Nortel SDH Networks

Dr. Ashraf Eltholth

Welcome to the Course

• About the Course

• Rules & Attendance

• Course Objectives
– Concepts Gained

– System Under Study

 Course Subjects
• Introduction to PCM & TDM
• SDH Principals & Alarm Management
• SDH Network Protection and Synchronization
• Communication Network Design Considerations
– Optical Fiber
– Microwave
• Introduction to Optical Fiber Communications
• Optical Fiber Labs
– Splicing, OTDR, Optical Sources & Detectors
• Introduction to DWDM
• Nortel SDH Network Lab
– Node Configuration
– Network Operation and Maintenance
 Introduction
• Telecommunication networks carry information from one place to another
situated at a certain distance apart. The word ‘Tele’ means distant and
‘communication’ is the process of exchanging feelings and ideas.

• In telephone communication, the person who originates a call is referred to as

the calling subscriber and the person for whom the call is originated is known
as the called subscriber or called-for subscriber.

• In some cases like computer communication and to some extent in telephone

communication, the communicating bodies or entities are also known as source
(one who transmits a signal) and destination (one who receives a signal).

• The main idea behind modern telecommunication is to allow anybody in any

part of the world to be able to communicate with anybody in any part of the
world.
INTRODUCTORY TOPICS
 Public Switched Telephone Network
PSTN
• An overall telecommunications network (i.e., the PSTN) consists of local
networks interconnected by one or more long-distance networks. The
concept is illustrated in Figure This is the PSTN, which is open to public
correspondence. It is usually regulated by a government authority or may
be a government monopoly, although there is a notable trend toward
privatization.
 End-Users, Nodes, and Connectivity
• End-users, provide the inputs to the network and are recipients of network
outputs. The end-user employs what is called an Input/ Output device.
• An I/O may be a PC, computer, telephone instrument, cellular/PCS
telephone…
• End-users usually connect to nodes. We will call a node a point or junction
in a transmission system where lines and trunks meet. A node usually
carries out a switching function.
• A connectivity links an end-user to a node, and from there possibly
through other nodes to some final end-user destination with which the
initiating end-user wants to communicate.
 There are three sequential stages to a telephone call.

1. Call setup
2. Information exchange
3. Call takedown
 Telephone Numbering and Routing
• Every subscriber in the world is identified by a number, which is
geographically tied to a physical location.

• For example: 203-234- 5678

 The Use of Tandem Switches in a
Local Area Connectivity
• Routing through a tandem switch is an important economic expedient for a
telephone company or administration. We could call a tandem switch a
traffic concentrator.
• To employ a direct trunk circuit, there must be sufficient traffic to justify
such a circuit. A break point of 20 erlangs.
• For a connectivity with traffic intensity under 20 erlangs for the busy hour
(BH), the traffic should be routed through a tandem (exchange). For traffic
intensities over that value, establish a direct route.
 Hierarchical Network

• It is a natural outgrowth of the multiple star

network
• The PSTNs ; universally used a hierarchical
network
• The highest rank or order in the hierarchy is
the class 1 center ,and the lowest rank is the
class 5 office. The class 5 office (switch),
often called an end office, is the
• local serving switch.
• In a typical hierarchical network, high-usage
(HU) routes may be established, regardless of
rank in the hierarchy, if the traffic intensity
justifies. A high-usage route or connectivity is
the same as a direct route.
 Interconnection
• The network attempts to make connection at the lowest possible level, and
therefore the shortest path. If the lines are all busy, trunk groups at the next
highest level are used.

…
 QUALITY OF SERVICE
• Quality of service means how happy the telephone company (or other
common carrier) is keeping the customer.

– Customer satisfaction
– Loudness Rating
– Can connectivity be achieved?
– Delay before receiving dial tone (dial tone delay).
– Post dial(ing) delay (time from the completion of dialing the last digit of a
number to the first ring-back of the called telephone). This is the primary measure
of signaling quality.
– Availability of service tones [e.g., busy tone, telephone out of order, time out, and
all trunks busy (ATB)].
– Correctness of billing.
– Reasonable cost of service to the customer.
 STANDARDIZATION IN
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
• ITU (International Telecommunication Union)
– ITU-T (Terrestrial Services)
– ITU-R (Radio communication Sector)
• ISO (International Standardization Organization )
• ETSI (European Telecommunication Standardization Institute)

• ANSI (American National Standards Institute)

• EIA (Electronics Industries Association )
• IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers )
 The Telephone System

The telephone was invented over a hundred years ago by

Alexander Graham Bell.
Telephone Set and
Central Office
Exchange

• A single pair of wires

connects the telephone to the
central switching office. is
called a local loop.
• One connection is called the
Tip (T) and the other
connection the Ring (R).
which refers to the tip and
ring parts of the plug used in
the early manual switchboards

Central office circuit

 Structure
• The control and voice signals are carried by
three types of facilities:

consists of homes and businesses connected via

– Local area wire pairs to a central office

fills the transmission gap between local and

– Exchange area long- distance trunks.

– Long-haul. is made up primarily of high- capacity fiber optic

cables. Is called also “Backbone”
 Local Distribution Area
The Local Network

•The local facilities are almost

exclusively wire pairs that fan out like
branches of a tree from a point called the
wire-center throughout a serving area.

•Serving areas vary greatly in size,

from an average of 12 square miles in
urban locations to 130 square miles for
rural areas
 Exchange Area Network

• The exchange area network

normally interconnects local
exchanges and tandem exchanges.

• Tandem exchanges are those that

make connections between central
offices when an interoffice trunk
is not available. A tandem
exchange is to central offices as a
central office is to subscriber
telephone sets.
 Types of Transmissions
• Both voice and control signals are carried. Voice signals are usually analog,
but control signals or supervisory signals may be digital and/or analog.

• Control (Supervisory) Signals: dial tone, dial pulses or key tones

used for sending a number, busy tone, and ring-back tone. These signals are
for control of the switching connections or to indicate the status of the call.

