Lecture 1:

Advanced Transport
Networks

SCHOOL OF COMPUTER AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING

(SCCE)
BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING (HONOURS)
(COMPUTER NETWORK ENGINEERING)
 Lecture Outline

 Overview
 Classification of Networks
 Enabling Network Technologies
 OSI Reference Model
 Protocol Architecture
 Telecom Network Domain

 The core network (or long-haul, transport, WAN)

denotes the spine of telecom network infrastructure in
which interconnects large cities, providing nationwide,
continental, and intercontinental distance.
 The Metro Network (or edge, regional) typically spans
a metropolitan region, covering distances of a few tens
to a few hundreds of kilometres and is dominantly
based on a deep-rooted legacy of SONET/SDH optical
ring networks, WDM ring networks and 10Gigabit
Ethernet Networks.
 Core Networks

 The core network (long-haul) denotes the spine of telecom

network infrastructure in which interconnects large cities,
providing nationwide, continental, and intercontinental
distance.
− Topology: Mesh
Metro Networks
 Access Networks

 Access network (last mile) connects customers to service

provider, enabling end users (business and residential) to
connect to the rest of the network infrastructure, spanning a
distance of a few kilometres.
− Topology: Hub and spokes, tree/star
 Telecom Network Domain

• Access networks (last mile) connects customers

to service provider, enabling end users
(business and residential) to connect to the rest
of the network infrastructure, spanning a
distance of a few kilometres.
 Enterprise/Campus Network
Domain

 The Local Area Network (LAN) is a network that connects

computers, workstations and communication devices in a limited
geographical area
 The Enterprise / Campus Network is a computer network made up
of an interconnection of local area networks (LAN’s) within a limited
geographical area.
 The campus network typically are privately-owned networks within a
single building or campus of up to a few kilometres in size.
 IP over Optical Networks

 Overview
 IP over Optical transmits IP traffic in a WDM-enabled
optical network to leverage both IP universal
connectivity and massive WDM bandwidth capacity.
 It can be represented in terms of a Control Plane and
Data Planes.
 IP Routers connected through lightpaths (WDM )
rather than fibres.
 Evolution of IP over Optical
Networks

4
IP
5
ATM 3 IP/MPLS
2 6
SONET/SDH 2
SONET/SDH IP/GMPLS
1 1
OPTICAL/WDM 1
OPTICAL/WDM OPTICAL/WDM

Function ID
Internet Services 4, 5, 6
Multi-Services Integration 3, 5, 6
Multiplexing/Protection 2, 6
Capacity 1
 IP over Optical Networks

 Overview

 IP over Optical transmits  It can be represented

IP traffic in a WDM- in terms of a Control
enabled optical network Plane and Data Planes.
to leverage both IP
universal connectivity  IP Routers connected
and massive WDM through lightpaths
bandwidth capacity. (WDM ) rather than
fibres.
 IP over Optical Architectures
CAPACITY
GEN STRUCTURE COMPONENTS
(LIGHTPATH)
1ST Basic 1 Gb/s IP Routers, WDM: single wavelength,
transponders: OEO, EDFA

2ND SDH over IP over 1 Gb/s – IP Routers, DXC, WDM: single wavelength,
WDM 2.5 Gb/s Transponder: Short-Reach OE, OA: EDFA

3RD Opaque 2.5 Gb/s – Core Routers, OXC: OEO, WDM: waveband,
10 Gb/s Transponder: Short-Reach OEO, Long-Reach
OEO, OA: EDFA

4TH Translucent 10 Gb/s – Core Routers, OXC: OEO , Hybrid Optical /

40 Gb/s Electronic Switching, 3R, WDM: waveband,
Transponder: OEO Conversion, OA: EDFA

5TH Transparent 40 Gb/s – 100Gb/s Core Routers, OXC; All-Optical Switching,

WDM: waveband, Transponder: OEO
Conversion, OA: EDFA
 Optical Network Structure

 Optical Transport Nework (OTN)

o The was developed for long-haul transport at
data rates 2.5 Gb/s to 40Gb/s per channel.

o Recommeded by ITU-T G.709.

o Support Ethernet Transport (40GbE / 100GbE).

o The role of OTN is to support reliable, cost

effective transmission, accommodate multiple
carriers and providing a scalable bandwidth.
 Optical Layer Framework

 The OTN structure comprises optical layer functionality;

− Optical Channel (OCh)

− Optical Multiplex Section (OMS).

