SONET/SDH

SONET is an acronym for Synchronous Optical Network. SONET is widely used in telephone
network and is one of the first large scale optical transmission systems Digital information is sent
through optical fibre using a LED or a laser source. However, most of data processing, switching etc.
are done electronically. SONET is primarily used in the North America while Europe and Japan use a
modified version, called the Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH). SONET arose out of a need to
find a solution of the problem of inter-operability among various vendors and technologies that
existed in sixties and seventies.

• This term is used in digital multiplexers installed in telephone exchanges.

• It supports different topologies viz. point-point, star, ring etc.
• It multiplexes inputs having same bit rate and derived from common clock source. Hence the name
"synchronous".
• Word interleaving is used to combine signals.
Benefits or advantages of SDH
➨ A more simplified multiplexing and demultiplexing technique.
➨ Synchronous networking and SDH supports multipoint networking.
➨ Capability of transporting existing PDH signals.
➨ Easy growth to higher bit rates which enhances the administration and maintenance process.
➨ It is capable of transporting broadband signals.
➨ It is multivendor and supports different operators.
➨ It provides network transport services on LAN such as video conferencing, and interactive
multimedia.
➨ Optical fibre bandwidth can be increased without limit in SDH.
➨ Switching protection to traffic is offered by rings.
➨ SDH allows quick recovery from failure.

Drawbacks or disadvantages of SDH

➨It offers lower bandwidth utilization ratio compare to PDH due to many OH bytes used for OAM.
➨Direct adding/dropping of lower-rate signal is achieved using pointers. This increases complexity
of the system.
➨Software is used largely in SDH system. Hence it is vulnerable to computer viruses.
➨It requires complicated SDH equipment due to variety of management traffic types and options.
➨It cannot carry E2 due to unavailability of container.
ATM
ATM stands for Asynchronous Transfer Mode. ATM technology uses ATM cells for data

transmission between source and destination. ATM cell uses fixed size of 53 bytes which consists of

header (5 bytes) and data (48 bytes). It is behind the success of B-ISDN used for voice/data/video

transportation.

ATM transmits cells only when there is data to be transmitted unlike STM (Synchronous Transfer

Mode) where bandwidth is assigned periodically like TDM. ATM is connection oriented which uses

virtual packet switching. Multiple logical connections are multiplexed over single physical

connection.

Benefits or advantages of Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)

➨It is optimized to transport voice, data and video i.e. single network for everything. It is used for
mixed traffic, real-time and non-real time traffic types.
➨It is easy to integrate with LAN, MAN and WAN network types i.e. seamless integration.
➨It is QoS oriented and high speed oriented.
➨It enables efficient use of network resources using bandwidth on demand concept.
➨It uses simplified network infrastructure.

Drawbacks or disadvantages of Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)

➨Overhead of cell header (5 bytes per cell)
➨Complex mechanisms are used to achieve QoS.
➨Congestion may cause cell losses
➨ATM switch is very expensive compare to LAN hardware. Moreover ATM NIC is more expensive
compare to ethernet NIC.
➨As ATM is connection oriented technology, the time required for connection setup and tear down is
larger compare to time required to use it.