• Analog Voice Transmissions :

The voice frequencies that
contribute to speech can
extend from below 100 (Hz)
to above 6,000 Hz. However,
the major energy necessary
for intelligible speech is
contained in a band of
frequencies between 200 and
4,000 Hz.
 Voice Channel Bandwidth
• The telephone circuits are designed to pass a limited bandwidth.
• The range of frequencies that are passed are said to be in the passband.
• For a telephone system voice channel (a VF channel) the passband is 0 to
4000 Hz. (Sometimes this band is called a message channel.)
• Some signalling transmissions are in-band and some are out-of-band.
 TRANSMISSION SYSTEM
FACILITIES
The three categories of transmission facilities are:

• Metallic:
– A metallic facility is the simple twisted wire hook-up between the
telephones and the central office.
• Analog Carrier
– Analog signal carriers may be classified as solid conductors, which
include twisted pair open wire, twisted pair in cable, coaxial cable pair,
and fiber optic cable or wireless including land microwave and satellite.
• Digital Carrier
– Digital facilities are similar to analog, but the information is in a digital
format for transfer
Analog Carrier Facilities
transmission path can carry 108,000
conversations at the same time.

One now obsolete application of

analog multiplexing occurred in
undersea telephone cables. One such
cable, called the SG system (TAT-
6; Trans-Atlantic Telephone system
6)channels in both directions 4,000
Repeater amplifiers every 5 miles
Equalizers powered by a 7 KVolt
Retired in the 1990s.
Fiber optic cables using TDM
digital replaced it
 Transmission Mediums
• The transmission medium is what actually carries a signal
from point to point in the network. The signal carried by the
medium may be voice or data, network control signals, or
combinations of the two.

– Wire

– Radio

– Fiber Optic
 Wire Medium
• Found in the local loop and exchange
network, and in the long-haul network
as well.

• New technologies promise to replace

wire in the next few decades.

• Disadvantages:
 Expensive, heavy, and bulky.
 The cost of installing and repairing
long-haul wire is often prohibitive when
compared with other new media.
 Susceptible to such environmental
effects as corrosion, noise, and voltage
spikes.
Radio Medium
Radio or wireless takes into
account microwave and
satellite communication.

• Advantages:
 The network can be altered or rearranged easily without having to relocate huge
amounts of copper or fiber optic cable.
 Maintaining radio systems is also less expensive than a wire network.
• Disadvantages:
 Radio system installations require huge capital expenditures for structure,
equipment, and real estate.
 Subject to the problems associated with propagation and atmospheric conditions.
Reflection, refraction, diffraction, fading, noise, and interference can all work to
degrade the transmission signals through the atmosphere.
 Waveguide
• It provides a means to transmit microwave
signals through a hollow metal conductor
much like cable.
• Advantages
 Keeping the signal from ever entering the
atmosphere where degradation can occur.
 provides the same bandwidth capacity as
open broadcast microwave and contributes
little loss to the signal.
• Disadvantages
 much more delicate and expensive than wire
medium.
 Any physical damage or corrosion in the
waveguide will introduce severe losses to the
signal.
 Optical Fiber
• These fibers are made using a high-quality glass core, surrounded by a glass
cladding material of slightly lower refractive index. Plastic fibers are also
commonly used for short-hop, computer-to-computer links.
• Light introduced to the core is carried down the fiber by continuously reflecting
at the core/cladding interface.

• Advantages.
 very thin and light, but are strong.
 Great distances with less than 0.3
decibel of attenuation per kilometres.
 Repeater equipment needs to be placed
• Disadvantages.
only every 20 miles or so.
 great care has to be employed in
 wide signal bandwidth
handling fibers and their connectors.
 no electrical current and are free from
 Required backup fiber because of
noise, ground loop effects, crosstalk,
high volume of traffic.
and interference.
 Optical subscriber loop
• Subscribers are connected to the TO through optical and metallic cables.
Information conveyed by many metallic cables is multiplexed in a remote
terminal (RT) and converted into a light by optical/electrical converter.
• Then it transmitted through optical fiber cable. In this case the transmission
system is between a TO and RT.

The typical length

for a subscriber
loop system is
within 10 Km. in
this case, when a
TO is located in
the center,
subscribers are
scattered in a
circle with a 5-Km
radius.
 Optical Trunk System

• In long distance transmission, repeaters are used. In repeaters, received

light is converted to electrical signal by a photodiode PD), and the
converted signal is reshaped electrically through the so-called 3R
functions (retiming, reshaping, and regeneration). The electrical signal is
again converted to light signal by laser diode. for present systems, optical
amplifiers is preferable to be used because there is no need to convert to
electric signal.
Digital Transmission Techniques

Pulse Code Modulation (PCM)

Time Division Multiplexing (TDM)
 PCM COMMUNICATIONS
• Section I: Principles of PCM

In this section, we will study how to convert an analog voice signal into a
digital PCM signal and how to convert the digital PCM signal back to the
original analog voice signal.

• Section 2 Compressing and Expanding

In PCM communications, some quantizing noise is unavoidable. In order to

reduce the effect of this quantizing noise, compressing and expanding
signal processes are employed. These two processes are called
COMPANDING.
To the channel
 Sampling
Picking up the amplitude of the analog signal at regular intervals.

• The train of these samples is called

the PAM signal. PAM stands for
pulse amplitude modulation.

• The sampling theorem states that "If

a message that is a magnitude-time
function is sampled instantaneously at
regular intervals and at a rate at least
twice the highest significant
message frequency,, we can
completely reconstruct the original
analog signal from these samples.
 Spectrum of PAM Signal

• The highest frequency of analog signal and sampling rate are designated fm and fs

• The sampling pulse train has harmonic frequency components equal to multiples of the
sampling rate fs .

• Since the process of sampling is equivalent to the amplitude modulation, the frequency
spectrum of the PAM signal can be obtained by the convolution of the analog signal and
the sampling pulse train in the frequency domain.