− Optical Transmission Section (OTS).

 Optical Layer Framework
OTL type OTL nominal bit rate
Layers Information Structure
Client OTL3.4 255/236 x 9 953 280 kb/s =
10 754 603.390 kb/s
ODUk Path

OPUk OTL4.4 255/227 x 24 883 200 kb/s

OH = 27 952 493.392 kb/s
OTL4.10 255/227 x 9 953 280 kb/s =
11 180 997.357 kb/s
ODUk OTLk.n allows multiplexing an OTUk signal onto n lanes.
OH Each lane will be transmitted via one lambda on a single fibre or an
Digitally Wrapped
Associated OH

individual fibre.
k: supported bit rate (1: 2.7 Gb/s; 2: 11 Gb/s; 3: 43 Gb/s; 4: 112 Gb/s)
n: number of wavelengths
OTUk r: reduced functionality, i.e. no non-associated overhead is used
Optical Channel

OH m: list of supported bit rates in the OTM

FAS
ODUk TC

FEC
OTU

OTLk.n OTLk.n OTLk.n OTLk.n

Optical Channel
OTUk Section

Transport Lanes
OCh OChr OChr OChr OTLr.n
OCh Payload OCh Payload
OH Payload Payload Payload
Non-associated OH

OSC

Optical Transport Modules

Optical Optical
Multiplex Channel
OTM Overhead

Section Carriers

Optical Multiplex Unit

Optical
Transmission Optical Transmission Unit
Section
OTM-n.m OTM-nr.m OTM-0.m n*OTM-0.m OTM-0.mvn
 OTN Layers

 Optical channel network layer (OCh)

 Provides end-to end networking of optical channels for
transparently conveying client information of varying format
(e.g. SDH STM-H, PDH 565 Mbps, IP, ATM, etc)

 Optical multiplex section network layer (OMS)

 Provides functionality for networking of multi-wavelength
optical signal.

 Optical transmission section network layer (OTS)

 Provides functionality for transmission of optical signals on
optical media of various types (e.g. G.652, G.653 and G.655
fibre)

 Physical media layer network

 A defined optical type
 OCh: Optical Channel

 This layer provides end-to-end networking of optical channels

for transparently conveying client information of varying format.
The layer includes the following capabilities:
 Optical channel connection rearrangement for flexible
networking routing to guarantee fault tolerance and better
performances;

 Optical channel overhead processes for ensuring integrity

of the optical channel adapted information;

 Optical channel operations, administrations and

maintenance functions for enabling network level
operations and management functions
 OCh: Optical Channel

 Optical Channel can be defined like an optical circuit

that includes the Optical Transport Unit (OTU) ,
which is able to “see” the clients and to do an optical
path through optical components like: optical
amplifiers (OA), optical add/drop multiplexer (OADM),
optical cross connector (OXC) and optical fibre (OF)
 The main OCh features is the capability to remain
always optic
 In a simple network structure to every OCh is
assigned a single wavelength λ called Optical
Channel Carrier (OCC).
 OMS: Optical Multiplex
Section

 This layer provides functionality for networking of a

multi-wavelength optical signal. Note that a
“multi-wavelength” signal includes the case of just one
optical channel. The capabilities of this layer include:
 Optical multiplex section overhead processes for ensuring
integrity of multi-wavelength optical multiplex section
adapted information;

 Optical multiplex section operations, administrations and

maintenance functions for enabling section level
operations and management functions, such as multiplex
section survivability.
 OMS: Optical Multiplex
Section

