HAND OUTS OF SDH BASICS

[1] Introduction:
Telecommunication is a process of transmitting or receiving information over a distance by any electrical or
electromagnetic medium. Telecommunication can be possible in 2 ways
1. Analog Communication- signals that vary continuously amplitude and frequency are used in transmission
media
2. Digital Communication-signal is an electrical signal, which possesses two distinct states, on/off or
positive/negative.

[2] Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy (PDH):

Traditional transmission systems and hierarchies have been based on multiplexing signals, which are Plesiochronous
(running at almost the same speed). Various parts of the world use different PDH and multiplexing levels Indians
followed the European hierarchy levels.

Figure1
2.2 Limitations of PDH:
Because of Plesiochronous transmission & bit interleave TDM at higher levels, mainly problem aroused that is
a. Problem of channel segregation: For adding/dropping of E1, requires demultiplexing and subsequent full
multiplexing of signals.
b. Homogeneity of equipment: Equipment from different manufacturers cannot be interconnected
c. Limited functionality: dont have capability to provide service automatically when there is connection failure.

[3] Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH):

Telecommunication Networking formulated by ITU-T (International Telecommunication Union for Telecommunication
standards) solved all the problems which PDH faced by following ways
1. SDH follows the Master-Slave clock technique with PLL (Phase Locked Loop) to synchronize the nodes.
2. SDH provides mapping, MUXing (byte interleaved TDM) & framing to mainly carry PDH & Ethernet traffic to
form STM frame.
3. Overhead bytes ensure the management of payload & Pointers allow dynamic allocation of payload in STM
frame with which justification can be done under specified limit.
4. Automatic Protection Switching provide protection to traffic against the fiber cut & errors with the help of
overhead bytes in SDH.
5. Performance Monitoring & Alarms strengthens the SDH by giving sufficient indication using Overheads bytes
against errors like equipment, operator & communication.

Tejas Networks Ltd. Proprietary Information Page 1

3.1 STM frame structure:
SDH does not multiplex in predefined steps; one unit is multiplexing all incoming links, adds overhead information
and creates a synchronous transport module (STM).
The STM-1 frame is the basic transmission format for SDH. The frame lasts for 125Sec as depicted in Figure. The STM-
n frame is arranged in matrix format and STM-1 frame structure is having 9 rows X 270 columns and hence has 2430
bytes within 125Sec, which forms line rate of 155Mbps(2430X64Kbps). Similarly the STM-N frame is formed, will be
having 9 rows only but columns will be multiplied, which is nothing but column multiplexing and is as depicted.

The STM-n frames are transmitted in left-right and top-bottom manner, i.e. 1st row is transmitted starting from 1x1 byte
and continue upto 1x270 byte, then 2nd row transmitted in same manner, 3rd row,4th row,.7th row.

At Network Node Interface, node derives timing information from the STM-n frames for network node synchronization
so STM-n frame should have sufficient bit timing content (long sequence of 1 or 0 must be avoided). This is done by
Frame synchronous scrambler, which generates alternate 1s & 0s.
Scrambling is performed on 1st row of RSOH bytes, at transmitter side and will be de-scrambled at receiver after
deriving the timing from it.
3.2 Multiplexing Hierarchy:
The Multiplexing hierarchy caters both European & North American hierarchy

Tejas Networks Ltd. Proprietary Information Page 2

3.3 Section Overhead bytes (SOH):
SOH information is added to the information payload to create an STM-N. There are two SOH viz RSOH & MSOH.

a. Regenerator section overhead (RSOH):

The Regenerator Section Overhead contains only the information required for the elements located at both ends of a
regenerator section. The section can be between two regenerators or regenerator & ADM etc.

