figure 9) 3x10-7 s 0,0003 ppm
Network Configuration 1 Configuration 2
element Measured value for MTIE and calculated values for frequency
Media Converter accuracy by (1) are given in Table 3. It can be concluded that
Type CESoP CESoP the required accuracy meets the requirements from Table 1 in
Plenght 250 B 250 B both configurations. The accuracy in the second configuration
Clock E1 (BERT) E1 (BERT) is almost two orders of magnitude better.
OLT Normalized frequency error for measurement configuration
Bit rate 2,5/1,25 Gbps 2,5/1,25 Gbps 1 is showed on Figure 10 and for second configuration on
Clock Local From PRC over SDH Figure 11. Averaged values of the error correspond to the
ONT required accuracy (Table 1).

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The maximum and minimum values of frequency errors from need a slightly more than 50% of downstream bandwidth. It
Figures 10 and 11 are summarized in Table 4. also means that it is possible to a GPON port at the same time
By observing the measurement results from table 4, it can connect 64 users and 6 -7 3G BS.
be concluded that the measured values exceed the allowed It is possible to further increase the use of GPON ports by
limit in configuration 1, while in configuration 2 stay within using mechanisms such as the best effort, multicast, etc,.
allowable limits. Therefore, the channel noise and dropped
calls during handover can occur in the first configuration. V. CONCLUSION
Migration from TDM-MBH in packet networks is an
inevitable process.
In urban areas, with a large number of base stations it is
economically feasible to use a common solution for AN and
MBH.
It was shown that GPON can serve as an excellent solution
of a new generation of MBH.
Figure 10. Normalized frequency error, configuration 1
GPON, in terms of clock, can be viewed as an effective
means of transmission of Ethernet traffic in access
(configuration 1), and as such can provide a satisfactory
quality of the recovered clock. But this system has a very
small margin, so small disruptions in the network can cause
the channel noise and interruption during the handover.
It has been shown to achieve better results in terms of
reconstruction clock when GPON chassis synchronizes with
Figure 11. Normalized frequency error, configuration 2 PRC (Configuration 2).
Table 4. The peak values for accuracy obtained by measurement VI. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Configuration Min value of ∆F/F Max value of ∆F/F This study could not have been done without the assistance of
- 2,05x10-8 7.8 x 10 -8 staff of BH Telecom: Mehmedalija Hadžialić, Slađan Zlatar i
1
(0,020 ppm), (0,078 ppm) Faruk Selmanović, and staff of Telnet Ltd. Sarajevo: Ismir
- 1,0x10-10 7,4 x 10-10 (0,00074 Panjeta and Amir Dervisevic.
2
(0,0001 ppm) ppm)
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MTIE value in the first configuration shows that the 1. Ericsson, „TRAFFIC AND Market data report“, Market report, ,
system meets the requirements from Table 1. However, the Novembar , 2011;
value of MTIE and corresponding frequency accuracy is very 2. Ethernity Networks, „Mobile Backhaul Evolution“, White Paper, 2010;
close to the allowed limit. In this case, the system operates 3. “GSM/3G Market/Technology Update“, Global mobile Suppliers
Association, Januar 24, 2011
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the system parameters to be outside of the allowed limits. Networks, A survey of Existing Techniques“, White paper, Tejas
The telecom operators have primary clock source, usually Networks;
based on Cesium standard. CO (central Office) usually has a 5. Shuai Zhu at al„The Study and Analysis of Joint Adaptive Clock
Recovery Mechanism for TDMoIP“, IEEE International Conference on
connection to a clock distribution network. Therefore, the Networking, Sensing and Control, Hainan, China, April 2008;
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require large investments and efforts. Decembar 2010;
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synchronization,” IETF TICTOC WG, Mar, 2008;
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quality of clock over SDH is high, but slightly lower than the Reaching Out, September 2005;
clock over separate synchronization network. 9. Yongjun Zhang at al „A PWE3 Design for TDM over Transport
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Science and Engineering (ICISE), december, 2009;
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results when GPON chassis is connected to the PRC via GPON“, Lightwave, December, 2005;
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The 3G BSs require significant bandwidth (up to 168 Across GPON Access Networks“, White paper, ZARLINK
SEMICONDUCTOR, August 2006;
Mbps). A simple calculation can show that 64 triple-play users 12. ITU-T Recomendation G.984.2.
take (64 x 20) 1280 Mb/s. Here is assumed that a triple play 13. Faruk Selmanovic and Edvin Skaljo, „GPON in Telecommunication
user uses 20 MB/s download. This means that all 64 users Network, Procesiding of ICUM2010, p:1-4, Moscow, October 2010;

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