 OMS is the WDM multiplexing layer that provides to mux

and demux the “colours”, or rather the several
wavelength λ which characterized the different OCC, and
eventually to substitute themselves by transponder.
 Each channel has a defined carrier wavelength
(frequency) and optical bandwidth (the supported optical
channel bandwidth plus source stability). Individual
optical channels within an optical multiplex may be either
in-service or out-of-service. Out-of-service channels are
either lit or unlit.
 OTS: Optical Transport
Section

 Optical transmission section

 This layer provides
functionality for
transmission of optical
signals on optical  Optical transmission section
media of various
types. The capabilities
of this layer network
include :
overhead processing for
ensuring integrity of the
optical transmission section
adapted information;
operations, administrations,
and maintenance functions
for enabling section level
operations and management
function such as
transmission section
survivability.
OTU Frame Structure
 Three main fields:
− Optical channel overhead

− Payload

− Forward error indication field.

OTU Frame Structure
 OTN Characteristics
 New transport networking layer
(carrier grade solution)
− Next step (after SDH/SONET) to support ever growing data
driven needs for bandwidth and emergence of new broadband
services.
− Terabit/second per fibre via DWDM lines (transport level)

− Gigabit/second paths at 2.5Gb/s, 10Gb/s, 40Gb/s (networking

level)

− Service transparency for SDH/SONET, Ethernet, ATM, IP,

MPLS

− Enhanced OAM & Networking functionality for all services.

 OTN Characteristics

− Shortest physical layer stack for data services

(IP → OTN → Fibre).

 Gigabit level bandwidth granularity required to scale and

manage multi-Terabit networks
− Wavelength level switching maximizes nodal switching
capacity, the gating factor for reconfigurable network
capacity

− Service Avoids very large numbers of fine granularity

pipes that stress network planning, administration,
survivability and management
 Optical Transport Module
Operation
Transport Mux/Demux Routing Supervision Survivability
OCh Provide for OCh Measure the Manage the
Adaptation Layer connection bit error rate OH for the
towards the client managemen (BER) of optical
t, provide for Och to channel
OH to OXC, estimate the protection
OADM layer channel
quality
OMS Provide for Provide for Manage the Monitoring
multiplexing of λ for the OH λ of Mux
the transport mux/demux assignment behaviour
process for every λ
OTS Provide for manage Measure the
of the optical power level
channel for the (PL) of the
transport WDM
channels
Optical Network
Connections
 A Classification of Optical
Networks
All-electronic switching

Optical Link Networks

Connectionless Connection-
Components on the

Oriented
end-to-end path
Switching

All Packet Switched IP Routers ATM Switches

All Circuit Switched SONET DXCs or
WDM DXCs
Hybrid IP Routers + ATM switches +
SONET DXC / SONET DXCs /
WDM DXC WDM DXCs
 A Classification of Optical
Networks
All-optical switching
Single-hop “Broadcast and Select” and “Wavelength Routed”
networks and Optical Packet Switched Networks
Connectionless Connection-Oriented
Switching Components on the

All Packet Single-hop Broadcast and Single-hop Broadcast

Switched Select; Optical Packet and Select; Optical
end-to-end path

Switched Packet Switched

All Circuit Single-hop Broadcast
Switched and Select; Single-hop
Wavelength Routed

Hybrid Single-hop Wavelength Single-hop Wavelength

Routed; Optical Packet Routed; Optical Packet
Switch with WDM OXC Switch with WDM OXC
 A Classification of Optical
Networks
Hybrid Optical /
Electronic switching
Multi-hop “Broadcast and Select” and “Wavelength
Routed” networks
Connectionless Connection-
Switching Components on

Oriented
the end-to-end path

All Packet Multi-hop Broadcast and Multi-hop Broadcast

Switched Select and Select
All Circuit Multi-hop Broadcast
Switched and Select; Multi-hop
Wavelength Routed
Hybrid Multi-hop Broadcast and Multi-hop Broadcast
Select; Multi-hop and Select; Multi-hop
Wavelength Routed Wavelength Routed
 Enabling Optical Technologies

 Wavelength Division Multiplexing

 Optical Cross-Connect
 Regenerators
 Wavelength Converter
 Erbium-Doped Fibre Amplifier (EDFA)
 Optical Line Terminal (OLT)
 WDM Network Elements
 WDM Networks constitutes various
components or network elements.