• Therefore, the spectrum of the PAM signal is formed by a pair of upper and lower
sidebands around direct current (dc), fs, 2fs and so on.
 Sampling Rate
• If the sampling rate fs is higher than twice the highest frequency fm of the
analog signal, the sidebands do not overlap with each other. And original
analog signal can be extracted through a low-pass filter on the receive side.

• If fs is lower than twice the value of fm, the sidebands overlap with each
other. Thus, it is impossible to faithfully reconstruct the original signal on
the receive side.
 Voice Signal

• Considering that the effective frequency band of telephone circuits is

usually limited to between 0.3 kHz and 3.4 kHz, the sampling rate of
voice signals can theoretically be set at least twice 3.4 kHz or 6.8 kHz.
However, in practice, the sampling rate is set at 8 kHz. This takes account
of realistic filtering characteristics to band-limit voice signals. The
sampling interval is 1/8000 seconds or 125 micro-seconds.
 PAM Signal

• The PAM signal is a train of samples which are discrete on the time scale.
The magnitude of each sample is identical with the amplitude of the original
signal at each sampling time. The magnitudes of the samples are expressed
as continuous values on the amplitude scale.

• The PAM signal is then subjected to the signal process called QUANTIZING.
 Quantization
• In quantizing, the amplitude scale is divided at regular intervals. The
quantized value and the magnitude between two adjacent quantized values
are called the quantizing level and the quantizing interval respectively.

• The magnitude of each sample in the PAM signal is represented by the

quantizing level closest to it. For instance, a sample with a magnitude of
2.8 at tl is quantized to 3 and so .. on.
 Quantization Noise (Distortion)
• The quantized PAM signal only approximates to the original analog signal,
so there are some errors between the two signals in terms of the amplitude
magnitude.

• By making the quantizing interval sufficiently small, quantizing noise can

be reduced to a suitable level.
 Coding
• By coding, the quantized samples are converted into binary codes, that is 1 and
0. each is called one bit.

• Each quantized sample is converted into a binary code with 3 bits. The train of
unit pulses obtained by the coding is called the PCM signal. PCM stands for
pulse code modulation.
• If n bits per sample are used in the coding, the number of quantizing levels
becomes 2n.
• CCITT recommends a coding with 8 bits per sample. So in other wards, the
number of quantizing levels is 256.
 D/A Conversion
• On the receive side, the digital PCM signal is converted into the original
analog voice signal through decoding and filtering. The combination of
these two signal-processes is called D/A conversion.
Decoding

Filtering
 Compressing and Expanding
• In order to reduce the effect of this quantizing noise, compressing and
expanding signal processes are employed.
• The quantizing noise power is nearly constant, irrespective of the voice
power level. Therefore, the ratio of signal power to quantizing noise
power, S/Nq, improves at high power levels and worsens at low power
levels.

• In order to improve the S/Nq at low

power levels, it is necessary to
reduce quantizing noise by reducing
the quantizing interval. However, if
the quantizing interval is reduced,
the numbers of quantizing levels and
bits per sample increase. In other
words, the number of unit pulses to
be transmitted during a sampling
interval increases.
 Non-uniform Quantizing
• Quantizing intervals are reduced in the small amplitude range and increased
in the large amplitude range. different quantizing intervals are employed
depending on the amplitude of the voice signal.

• The amplitude distribution of voice signals is not uniform. Smaller amplitudes

are more probable than large amplitudes. Thus, the S/N q can be expected to
be synthetically better if quantizing noise is reduced for the more probable
amplitudes at the expense of greater noise for the less probable amplitudes.
 CCITT Rec. G711
• In the case of uniform quantizing, a number of quantizing levels around
2000 is required in order to maintain high speech quality even at low
power levels. This corresponds to about 11 bits per sample. On the other
hand, with non-uniform quantizing, 128 quantizing levels and 7 bits per
sample are sufficient to obtain a similar S/Nq to uniform quantizing at low
power levels. CCITT recommends employment of non-uniform
quantizing with 8 bits per sample and 256 quantizing levels to assure high
speech quality.
• On the transmit side, large amplitude voice signals are compressed by a
compressor and then uniformly quantized.

• On the receive side, the original voice signal can be reconstructed by

expanding the received compressed signal.
 Companding
• Voice signals have a wide dynamic range.
Therefore, quantizing noise must be proportional to
signal amplitude over a wide amplitude range. To
achieve this, a logarithmic characteristic is
employed in companding.

• Using this logarithmic characteristic, quantizing

noise at low signal power levels can be satisfactorily
reduced and the S/Nq can be kept constant over a
wide signal power range.

• CCITT recommends two kinds of logarithmic

companding characteristics. One is called the A-law
and is used in Europe. The other is called the -law
and is used in North America and Japan.
• The curves of the A and -laws are approximated by a 13-segment curve
and a 15-segment curve, respectively. In both the A and -laws, the
number of quantizing levels is 256 because each sample is coded with 8
bits.
 Relationship between S/NQ Characteristics
and Companding Methods
• It can be seen from this figure that the A-
law gives a higher S/Nq at high signal
power levels and a lower S/Nq at
low.signa1 power levels compared with
the -law.
• This is because the quantizing intervals
of the A-law are larger at small signal
amplitudes and smaller at large signal
amplitudes than those of the -law.
• However, in the case of both the A and
-laws, the S/Nq can be kept at a high
and nearly constant value down to
considerably low signal power levels.
This figure also shows the S/Nq
'characteristic obtained by uniform
companding.
• It is clear that a great improvement is
achieved at low signal power levels by
non-uniform quantizing compared with
uniform quantizing.
 TIME-DIVISION MULTIPLEXING

• Section I: Principles of Time-Division Multiplexing

• Section 2 Digital Hierarchy

• Section 3 Word Interleaving

• Section 4 Bit Interleaving -Pulse Stuffing Technique.