A1 A1 A1 A2 A2 A2 J0 J1
B1 E1 F1 B3
RSOH
D1 D2 D3
C2
G1
B2 B2 B2 K1 K2
HOPOH
F2
D4 D5 D6 H4
MSOH
D7 D8 D9 F3
D10 D11 D12 K3
S1 M1 E2 N1

b. Multiplex section overhead (MSOH):

The MSOH contains the information required between the multiplex section termination equipment at each end of the
Multiplex section (that is, between consecutive network elements excluding the regenerators).
RSOH Description
A1=F6H Indicates the beginning of the STM-N frame; The frame alignment word of an STM-N frame (N=1, 4,
16, 64) is composed of 3XN A1 bytes followed by 3XN A2 bytes.
A2=28H
J0: RS RS Trace byte is used to by section receiver to verify its continued connection to the intended
trace transmitter. J0 byte transmitted as 16-byte code sent in 16 consecutive frames.
B1: BIP-8 This is a parity code (even parity), used to check for transmission errors over a RS. Its value is
calculated over all bits of the nth STM-1 frame and then placed in the B1 byte of (n+1)th STM-1 frame.
E1 This byte is used as a local orderwire channel for voice communication in RS.
F1 This byte is reserved for user purposes
D1-D3 RS Data Communication Channel bytes form a 192 Kbps message channel providing a message-based
DCCR channel for Operations, Administration and Maintenance

MSOH Description
B2: BIP-24 Error monitoring over MS & computed over STM frame excluding RSOH bytes.3XN B2 bytes in STM-
N (N=1,4,16,64).
K1 & K2 Automatic Protection Switching (APS channel) K1 & K2 (b1-b5) bytes are allocated for APS signalling
for the protection of the multiplex section. K2 (b6-b8) for communicating Alarm Indication Signal
(AIS) and Remote Defect Indication (RDI).
D4 -D12 MS Data Communications Channel bytes form a 576 kbps message channel from a central location for
DCCM OAM information.
S1 Bits 5 to 8 of byte S1 are allocated for synchronization status messages.
M1 The M1 byte is used for a MS layer remote error indication (MS-REI). Bits 2 to 8 of the M1 byte are
used to carry the error count of the interleaved bit blocks that the MS BIP-24xN has detected.
E2 Local orderwire channel for voice communication in MS, E2 is sent in 4 consecutive frames to initiate
the communication which includes segment no.(00-99) & orderwire no.(000-249).

3.4 Virtual Container Path-Overhead (POH):

Virtual container POH provides for integrity of communication between the point of assembly of a virtual container
and its point of disassembly. Two categories of virtual container POH have been identified:

Tejas Networks Ltd. Proprietary Information Page 3

a. Higher order virtual container POH (VC-4/VC-3 POH):
VC-3 POH is added to either an assembly of TUG-2s or a C-3 to form a VC-3. VC-4 POH is added to either an assembly
of TUG-3s or a C-4 to form a VC-4. VC-3/VC-4 POH bytes are also termed as Higher Order POH (HOPOH) as HOPOH
is added to the higher order VCs only.

b. Lower order virtual container POH (VC-2/VC-1 POH):

The bytes V5, J2, N2 and K4 are allocated to the VC-2, VC-12 and VC-11 POH. The V5 byte is the
first byte of the multiframe and its position is indicated by the TU-2, TU-12 or TU-11 pointer.
HOPOH Description
J1 Path access point identifier sends trace message either as 16byte or 64byte in consecutive frames.
B3: BIP-8 B3 bytes checks the transmission error over HP.
C2: Signal One byte is allocated to indicate the composition or the maintenance status of the VC-4Xc/VC-4/VC-3
label like 00(H)=Unequipped, 02(H)=TUG structure--- FF(H)= No valid incoming signal(VC-AIS).

G1: Path G1 byte is used to convey the path terminating status and performance back to the originating PTE.
status byte 4bits used as Path REI that has 0-8 valid BIP violations; 1bit for HP-RDI, which acknowledgement for
the AU-AIS.
F2 & F3 These bytes are allocated for user communication purposes between path elements and are payload
dependent.
H4: Position H4 byte provides a multi frame and sequence indicator for VC-3/4 generalized position indicator for
& Sequence payloads. In the latter case, the content is payload specific (e.g., H4 can be used as a multiframe
Indicator indicator for VC-2/1 payload). H4 byte can be 00,01,02 or 03 for VC-12 multiframe.
K3 APS signalling is provided in K3 bits 1-4, allocated for protection at the VC-4/3 path levels. K3 bits 5-8
are allocated for future use.
N1: N1 byte is allocated to provide a Higher-Order Tandem Connection Monitoring (HO-TCM) function.
Network At each node the B3 data is copied into N1 & sent and at next node B3 is compared with N1, if they
operator dont match the error is sent back to its previous node as REI, which goes till TC source (terminating
byte node).