− Multiplexers / − Optical Nodes

demultiplexers
i. Optical add-drop
− Regenerators multiplexers
(e.g. Optical line ii. Optical Cross-
amplifiers, Connect (OXC)
transponders)
− Optical line terminals
 Motivation

WDM

OXC Calient S320

Photonic Switch
based 3D MEMS
 Wavelength Division
Multiplexer
 Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) is a
technique to transmit data onto a common
optical fibre simultaneously on various
wavelength channels.

 In optical networks, each channel is known as

a wavelength and the term lambda (λ) is used
to designate the carrier.
− Transmitter/Receiver + MUX/DeMUX
− Point-to-Point application
 Wavelength Division
Multiplexing (WDM)

 Lower speed, lower chromatic dispersion.

 Capacity can be increased by adding wavelengths
 WDM channels can be designed to be transparent
(in data rate and format, nice, but; loss of monitoring
functions).
 One transceiver per channel needed.
 Effectively bridging the gap between optical
transmission speed and electronic processing speed
(known as the electro-optical bottleneck).
Wavelength Division Multiplexing
(WDM)

Wavelength division multiplexing.

Wavelength Division
Multiplexer
 Wavelength Division
Multiplexer
 Two main WDM:
− Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing
(DWDM)
− Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing
(CWDM)
 Dense WDM

 Work inside one of the transmission windows

 ITU proposed a number of frequency grids (multiples of
100GHz):
 At λ=1550nm, c=3 x 108m/s, 1nm wavelength spacing
corresponds to 120GHz.

 ITU decided to align the grid along the frequency of 100GHz

(~0.8nm)

 Nominal centre frequency of 193.1 THz (1552.52nm)

 Middle of 1550 and EDFA (!) passband (1520 - 1564nm)

 Maximum number of 43 channels at 100 GHz spacing

Dense WDM
 ITU WDM Channel Spacing
(G.692)
Wavelength in
Frequency (THz) 50 GHz 100 GHz 200 GHz
Vacuum (nm)
196.10 1528.77 X X X
196.05 1529.16 X
196.00 1529.55 X X
195.95 1529.94 X
195.90 1530.33 X X X
195.85 1530.72 X
195.80 1531,12 X X
195.75 1531.51 X
195.70 1531.90 X X X
195.65 1532.29 X
195.60 1532.68 X X
… …
192.10 1560.61 X X X
Example 2
 Example 3

 Consider WDM systems with 100, 200 and 400

wavelengths operating at the 1550 nm region and
each carrying an OC-48 signal (2.5Gb/s)
− How close do these systems come to using the
available bandwidth in the 1550nm range?
− How many E1 (2Mb/s) leased line can be carried
by each of these systems? How many MP4
(MPEG-4 with video bitrate 6Mbps) television
signals?
 Solution Example 3
 Answer 3(a)
− One OC-48 signal carries 2488.32 Mb/s (payload: 2488.32 Mb/s +
overhead: 82.944 Mb/s) or (2.5Gb/s) of traffic. Thus, the aggregate
bit rate of each of these systems is.
System Bit Rate
100 wavelengths 2488.32 Gb/s (2.48832 Tb/s)
200 wavelengths 4976.64 Gb/s (4.97664 Tb/s)
400 wavelengths 9953.28 Gb/s (9.95328 Tb/s)

Frequency Bandwidth 
c

 3 10 110  100 
8 9

2 1550 10 
2
9

 12.49THz

The available bandwidth of this window is 12.49 THz. Thus, none of

these systems even comes close to using all of the available
bandwidth.
 Solution Example 3
 Answer 3(b)
− The number of E1 leased line speed (2 Mb/s) and MP4 (MPEG-4)
video signals (6Mb/s) that can be carried each system is shown
below:.

System Leased Lines MP4 Video Signals

100 wavelengths 424720
200 wavelengths 829440
400 wavelengths 1658880

− Although, none of the systems comes close to using all of the

available bandwidth, they can still carry huge amounts of traffic. This
shows how WDM provides the potential for huge amounts of
bandwidth and radically expands the bandwidth of existing optical
links.
 Example 4

 A digital MUX operates with 8 sources.