 Principles of Time-Division Multiplexing
• In TDM, PCM signals of two or
more channels are interleaved on
the time scale for transmission
through a common transmission
line. Since the sampling rate for
voice signals is 8 kHz, the
samples of a voice signal must be
transmitted every 1/8000 seconds
or 125 micro-seconds. Therefore,
TDM of PCM signals can be
achieved by transmitting-samples
of different channels one after
another within the period of 125
micro-seconds.
 PAM and PCM TDM
• Each of the multiplexed samples is quantized and then coded to an 8-bit
binary code. Sets of eight pulses which express the binary code are sent
one after another on the transmission line. Thus, quantizing and coding are
made simultaneously at this stage.
 PCM Frame
• The signal format between the first pulses of binary codes corresponding to
two adjacent samples of the first channel is called one PCM frame. One
PCM frame interval is 125 micro-seconds. With a narrower pulse width, a
larger number of pulses can be sent within one PCM frame interval and so,
in other words; a larger number of channels can be multiplexed on the time
scale

• The number of pulses to be transmitted per second is called the bit rate. The
unit is bit/s. In the case of one channel, since the number of pulses
transmitted during one PCM frame interval is 8 bits and since there are 8000
frames in a second, the bit rate becomes 64 kbit/s. The bit rate increases in
proportion to the number of channels to be multiplexed. When N channels
are multiplexed, the bit rate becomes 64N kbit/s.
 Basic TDM
• This figure shows the multiplexing of voice signals of four channels on the
transmit side and the de-multiplexing of these signals on the receive side.

• On the transmit side, the respective voice signals are sampled at different times
by means of a rotary switch and transmitted in the form of a ,multiplexed signal
through a transmission line.

• On the receive side, each voice signal contained in the multiplexed signal must
be correctly distributed to the corresponding channel by means of another
rotary switch.

• To achieve this, the speeds of both rotary switches on both the transmit and
receive sides have to be equal to each other, and moreover the contact positions
corresponding to each channel on these rotary switches must coincide with
each other. The process for satisfying these two requirements is called
synchronization.

• There are two kinds of synchronization: bit synchronization and frame

synchronization.
Bit synchronization is intended to Frame synchronization is intended
synchronize operations on both the to synchronize operations on both
transmit and receive sides by the transmit and receive sides by
maintaining bit by bit synchronization, maintaining frame by frame
which corresponds to equalizing the synchronization, which corresponds
speeds of the rotary switches. to aligning the contact positions of
the rotary switches
 Synchronization
• If the frequency of the clock pulse on
the receive side is different from that
on the transmit side decoding cannot
be achieved on the receive side. This
is why bit synchronization is
required

Even if bit synchronization is completely established, crosstalk or noise due to

misconnection may occur in voice signals on the receive side unless the voice
signals contained in the multiplexed signal are correctly separated; In order to
prevent such a situation from occurring on the receive side, frame
synchronization is required.

Frame synchronization is intended to maintain synchronization frame by frame,

and as a result the beginnings of every PCM frame on the transmit and receive
sides can be made to coincide with each other.
Digital Hierarchy
 Multiplexing methods
• Multiplexing methods are classified into word interleaving and bit
interleaving types.

• "Word" in the former method means a set of eight pulses corresponding to

an 8-bit binary code which represents the magnitude of a quantized PAM
sample. In word interleaving, pulses of respective channels are arranged on
a word by word basis.

• On the other hand, pulses of respective channels are combined on a bit by

bit basis in bit interleaving.
 Word Interleaving

• In this section we will see the frame structures

of the primary and second-order group signals
using word interleaving.
E1 (30 channels) Frame
E1 (30 channels) Frame
T1(24 channels) Frame
 Bit Interleaving -Pulse Stuffing
Technique.
• The bit interleaving technique is used to obtain high order group signals. A
signal process called pulse stuffing is utilized in bit interleaving. In this
section, we will study the pulse stuffing technique and frame structures
using bit interleaving.

• A higher-order multiplexed signal is produced by multiplexing two or more

lower-order group signals. A piece of equipment for this function is called
a multiplexer. In the case of higher-order multiplexing above the third-
order group, the output clock frequency of the multiplexer is extremely
high, and so it is difficult at the present time to employ word interleaving.
In bit interleaving, the clock frequency of the output higher-order group
signal is set in such a way as to be independent of those of input lower-
order signals.
Bit Interleaving

• Some kind of memory must be provided to

connect two transmission lines which
operate with different clocks. Data
transmitted through the input transmission
line are temporarily stored in the memory
and then read at the clock of the output
transmission line. If the frequencies of
these two clocks are different, the memory
will eventually underflow or overflow,
depending on which frequency is higher.
 Pulse stuffing (justification)
• Because the speed of reading is higher than
that of writing.
• To prevent this, auxiliary data are inserted
into the output data in a prescribed manner.
Auxiliary data may also be removed
according to a prescribed manner on the
receive side.

• In the multiplexer, data are read from the

memory at a clock frequency f1 which is
higher than the input clock frequency fo.
• At the same time, special bits called stuffing
bits and stuffing control bits are combined
with the data read from the memory to keep
the bit rate of the output data constant.
 Jitter
• The clock frequency of the input data is usually unstable because of noise
and interference on the transmission line. The resulting instability of the
clock is referred to as timing jitter. The amount of data written into the
memory varies momentarily as a result of this effect.