LOPOH Description
V5 i) 2 bits allocated for error performance monitoring where BIP-2 scheme is used
which includes POH bytes, but excludes V1, V2, V3, and V4.
ii) 1bit as REI that has 2 valid BIP violations.
iii) 3bits for signal label, 000=Unequipped, 001=equipped-non-specific, all other
values are used by new equipment to indicate specific mapping.
J2 iv) 1bitorder
Lower as LP-RDI as acknowledgement for TU-AIS.
path trace.
N2 N2 byte is allocated to provide a tandem connection monitoring (TCM) function that works similar to
N1, along with V5.
K4 1bit for as extended signal label which works along with signal label of V5 and 2bits as APS signalling
for protection at lower order path level.

3.5 Pointers:
SDH provides payload pointers to permit differences in the phase and frequency of the virtual containers (VC-N) with
respect to the STM-N frame. Lower-order pointers are also provided to permit phase differences between VC-1/VC-2
and the higher-order VC-3/VC-4. On a frame-by-frame basis, the payload pointer indicates the offset between the VC
payload and the STM-N frame by identifying the location of the first byte of the VC in the payload. In other words, the
VC is allowed to float within the STM-N frame capacity.

Tejas Networks Ltd. Proprietary Information Page 4

Pointer operation carried out with H1, H2 & H3 bytes in AU & TU-3 pointers and V1, V2 & V3 that works analogous to
H1, H2 & H3 respectively in TU-2/TU-1 pointers. Byte explanation is as depicted in Figure11. The figure shows the byte
arrangements for AU-4 &
3xAU-3 (due to multiplexing 3xAU-3 to map into AUG-1). 3xH3 bytes (AU-4)/1xH3 byte each in 3AU-3/3TU-
3/1xV3byte(TU-2/TU-1) is used for buffering of payloads in negative pointer justification & equivalent number of bytes
after H3/V3 byte are used for stuffing in positive justification. There are different pointer values for different pointer
that is explained in Table.
Pointer Pointer
type value Description
AU-4 0-782 VC-4 has 2349bytes to be allocated pointer values with 10bit(1024) so 2349/3=783,3byte
each 1 pointer value.
AU-3 0-782 VC-3 is783bytes, which is possible with 783 pointer values.
TU-3 0-764 VC-3 (AU-4 map) has 765 bytes so 765pointer values.
TU-n Lower order VC will be structured in multiframe format, in which 4 frames of VC-n are
formed by adding 4 POH bytes (V5, J2, N2, K4), with each of POH byte there will be
pointer bytes (V1, V2, V3, V4 respectively) added which indicates location of V5 to form
TU-n as depicted in Figure below.
TU-2 0-427 4X107byte(VC-2)=428.
TU-12 0-139 4X35byte(VC-12)=140.
TU-11 0-103 4X26byte(VC-11)=104.

Tejas Networks Ltd. Proprietary Information Page 5

After the pointer value assignment, the hierarchy should be able to process the data even in case of clock difference
between the nodes, which can be because of jitter & wander and in all cases the hierarchy does the justification. For
performing the justification First byte of the payload should be allocated from 4th row, immediately after H3 bytes and
they can float anywhere in frame there after. Pointer justification occurs when the sending SDH NEs timing is different
than the receiving SDH NEs timing. There are 2 types of justification possible depending upon the clock frequency.

a. Positive Pointer Justification (PPJ):

If the frame rate of the VC-n is too slow with respect to that of the AUG-N, then the alignment of the VC-n must
periodically slip back in time, where there are 2 nodes (NE1 & NE2) in network, VC-n data rate of NE1 is 782bytes/sec
& AUG-n data rate of NE2 is 783bytes/sec(reference clock recovered) with respective number of pointers. Because of
the difference in clock rate, when NE1 sends only 782bytes, which will fill the NE2 buffer with leaving 1byte empty (1
pointer no information is present) and the pointer is pointing to the 1st position, this is where positive pointer
justification is used. Pointer value is showing the false pointer value where as actual data starts from 2nd position, so for
that stuffing byte is added at 1st position (doesnt contribute for payload) & pointer incremented from position 1(dotted
arrow) to 2(where actual data starts). This is Positive Pointer Justification (PPJ). PPJ operation is carried out in 4
consecutive frames.
Frame-n Start of VC-n, where clock is recovered from incoming bits & set as reference.
Frame (n+1) Pointer initialization, payload slipped back because clock difference.
Frame (n+2) Pointer value I bits inverted to have 5bit majority voting at receiver &
stuffing bytes added after 3H3 bytes.
Frame (n+3) Pointer value incremented by 1.
NE2
NE1
1
1 1q1
2 2
3 3
| 4
| |
| |
| |
780 |
781
781 VC-n 782 AUG-n
782 783

b. Negative Pointer Justification (NPJ):