The rate of data in each source is 1000
bytes/s. Assume that 8-bits-per-byte
data is transmitted byte by byte.
− What is the data rate of the MUX
output?
− What is the channel switching rate?
 Example 5

 Consider the three solutions for

upgrading the transmission capacity of
a link from OC-48 to OC-192. Suppose
the cost of installing additional fibre is
RM300 per metre, the cost of each
transceiver is RM3,000, and the cost of
a WDM multiplexer / demultiplexer is
RM30,000. Determine the maximum
length for which you would want to use
the multi-fibre solution.
 Optical Cross-Connect (OXC)

 An optical Cross-Connect (OXC) is a

(space division) switch that executes
routing of optical data streams from any
input to any output fibre.
 The OXC may be implemented as an all-
optical device or using optical-electrical
conversion at the input and output ports.
 Such a switch is managed at the control
plane for signalling and routing to
establish lighpath connectivity.
 Optical Cross-Connect
(OXC)
 Overview
− Known as Optical Switching
− Flexible connectivity of wavelengths between WDM
and OADNs (Wavelength Switching
− Mesh protection

OXC Calient S320

Photonic Switch based
3D MEMS
 Optical Cross-Connect
(OXC)

 OXC
− Wavelength Routing Switches (WRS)
− Route a lightpath from any input port to
any output port
− Mesh protection
A Schematic Structure of
OXC
 OXC Architecture Schemes
λ1 λ1 λ1 λ1
λ2 λ2 λ2

Demux

Demux
Mux

Mux
1 λ3 1 1 λ3 λ3 1
λn λn λn

λ1 λ1 λn λ1
λ2 λ2 λ2
Demux

Demux
Mux

Mux
Q λ3 Q Q λ3 λ3 Q
λn λn λn

(a) rigid (b) rearrangeable

Tunable Wavelength
filter Converter
O
O
O

Combiner
O

Splitter
O
O
1 1

Wavelength
Converter
λ1 λ1 O O
O O
λ2 λ2
Demux

O O
Mux

O O
1 λ3 λ3 O
1 O
O O
λn λn

Combiner
O
O
Splitter
2 2

λ1 λ1 O O
O O
λ2 λ2
Demux

O O
Mux

O O
Q λ3 λ3 O
Q O
O O
λn λn O
O

Combiner
Splitter

3 O
3
O
(c) Strictly nonblocking O
O
O
O

(d) Strictly nonblocking with lower-dimension space switches

 OXC: OEO Converters

Electrical OXC

OXC with OEO

OXC directly connected

to transponders in WDM

OXC directly connected to

the multiplexer/demultiplexer
in the OLT
 Wavelength Converter

 WC is the technique of converting data

arriving on one input wavelength onto
a different output wavelength directly
in the optical domain, enabling routing
flexibility and improving the utilisation
of WDM channels, resolving
contention thereby minimizing the
blocking of traffic.
 Functionality and
Characteristics
An ideal wavelength converter;

 Transparent to bit rates and signal formats.

 Fast setup time or output wavelength
 Conversion to both shorter and longer wavelengths.
 Moderate input power levels
 Possibilities for same input and output wavelengths
viz. No conversion.
Type of Wavelength
Conversion
 Amplifiers
 Regenerators can reshape and amplify
 Electrical
− Requires conversion, is expensive and noisy
 All-optical
− various types, using stimulated emission like
lasers
Erbium Doped Fibre
Amplifier
 References

 Kurose, J. F. and Ross, K. W., “Computer

Networking A Top-Down Approach”, 6th. Edition,
Pearson, 2013. ISBN: 9780273768968
 Leon-Garcia, A. and Widjaja, I, “Communication
Networks: Fundamental Concepts and Key
Architectures”, 2nd Edition. McGraw-Hall, 2006.
 William Stallings, Data & Computer
Communications, 10th. Edition, Prentice Hall,
2014.