• The transient clock frequency of the input data drops because of timing
jitter. In this case, the amount of data written into the memory decreases
and stuffing bits are inserted frequently into the output data.
 Stuffing Control
• The stuffing control bit and the bit in the stuffable bit time slot are
designated the C bit and S bit, respectively.
• Whether the S bit is an information bit or a stuffing bit is indicated by the
C bit.
• For instance:
– when the C bit is 1, the S bit becomes a stuffing bit.
– On the other hand, when the C bit is 0, the S bit becomes an information bit.
 Destuffing
• In the de-multiplexer, stuffing control bit s are extracted from the input data
with a high bit rate. Whether stuffing bits are contained or not in the input data
is determined by examining the content of the stuffing control bits.
• If stuffing bits are contained, they are removed as well as the stuffing control
bits and the data with low bit rates are put out from the de-multiplexer.
• In order to avoid irregularities in bit rates of the output data caused by the
extraction of these bits, the output data are averaged in respect of bit rates.
• In this way, data which are identical with the input data to the multiplexer on
the transmit side can be obtained in the de-multiplexer on the receive side.
E2 (120 channels) Frame
T2 (96 channels) Frame
E3 (480 ch)

Japan
J3 (480 ch)

USA
T3 (672 ch)
According to CCITT Rec. G.703 the following is specified
Bit rate 2048 k bit / s  50ppm 8448 k bit / s  34368 k bit / s  30ppm
30ppm
Code HDB3 HDB3 HDB3
Pulse shape All marks of valid signal must All marks of valid All marks of valid signal
(nominally rectangular) conform with the mask signal must conform must conform with the mask
with the mask
Pair(s) in each direction One coaxial pair One coaxial pair One coaxial pair
One symmetrical pair
Test load impedance 75 ohms resistive 75 ohms resistive 75 ohms resistive
120 ohms resistive
Nominal peak voltage of a mark 2.37 V 3 2.37 V 1V
(pulse) V
Peak voltage of a space (no pulse) 00.237 V 0  0.237 V 0  0.1 V
00.3 V
Nominal pulse width 244 ns 59 ns 14.55 ns
Ratio of the amplitudes of 0.95 to 1.05 0.95 to 1.05 0.95 to 1.05
positive and negative pulses at the
center of the pulse interval
Ratio of the widths of positive 0.95 to 1.05 0.95 to 1.05 0.95 to 1.05
and negative pulses at the
nominal half amplitude
Binary signal 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1

Unipolar
signal
NRZ

RZ

CMI

Bipolar
signal B+ B- B+ B-
AMI

B+ B- B+ V+ B- V- B+
HDB3
 NETWORK SYNCHRONIZATION
• A digital communications network
consists of digital switches and
digital transmission lines.

• Basically, network synchronization

involves synchronizing these
switches and transmission lines to
a single clock.
Slip Control (PDH Synchronization)
 Synchronization of SDH Networks
•The basic clock in SDH is called E1,
and must be exactly 2.048 MHz.

•In an SDH network, a cesium clock

(2.048 MHz) is used as “master
clock” or primary reference clock
(PRC). The PRC is distributed
through the network with the data
signals and regenerated in the
network’s nodes in “slave clocks”
called synchronization supply units
(SSUs).
•The SSUs regenerate the signal after
a chain of SECs (SDH equipment
clocks), and can also temporarily be
used as a PRC if the connection to
the master clock is interrupted. The
SECs are the clocks in the network
elements.
Synchronization network reference chain
Synchronization in SDH/SONET
SDH Principle
 Upon completion of this course, you
will be able to:
 Understand the basic of SDH
multiplexing standard
 Know the features, applications
and advantages of SDH based
equipment
References

 SDH Principle Manual

 ITU-T G.701, G.702, G.707

Emergence of SDH

?What is SDH
Synchronous Digital Hierarchy ----
It defines frame structure, multiplexing ----
method, digital rates hierarchy and interface code
.pattern

?Why did SDH emerge

Need for a system to process ----
.increasing amounts of information
New standard that allows mixing ----
.equipment from different suppliers
Advantages of SDH ( Interfaces )

PDH SDH

Electrical interfaces Electrical interfaces

--- Only regional standards. 3 PDH --- Can be connected with existing
rate hierarchies for PDH: European PDH signals.
(2.048 Mb/s), Japanese, North American
(1.544 Mb/s).
Optical interfaces
Optical interfaces
--- Can be connected to multiple
--- No standards for optical line vendors’ optical transmission
equipments, manufacturers develop at equipments.
their will.
 Disadvantages of PDH (Multiplexing methods )
 PDH : Asynchronous Multiplexing
 The location of low-rate signals in high-rate signals is neither regular nor
predictable.

Mb/s 140 Mb/s 140

Mb/s 34 Mb/s 34

Mb/s 8 Mb/s 8
de-multiplexer multiplexer

de-multiplexer multiplexer

de-multiplexer multiplexer

Mb/s 2 level by level

Not suitable for huge-volume transmission
 Advantages of SDH (Multiplexing methods )
byte interleaved
byte interleaved multiplexing
multiplexing method
method

Low rate SDH to higher rate SDH One Byte from

STM-1
A STM-1 B
STM-1→STM-4→STM-16→STM- (
A A A
) 64

STM-1
B …
B B B 4:1 STM-4
C
STM-1
C
C
Synchronous multiplexing method and ---
D
STM-1
flexible mapping structure
D
D Use multistage pointer to align ---
?What about PDH PDH loads in SDH frame, thus, dynamic
drop-and-insert capabilities
Advantages of SDH (OAM function )

 PDH  SDH

 Weak Operation,  Abundant overheads

Administration & bytes for operation,
Maintenance function. administration and
maintenance.
 About 5% of the total
bytes are being used
 Advantages of SDH ( Compatibility )

PDH, SDH,
ATM, Ethernet
packing

package STM-N SDH STM-N package

network
Processing transmit receive Processing
unpacking

,PDH, SDH
ATM, Ethernet
Comparison between SDH and PDH
.Low bandwidth utilization ratio

Signal Digital Bit Rate Channels

PDH Hierarchy
E0 kbit/s 64 One 64 kbit/s
E1 Mbit/s 2.048 E0 32
E2 Mbit/s 8.448 E0 128
E3 Mbit/s 34.368 E1 16
E4 Mbit/s 139.264 E1 64
Bit Rate Abbreviated SDH SDH Capacity
Mbit/s 155.52 Mbit/s 155 STM-1 E1, 3 E3 or 1 E4 63
Mbit/s 622.08 Mbit/s 622 STM-4 E1, 12 E3 or 4 E4 252
2488.32Mbit/s Gbit/s 2.5 STM-16 E1, 48 E3 or 16 E4 1008
9953.28Mbit/s Gbit/s 10 STM-64 E1, 192 E3, 64 E4 4032
SDH Hierarchy
 Limitations of the PDH network
• Homogeneity of equipment
• Limited functionality
• The problem of channel segregation & cross-connection
• Incompatibility
Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH)
• Evolved to meet the new sophisticate
telecommunication services such as video
conferencing, remote data base access and
multimedia file transfer.