If the frame rate of the VC-n is too fast with respect to that of the AUG-N, then the alignment of the VC-n must
periodically be advanced in time, where VC-n data rate is 784bytes/sec and AUG-n data rate of adjacent node is
783bytes/sec (reference clock recovered). When NE1 sends the data all 783 positions (50-783 in nth frame to 49 shown in
figure) of NE2 are filled with data sent by NE1, even then 1 byte is remaining which has to be accommodated in frame
of NE2, this is done by vacating the H3H3H3 bytes, because of which payload is moved in that place and the remaining
data is included within payload by decrementing the pointer from 50 to 49.NPJ operation is carried out in 4 consecutive
frames. It is similar to PPJ till frame (n+1),
Frame (n+2) Pointer value D bits inverted to have 5bit majority voting at receiver &
Buffering is done in H3 bytes where payload data is loaded (which is extra in VC-n)
Frame (n+3) Pointer value decremented by 1.

Tejas Networks Ltd. Proprietary Information Page 6

 1 49
1q1 50
2 51
3 52
4 |
| 783
| 782
| 783
| 0
1
782 |
VC- n(NE1) AUG-n(NE2)
783 48
784 49

[4] Automatic Protection Switching (APS):

Protection is required for the traffic against 3 conditions Signal Degrade (SD), Signal Failure (SF) and fiber cut. When
first 2 conditions occur the traffic quality will be lost and in the later case traffic itself will be lost. So there was service
level agreement done between service provider & customer, according to which 99.999% of the time connection should
be available and this is possible only by Automatic Protection Switching. APS can be classified in general as
i. 1+1 protection scheme/Dedicated protection scheme
The simplest of all the forms is the 1+1 type of protection. Each working line (port or path) is protected by one
dedicated protection line (port or path). Protection line is redundant line dedicated for the working line. Traffic is taken
through both working line & protection line simultaneously and at the far end traffic will be selected by switch
depending upon the healthiness of the traffic. The switch over is triggered by a defect such as fiber cut, SF or SD. When
working line is on the toss, traffic will be selected from the protection line. The main disadvantage of the 1+1 is high
bandwidth redundancy but 1+1 is faster than any of the protection-switching scheme.
ii. 1:1 protection scheme/Shared protection scheme
1:1 in general can be called as 1:N; in 1:1 protection for each of the working line (which can be either port or path) there
will be a corresponding protection line. There will be 2 types of traffics identified for catering it, high priority traffic &
low priority traffic (Not supported in Tejas products). High priority traffic will be catered in the working line and low
priority traffic will be taken through protection line. When the working line goes on the toss, traffic has to be catered
through protection line where low priority traffic is present, which will be pre-empted from protection line for serving
the high priority traffic.
In 1:N there will be N working line, which are getting protected by 1 protection line through which low priority traffic
is catered and the switching occurs depending upon the priority given to the working line and low priority traffic will
be given least priority.
Above said 2 protection schemes can be discussed in detail based on network topology, which are

4.1. Linear protection scheme:

1+1 & 1:N protection switching scheme when deployed in linear network will be termed as linear protection switching
scheme.
a.1+1 MSP:
1+1 protection scheme in linear network are termed as 1+1 MSP as each section in our Tejas optical network is MS.
depicts the normal operation of the 1+1 MSP, where communication needs to establish between 2 NEs A & B.

1+1 MSP is port level protection scheme where traffic catered in one port called as Working port (3-1 or 4-1) as depicted
will be protected by Protecting port (3-2 or 4-2). Each port will be having Tx. & Rx fiber which will be connected to its
adjacent port to Rx. & Tx. respectively, which will be either Working Path (WP) if its for working port & Protecting
Path(PP) if its for protecting port. Both WP & PP will be carrying the signal simultaneously and at the far end the traffic

Tejas Networks Ltd. Proprietary Information Page 7

will be selected by switch depending upon healthiness of the traffic, in normal case it will be from working path and
switching to protecting path occurs when SD, SF & fiber cut is observed on working path which are traffic affecting. For
example if single fiber cut occurs in WP, then selector switch in A will be switched from WP to PP (ie. Only affected
direction of traffic will be switched over to PP) and traffic will be undisturbed. This type of switching is called as
Unidirectional Switching.

