SONET: Synchronous Optical Network

Carey Williamson
University of Calgary

Introduction
SONET

is a newly adopted standard for interfaces in optical networks Physical layer transmission format SONET defines a fiber based transmission scheme for ATM

SONET Overview
The

SONET specification defines:

standard optical signals, which permits the interoperation of equipment from different manufacturers a synchronous frame structure for multiplexing digital traffic procedures for operations and maintenance (OAM)

SONET Overview (Contd)

SONET
base

includes:

support for broadband rates

rate approximately 50 Mbps hierarchical family of digital rates defines data rates up to 2.4 Gbps

synchronous multiplexing
global

timing structure at physical layer synchronous implies simpler interface

SONET Framing Structure

Basic

module is STS-1 Synchronous Transport Signal, Level 1 STS-1 corresponds to 51.84 Mbps Frame structure: 9 rows of 90 columns of 8-bit bytes 8000 frames/sec (125 usec/frame)

9 rows

STS-1 Framing Structure ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
90 columns 1 byte

125 usec

STS-1 Framing
Bytes

are transmitted one row at a time, from left to right Note: 1 byte/frame = 64 kbps First three columns of STS-1 frame are for section overhead and line overhead Remaining 87 columns are for the Synchronous Payload Envelope (SPE)
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9 rows

STS-1 Framing (Contd) 90 columns ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
Synchronous Payload Envelope (SPE) (87 columns) 8

Section and Line Overhead (3 columns)

SONET Overhead
Overhead

bytes are used by SONET equipment (e.g., switches) for exchange of control and signalling information, and as a low bandwidth data channel Three types of overhead bytes
section line path
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SONET Overhead

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SONET Overhead (Contd)

Section

overhead: 9 bytes per frame

Includes two framing bytes, plus other control information for maintenance and provisioning
Line
Path

overhead: 18 bytes per frame

overhead: variable size

Control info, plus 9 bytes for data channel Payload type, path status, etc. Transmitted as part of payload itself (SPE)
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SONET Overhead (Contd)

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The STS payload pointer in the transport overhead points to the STS-1 synchronous payload envelope (SPE) and the

pointer inside the STS-1 SPE points to the VT SPE

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SONET Framing (Contd)

The

SPE in an STS-1 frame has sufficient capacity to carry a DS-3 (45 Mbps) There are many other ways to carve up the capacity of an STS-1 into smaller units used by the telcos These are called Virtual Tributaries (VTs)

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SONET Framing (Contd)

Examples

of VTs:

VT 1.5: requires 3 columns of 9 bytes each, corresponding to North American DS1 (T1) standard (1.544 Mbps) VT 2: 4 columns, corresponds to European standard for 2.048 Mbps VT 3: 6 columns (54 bytes) per frame, corresponds to 3.088 Mbps VT 6: 12 columns, 6.312 Mbps
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9 rows

STS-1 Framing Example 90 columns ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
VT 1.5 VT 2

Section and Line Overhead

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SONET Framing (Contd)

A

VT group is 9 rows x 12 columns

Can conveniently repackage into four VT 1.5, or three VT 2, or two VT 3, or one VT 6

An

STS-1 frame can hold 7 VT groups per frame (84 columns), with 1 column for path overhead, and 2 columns empty

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SONET Framing (Contd)

Higher

rate SONET signals are obtained by interleaving N STS-1s to form an STS-N (e.g., STS-3 = 155 Mbps) STS-N has 9 rows, and N x 90 columns Interleaving is done byte by byte

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SONET and ATM

If

the entire STS-1 payload is to be used for ATM transmission, then there is no need to use VTs at all The 53-byte ATM cells are simply packaged into the SPE portion of the STS-1 frame, as they fit Cells may wrap across STS-1 overhead bytes, or even STS-1 frame boundaries Overhead byte keeps track of where ATM cell boundaries lie21

9 rows

STS-1 ATM Example 90 columns ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
Start of ATM Cells

Section and Line Overhead

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Summary
SONET

defines a standard for framing and transmission at the physical layer on fiber-optic based networks Framing structure is designed to accommodate common telco channel rates in both North America and Europe ATM cells can be layered on top of the (synchronous) SONET framing structure
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