• Advantages
– Network simplification by reducing the amount of
equipment in the network
– Soft ware control by the provision of network management
channels within the SDH frame structure
 Standards
 ITU-T recommendations G.707, G708, and G.709
defined SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy )
standards
 In North America ANSI published its SONET
(Synchronous Optical Network) standards
 The recommendations allowing existing PDH signals
to be carried over a synchronous network.
SONET SDH Bit rate
Mbps
OC-192 STM-64 9953.28
OC-96 STM-32 4976.64
OC-48 STM-16 2488.320
OC-36 1866.24 Synchronous STM
OC-24 1244.16 ModuleTransport
OC-18 933.12 Optical CarrierOC
OC-12 STM-4 622.080
OC-9 466.56
OC-3 STM-1 155.520
OC-1 51.84
 SONET versus SDH
• Technical similarities between SONET and SDH
– Bit rates and frame format organization
– Frame synchronization schemes
– Multiplexing and de-multiplexing rules
– Error control
• Major differences :
– The variations about overhead bytes to accommodate
differences between US and European communications
nodes and networks
– The SDH photonic interface specifies more parameters than
SONET
– SONET and SDH have enough minor technical and
linguistic differences to add complexity ( and cost ) in their
design
• SDH signals may also be connected with a SONET and
vice versa, to exchange information between two kinds
of networks.
Basic multiplexing principle

270 columns (bytes)

9 261

1
Section overhead
SOH
3
4 Administrative unit pointer
rows 9
5 STM-1 payload

Section overhead
SOH

9
 Connection Diagram J
1
Section overhead
L1 L2 L7
SOH K1

4 Administrative unit pointer M1

5 M2 K2

M3
Section overhead

SOH

K3

byte 36 Mbps 34/45 Mbps 140

Can carry E1 Minimum 756 byte
 SDH Frame Structure
Frame = 125 us
:From ITU-T G.707

One frame lasts for 125.1

microseconds (8000
frames/s)
Rectangular block structure .2

12345678
9 rows and 270
rows 9
columns(STM-1)
Each unit is one byte (8 .3
bits)
9

Transmission mode: Byte .4

by byte, row by row, from
left to right, from top to
bottom Columns 270
Bit rate of STM-1= 9*270*8*8000
 SDH Frame Structure
Frame = 125 us

Three parts RSOH

12345678
AU-PTR Information
rows 9
Payload
MSOH
9

Columns 270
 SDH Frame Structure
Information Payload
Also known as Virtual Container level 4 (VC-4) √
Used to transport low speed tributary signals √
Contains low rate signals and Path Overhead (POH) √
Location: rows #1 ~ #9, columns #10 ~ #270 √

LPOH, TU-PTR

RSOH
package
AU-PTR
Payload low rate signal
HPO

rows 9
H

MSOH package

LPOH, TU-PTR
9 1 Data
package
Columns 270
 SDH Frame Structure
Section
Section Overhead
Overhead

Functions : Fulfills the section layer OAM

RSOH Types of Section Overhead

123

AU-PTR Information RSOH monitors the regenerator .1

rows 9
section
Payload
5678

MSOH monitors the .2

MSOH multiplexing section
9

:Location
,RSOH: rows #1 ~ #3 .1
9 columns #1 ~ #9
,MSOH: rows #5 ~ #9 .2
Columns 270 columns #1 ~ #9
 SDH Frame Structure
AU-PTR

RSOH
:Function
Indicates the first byte of VC4
4 AU-PTR Information rows 9
:Location
row #4, columns #1 ~ #9 Payload
MSOH

J1

Columns 270
The SDH layer model
 SDH Multiplexing Method
• SDH Multiplexing includes:
– Low to high rate SDH signals ( STM-1  STM-N )
– PDH to SDH signals ( 2M, 34M & 140M  STM-N )
– Other hierarchy signals to SDH Signals ( IP  STM-N )
• Some terms and definitions:
– Mapping
– Aligning
– Multiplexing
 Transport PDH
Mbps 1,5 Mbps 2 Mbps 34/45 Mbps 140

C11 C12 C2 C3 C4

AU 3 AU 4
 Transport PDH
Mbps 1,5/2 Mbps 34/45 Mbps 140

C1 C2 C3 C4

VC-4 =
P
C4 O
H

AU-4 =
P
C4 O Pointeur
H

S
AU-4 O
H
STM-1 =
 Transport PDH
Mbps 1,5/2 Mbps 34/45 Mbps 140

C1 C2 C3 C4

VC-3 =
P

TU-3
C3 O
H

TU-3

TU-3 =
P
C3 O Pointeur
H

P
C4 O
H
VC-4 =
 xn
STM
STM nn
AUG
Mbps 140

S
P C4
O
H
AU-4 O VC 4
H
x3 x3 Mbps 34
P P
TUG 3 T
R
TU-3 O VC 3 C3
H

S P
O
H
AU-3 O VC 3
H

x7 x7
Mbps 2
x3 P P
TUG 2 T TU-12 O VC 12 C12
R
H
Network Applications
 Unprotected terminal multiplexer
configurations
STM-8 Network
STM-4 traffic
TN-4XE TN-4XE
Tributaries Network Aggregates Aggregates Network Tributaries
Element Element
STM-4 traffic