On single fiber cut if both direction of traffic is switched over from WP to PP then it will be called as Bi-directional
switching. User can configure both switching types.
1+1 MSP can also be configured by user as Revertive or Non-Revertive protection, when provisioned as Revertive
protection, after WP is repaired back, switching takes place PP to WP and traffic will be selected from WP but after
Wait-To-Restore (WTR variable from 5-12min which is user configurable) time is elapsed which ensures proper splicing
in WP.
If Non-Revertive protection is provisioned then traffic will not be switched back from PP to WP even if the WP is
repaired completely, until user forcefully switches the traffic using external commands.

4.2Ring protection scheme:

Ring network is made up of ADM and any traffic added can reach to its destination in 2 ways, which can be useful in
APS. There are 2 types of protection switching schemes.
a. Sub Network Connection Protection (SNCP):
Sub Network Connection Protection (SNCP) or Unidirectional Path Switched Ring (UPSR)(in SONET terminology) is
dedicated protection scheme, which gives path level protection for each traffic and traffic will be flowing in both WP &
PP simultaneously. The SNCP has to be provisioned at terminating nodes, for each traffic individually Destination
Work (DW), Destination Protect (DP) and Source Work (SW), Source Protect (SP) has to be specified as depicted in
Figure18.Consider communication is needed between A & D and the HP or LP will be as shown from A to D in 2 ways,
one is selected as Working HP/LP (WP) (for this traffic) and another one selected as Protecting HP/LP (PP) (for this
traffic). Whenever the WP is on the toss its PP will protect the traffic and corresponding switching occurs at far end. PP
is dedicated to WP for individual traffic, like this 63 E1 can be protected in STM-1 node, each having different WP and
PP.

SNCP has to be provisioned only in terminating nodes and PTXC has to be provisioned in intermediate nodes. SNCP is
necessarily follows Unidirectional switching only as the protection directly provided for the traffic separately and if
traffic flowing from 3-1 to 4-1 is affected then traffic will be received from 5-2 in PP. Traffic is still received in A from 3-1
through WP only. If both direction traffic is affected in WP then both direction traffic will switch over to PP. SNCP also

Tejas Networks Ltd. Proprietary Information Page 8

can have both Revertive & Non-Revertive protection. Tandem SNCP is another application of SNCP where single fiber
cut in N rings can be protected simultaneously for which can be simulated using 4-way XC. SNCP protection cant be
provisioned in the presence of MSP or MSSP protection.
b. Multiplex Section Shared Protection (MS-SP):
MS-SP ring is also called as Bi-directional Line Switched Ring (BLSR) in SONET terms, which is ring network
application of 1:1 protection switching scheme There are types of rings
i. MS-SP 2F ring:
MS-SP-2Fiber ring will be having 2 fibers with bandwidth divided for the working traffic & protecting traffic, for
example in STM-N ring having 6 nodes, communication needs to be carried out between NE A & D. In MS-SP ring
within every port each fiber is divided as working traffic & protecting traffic of N/2 capacity each (i.e. in each fiber AU4
1-8 will be working traffic & AU4 9-16 will be protecting traffic). Working traffic of one direction say from A to B in
AU4 1-8 is protected by protecting traffic in opposite direction from B to A in AU4 9-16.
The protection process is explained with example as depicted in Figure if Multiplex Section between B & C is affected
then all other Multiplex Sections in ring will share their bandwidth to protect the traffic because of which its named as
MS-Shared Protection. When the traffic between B & C is affected the traffic will reach from A to B in AU4#1(working
traffic) then at B, RING SWITCHING takes place where traffic will be switched from AU4#1 to AU4#9(protecting
traffic) and will go back from B to A. The traffic will reach the node C in AU4#9 only then traffic will be switched back
to AU4#1 as the MS between B & C was on the toss so traffic got protected by other MS. After traffic reached the C
another ring switch takes place where traffic will be switch back to AU4#1(working traffic) then will reach the
destination D in AU4#1only.Similarly the opposite direction traffic also will be protected in Ring switching.
As name suggests this follows only Bi-directional switching and MS-SP 2F cant be Non-Revertive at all, as main
advantage of Non-Revertive protection is to avoid the fiber ageing when it is heavily loaded, keeping another path idle.
Only disadvantage of the MS-SP 2F is that maximum bandwidth utilization is STM-N/2 capacity, which was overcome
by MS-SP 4F. Tejas products do not support MS-SP 4F for now.

Figure 1 Figure 2
There can be maximum of 16 NEs (0-15) in a ring because every NE is given Node ID for which 4 bits reserved in K1&
K2 byte. Provisioning needs to be done at every NE giving East/West chassis-slot-port, ring ID, node ID and ring map.

ii. MS-SP 4F ring:

MS-SP 4F ring require four fibers for each span of the ring. Working and protection traffic are carried over different
fibers: two NEs transmitting in opposite directions carry the working traffic while two NEs, also transmitting in
opposite directions, carry the protection traffic. This permits the bi-directional transport of working traffic.
MS-SP 4F rings support RING SWITCHING as a protection switch, as well as SPAN SWITCHING, though not
concurrently. Multiple span switches can coexist on the ring since only the protection channels along one span are used
for each span switch. Certain multiple failures can be fully protected using span switching. MS-SP 4F can support only
Bi-directional switching and it supports both Revertive & Non-Revertive protection.

Tejas Networks Ltd. Proprietary Information Page 9

4.3 External Commands:
External commands enable the user to have control over routing of the traffic whenever application arises. There are 4
external commands whose priority is given by 4bits of K1 byte.

a. Clear/Release: clears all external commands applied on any port, which is having the highest priority.
b. Lock Out of Protection (LOP): when maintenance operation has to be carried on the PP, in which case if WP goes on
the toss traffic continuously tries to acquire the PP and selector switch keeps on switching between WP & PP. To avoid
this loop LOP is given so that PP is locked & no traffic will be allowed to go through PP.
c. Forced Switch: Work or Protect: Forcefully switches traffic to intended path; it can be Forced Switch to Work or
Forced Switch to Protect. The switching takes place regardless of condition of the path to which it is switching to
because SF/SD are of lower priority compared to this command.
d. Manual Switch: work or Protect: is similar to Forced switch but main difference is while switching traffic, condition
of path is checked as SF/SD are of higher priority. Hence whenever Manual switch to work is given and WP is having
SF/SD then switching doesnt take place.
Following table illustrates the different types of protection switching schemes.
Protection Topology Uni-Directional / Bi- Revertive / Shared / Dedicated Switching Time
Directional Non-Revertive
Schemes
1+1 MSP Linear Uni / Bi-Directional Revertive / Dedicated Low
Non-Revertive
(Port protection)
1+1 SNCP Ring Uni-Directional Revertive / Dedicated Low
(UPSR) Non-Revertive
(Path protection)
MSSP2F Ring Bi-Directional Revertive Shared Switching time is
(BLSR) more
(Line protection)
MSSP4F Ring Bi-Directional Revertive / Shared Switching time is
(BLSR) Non-Revertive more
(Line protection)
1:N Linear NA Revertive/Non Shared Switching time is
Revertive more
(Card protection)

[5] Synchronization:
Synchronization is required to enable service providers to transport bits of information within and across network
without losing any bits, which can be due to mis-timing (phase variation) inside transmission equipment when data is
regenerated. When mistiming becomes large, errors are produced and the system can become unusable. Even at low
values of mis-timing (phase variation), sensitivity to amplitude and phase variations is increased and performance
suffers. There are 2 types of phase variation Jitter & Wander. Jitter is a short-term variation of the digital signal from its
ideal position in time and its frequency is >10Hz.

Tejas Networks Ltd. Proprietary Information Page 10

Wander is long-term variation of the digital signals from its ideal position and its frequency is <10Hz.
Synchronization is attained in the SDH using Master-Slave clock technique along with Phase Locked Loop (PLL), which
is performed by Synchronous Status Message (SSM) state machine.

6.1 SSM state machine:

SSM state machine present in every NE will synchronize all NE in network.