STM-4 Network

TN-4XE TN-4XE
Tributaries Network Network Tributaries
Aggregate Aggregate
Element Element
STM-4 traffic
 STM-1 tributaries in a linear network

TN-4XE TN-4XE
Network Network
Tributaries Aggregate Aggregate Tributaries
Element Element
STM-4 traffic
A B

 The tributaries configurations can be different at each end

of the network.
 For example, in the STM-4 linear network shown eight
tributaries are installed at NE A and four STM-1 tributaries
are installed at NE B.
 In this example most of the at NE A are carrying less than
the full STM-1 payload.
 Protected connections in a linear
network

STM-4 traffic

Tributaries Aggregates Aggregates Tributaries

STM-4 traffic
TN-4XE TN-4XE
Network Network
Element Element
 Add/drop configuration using flatted
ring

Tributaries
TN-4XE
Tributaries

TN-4XE
Network STM-4 STM-4 Network
traffic traffic Element
Element

Through
connections
TN-4XE
Add/drop Add/drop
connection connection Network
Element

Tributaries
 Tributaries
Add/Drop
Ring TN-4XE
Configuration Network
Element

Tributaries
Tributaries

TN-4XE TN-4XE
Network Network
Element Element

TN-4XE
Network
Element

Tributaries
 Multiple Tributaries
Ring
Configurations TN-4XE

Tributaries
Tributaries
TN-4XE TN-4XE
STM-4 ring

TN-4XE

Tributaries

TN-1X TN-1X

STM-1 ring STM-1 ring

TN-1X TN-1X
 Protected Inter-ring Connections

TN-4XE TN-4XE

TN-4XE TN-4XE TN-4XE TN-4XE

STM-4 ring STM-1o STM-4 ring
A B

TN-4XE TN-4XE
 Regenerator configuration in a linear
network
TN-4XE Regenerator

STM-4 Aggregate
STM-4 Aggregate

Tributaries
TN-4XE
Tributaries

TN-4XE
STM-4 STM-4 Network
Network
traffic traffic
Element Element
STM-4 Aggregate
STM-4 Aggregate

TN-4XE Regenerator
 Network Topologies
• Three major network topologies : tree, ring, and mesh

• Tree
– A hierarchical distribution of NEs
– A connection between source and destination is established for the duration of the
packet through the hub.
– Very efficient for asynchronous data transmission but not for real-time data and voice.
– If a hub fails, all connections through it die.
 Network Topologies
• Ring : consists of NEs interconnected with a dual fiber,
the primary and secondary, to form a ring.
– Some of the NEs are also assigned to communication with
other rings or topologies
– When one fiber fails, the other can still keep the integrity of
the ring
– If both fiber breaks, then the network is reconfigured, forming
a ring using both the primary and secondary and the packets
will flow through all fibers but the broken ones.
– Ring offers fast path protection and is widely used in LANs or
within a relatively limited radius ( campus, town, high risers).
 Network Topologies
• Mesh : consists of NEs fully interconnected
– When one link breaks, the adjacent NE detects the
breakage and reroutes the traffic to another NE.
– Mesh provides transmission protection and network
restoration capabilities.
– Mesh also provides disaster avoidance capabilities when a
cluster of NEs may fail.
– Better applicable in densely populated areas.
• SONET / SDH networks are based on ring topologies
• Other topologies may be mixed into networks as well.
 Path, Line and Section
• A SONET / SDH frame is transmitted from an end user to
another end user through nodes in the network.
• To ensure the deliverability and the integrity of the signal,
overheads are added to the sending signal to be used for
network administration purposes.
• This overhead information is transparent to end users.
• The overhead has been organized hierarchically in three
types :
– Path
– Line
– Section
 Path, Line and Section
• Path : overhead added at transmitting path-terminating
equipment ( PTE ), and it is read by the receiving PTE.
– Path information is not checked or altered by intermediate equipment
• Line : overhead added by the transmitting line-terminating
equipment ( LTE ) to be used by the receiving LTE.
– At the edges of the networks, ( where there are no LTEs, ) PTEs play the
role of LTEs
• Section : overhead added by equipment terminating a physical
segment of the transmission facility.
– A segment between two repeaters
– A segment between an LTE and a repeater
– A segment between an PTE and a repeater
– A segment between two adjacent LTEs where no repeaters between
them.
– All these are sections.
SDH reference model
 SDH network elements
• Regenerator (Intermediate Repeater, IR)
– regenerates line signal and may send or receive data via
– communication channels in RSOH header fields
• Multiplexer
– terminal multiplexer multiplexes/demultiplexes PDH and
SDH tributaries to/from a common STM-N
– Add drop multiplexer adds or drops tributaries to/from a
common STM-N
• digital cross connect
– used for rearrangement of connections to meet variations of
capacity or for protection switching
– connections set up and released by operator
Example SDH network elements
 SDH
Add/Drop Multiplexer

STM-16 west ADM STM-16 east

Mb/s 140
Mb/s 34 Mb/s 45 Digital Tributaries STM-1 / STM4
Mb/s 2
 Dedicated Protection Ring (DPring)
Shared Protection Ring (SPring )
Working Path

ADM

Protection Path

ADM
R

ADM

!!!? Resilience
SDH Anomalies, Defects, Failures,
and Alarms
The SDH frame structure has been designed to contain a large amount of overhead
information. The overhead information provides for a variety of management and
other functions such as:

– Alarm Indication Signals (AIS)

– Error Performance Monitoring using BIP-N
– Pointer Adjustment Information
– Path Status
– Path Trace
– Section Trace
– Remote Defect, Error, and Failure Indications
– Signal Labels
– New Data Flag Indications
– Data Communications Channels (DCC)
– Automatic Protection Switching (APS) Control
– Order wire
– Synchronization Status Message

Much of this overhead information is involved with alarm and in-service

.monitoring of the particular SDH sections
 Definitions

• Alarm – The maintenance signal used in the digital network to alert

downstream equipment that a defect or equipment failure has been detected.