SSM state machine nominates the clocks through 3 interfaces

i. Optical interface (STM ports),
ii. Electrical interface (E1/DS1 interface)
iii. BITS (clock/data) (external reference signal)
Every NE will be having multiple of interfaces representing different clocks SSM will lock to the particular clock
depending upon the provisioning done by the user in synchronization configuration in NES.
A Nominated clock signal can be either in Signal Fail or No Signal Fail State. If Signal Fail is present on nominated
clock, it will not be considered for timing reference clock selection process until and unless it is overridden by an
external command. The following Alarms are considered for declaring/clearing a signal fail: LOS, LOF and AIS.
User can configure following parameters, which is applied to the SSM for synchronization.

a. Priority: Priority of the nominated clock can have range of 0-8. Valid priorities can range from 1-8. 1 is the highest
priority and 8 is the lowest. More than one clock can have the same priority. A 0 Priority, which is also the initial
default, indicates that this clock should not be considered for selecting the timing reference.
b. QL mode: The quality of a clock is automatically detected in case of STM clocks from their S1 byte.
The user can configure the QL label of the BITS/PDH clocks manually. When a PDH/BITS clock is nominated, it comes
up with an INVALID Quality Label. There are mainly 3 quality levels of clock.

Tejas Networks Ltd. Proprietary Information Page 11

i. Primary Reference Clock (PRC): G.811 S1: 1234 Description
a. Accuracy of clock is 10 11(10pico second deviation/sec.). 0000 Quality Unknown
b. Stratum 1 clock derived from GPS satellite, Cesium clock. 0010 PRC
ii. Synchronization Supply Unit (SSU): G.812
0100 SSU-A
a. Accuracy of the clock is 1.6X10-8(0.016Sec deviation/sec).
1000 SSU-B
b. Stratum 2 clock derived from Quartz crystal oscillator Table 7
1011 SEC
iii. SDH Equipment Clock (SEC): G.813
a. Accuracy 4.6X10-6 1111 DNU
b. Stratum 3 clock derived from Quartz crystal oscillator.
When all quality of clocks are mixed together maximum number of clocks to be used is given by G.803 series; according
to which
Maximum number of SEC's between 2 SSUs: < 20
Maximum number of SSU's in a chain: < 10
Maximum number of SEC's in a chain: 60.
i. QL Disable:
Nominated clock input QL is not considered for clock selection. In this mode, clock with high priority will be selected.
The next highest priority clock gets selected as the secondary reference.
ii. QL Enable:
Nominated clock input QL is considered for clock selection. In this mode clock with better QL is selected. In case of two
or more having the QL label the user configured priorities are used to break the deadlock.
c. Output QL mode:
Depending on NE configuration (SONET/SDH) and Output QL mode.
The following is the list of options available to the user for configuring the output Quality mode:
i. Auto: SSM will send quality level/label of the selected clock as NE Quality to all interfaces connected to NE.
ii. Manual: SSM will send user (operator) specified value as NE Quality to all interfaces connected to NE
Note: Irrespective of the Output QL Mode, a DNU/DUS is sent on the selected clock interface and its MSP mate port, if any.
a. SETG (Synchronous Equipment Timing Generation) status:
The SETG status is the indicator of what state the SSM module is in. It has the following states:
i. Free Running: PLL becomes an open loop system. The output frequency cannot be tracked to the nominated clock
or no external clock is nominated or in holdover mode for more than 24 hours.
ii. Holdover: Timing reference on all nominated clocks failed. or PPM offset on selected clock is high (> +/- 17
PPM).
iii. Lock: Derives timing from the nominated clock source. The node also shows which timing source it is deriving
its reference from by indicating a * against the Timing reference which is current reference clock.

b. Alarms:
SM provides following Alarms to indicates the current status of SSM
i. Timing reference failed: nominated clock source has LOS, LOF or AIS or if the Primary or the Secondary clock PPM
offset is higher than +/- 17 PPM.
ii. System clock in holdover mode: This alarm is raised in the following scenarios.
a. Current selected clock received signal fail and no other nominated clock is available for timing reference.
b. Current selected clock PPM offset crosses +/-17PPM
iii. Timing generation entry free run: This alarm will be generated when
a. No clock is nominated for timing reference.
b. Internal clock is selected as reference clock.

Tejas Networks Ltd. Proprietary Information Page 12