• Anomaly – The smallest discrepancy which can be observed between

the actual and desired characteristics of an item. The occurrence of a single
anomaly does not constitute an interruption in the ability to perform a required
function.
• Examples of SDH anomalies are:
– B1 BIP
– B2 BIP
– Path B3 BIP
– REI
– Pattern Bit (OOS test)
 Definitions
• Defect – The density of anomalies has reached a level where the ability to perform a
required function has been interrupted. Defects are used as input for performance monitoring,
the control of consequent actions, and the determination of fault cause.
• Examples of SDH Defects are:
– OOF
– AIS
– RDI
– LOF
– LOP
– LOM

• Failure – The inability of a function to perform a required action which has persisted
beyond a maximum time allocated.
 SDH Error Performance Monitoring
Error performance monitoring in the SDH is based on Bit-Interleaved-Parity (BIP)
checks calculated on a frame-by-frame basis. These BIP checks are inserted in
the Regenerator Section Overhead, Multiplex Section Overhead, and Path
Overheads.
In addition, Higher-Order Path Terminating Equipment (HO PTE) and Lower-Order
Path Terminating Equipment (LO PTE) produce Remote Error Indications (REI)
based on errors detected in the HO Path and LO Path BIP respectively. The REI
signals are sent back to the equipment at the originating end of a path.
 Alarm List
• LOS Loss of Signal LOS is raised when the synchronous signal (STM-N) level
drops below the threshold at which a BER of 1 in 103 is Predicted. It could be due
to a cut cable, excessive attenuation of the signal, or equipment fault. The LOS
state will clear when two consecutive framing patterns are received and no new
LOS condition is detected.

• OOF Out of Frame Alignment OOF state occurs when several consecutive
SDH frames are received with invalid (errored) framing patterns (A1 and A2
bytes). The maximum time to detect OOF is 625 microseconds. OOF state clears
within 250 microseconds when two consecutive SDH frames are received with
valid framing patterns.

• LOF Loss of Frame LOF state occurs when the OOF state exists for a specified
time in microseconds. The LOF state clears when Alignment an in-frame condition
exists continuously for a specified time in microseconds. The time for detection and
clearance is normally 3 milliseconds.
 Alarm List
• LOP Loss of Pointer LOP state occurs when N consecutive invalid pointers
are received or N consecutive New Data Flags (NDF) are received (other than in a
concatenation indicator), where N = 8, 9, or 10. LOP state is cleared when three
equal valid pointers or three consecutive AIS indications are received.
• LOP can be identified as:
AU-LOP (Administrative Unit Loss of Pointer)
TU-LOP (Tributary Unit Loss of Pointer)

• AIS Alarm Indication AIS is an all-ONES characteristic or adapted

information signal. It’s generated to replace the normal traffic signal when it Signal
contains a defect condition in order to prevent consequential downstream failures
being declared or alarms being raised.
• AIS can be identified as:
MS-AIS (Multiplex Section Alarm Indication Signal)
AU-AIS (Administrative Unit Alarm Indication Signal)
TU-AIS (Tributary Unit Alarm Indication Signal)
 Alarm List
• REI Remote Error An indication returned to a transmitting node (source) that an errored block
has been detected at the receiving node (sink). Indication This indication was previously known as
FEBE (Far End Block Error).
• REI can be identified as:
MS-REI (Multiplex Section Remote Error Indication)
HP-REI (Higher-order Path Remote Error Indication)
LP-REI (Lower-order Path Remote Error Indication)

• RDI Remote Defect A signal returned to the transmitting Terminating Equipment upon detecting
a Loss of Signal, Loss of Frame, or AIS defect. Indication RDI was previously known as FERF (Far End
Receiver Failure).
• RDI can be identified as:
MS-RDI (Multiplex Section Remote Defect Indication)
HP-RDI (Higher-order Path Remote Defect Indication)
LP-RDI (Lower-order Path Remote Defect Indication)

• RFI Remote Failure A failure is a defect that persists beyond the maximum time allocated to the
transmission system protection mechanisms. Indication When this situation occurs, an RFI is sent to the
far end and will initiate a path protection switch if this function has been provisioned.
• RFI can be identified as:
LP-RFI (Lower-order Path Remote Failure Indication)
 Alarm List
• B1 error B1 error Parity errors evaluated by byte B1 (BIP-8) of an STM-N shall
be monitored. If any of the eight parity checks fail, the corresponding block is
assumed to be in error.

• B2 error B2 error Parity errors evaluated by byte B2 (BIP-24 x N) of an STM-N

shall be monitored. If any of the N x 24 parity checks fail, the corresponding block
is assumed to be in error.

• B3 error B3 error Parity errors evaluated by byte B3 (BIP-8) of a VC-N (N =

3,4) shall be monitored. If any of the eight parity checks fail, the corresponding
block is assumed to be in error.

• BIP-2 error BIP-2 error Parity errors contained in bits 1 and 2 (BIP-2) of byte
V5 of a VC-m (m=11,12,2) shall be monitored. If any of the two parity checks fail,
the corresponding block is assumed to be in error.
 Alarm List
• LSS Loss of Sequence Out-of-service bit error measurements
using pseudo-random sequences can only be performed if the reference
sequence Synchronization produced on the receiving side of the test set-up
is correctly synchronized to the sequence coming from the object under
test. In order to achieve compatible measurement results, it’s necessary
that the sequence synchronization characteristics are specified. The
following requirement is applicable to all ITU-T O.150 Recommendations
dealing with error performance measurements using pseudo-random
sequences.
• Sequence synchronization shall be considered to be lost and re-
synchronization shall be started if:
1. The bit error ratio is ≥ 0.20 during an integration interval of 1
second; or
2. It can be unambiguously identified that the test sequence and the
reference sequence are out of phase.
Thank you …

Questions?