SDH VS.

SONET
PHIL LOMBOY
 SDH VS. SONET
Synchronous Optical Networking (SONET)
And Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH)
Are standardized protocols that transfer
multiple digital bit streams over optical
fiber
using lasers or highly coherent light from
light
emitting diodes (LEDs).

This method was developed to replace

the
Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy (PDH)
system for transporting large amounts of
telephone calls and data traffic over the
same
fiber without synchronization problems.
SDH VS. SONET
SYNCHRONOUS DIGITAL HIERARCHY

 SDH (Synchronous Digital

Hierarchy) is a standard
technology for
synchronous data
transmission on optical
media. It is the
international equivalent of
Synchronous Optical
Network. Both
technologies provide
faster and less expensive
network interconnection
than traditional PDH
(Plesiochronous Digital
Hierarchy) equipment.
PLESIOCHRONOUS DIGITAL HIERARCHY

 a technology used in
telecommunications networ
ks
to transport large
quantities of data over
digital transport equipment
such as fibre optic and
microwave radio systems.[1]
The term plesiochronous is
derived from Greek plēsios,
meaning near, and chronos,
time, and refers to the fact
that PDH networks run in a
state where different parts
of the network are nearly,
but not quite perfectly,
synchronised.
PLESIOCHRONOUS DIGITAL HIERARCHY

 PDH allows transmission of

data streams that are
nominally running at the
same rate, but allowing
some variation on the
speed around a nominal
rate. By analogy, any two
watches are nominally
running at the same rate,
clocking up 60 seconds
every minute. However,
there is no link between
watches to guarantee they
run at exactly the same
rate, and it is highly likely
that one is running slightly
faster than the other.
 SDH VS. PDH
 SDH differs from
Plesiochronous Digital
Hierarchy (PDH) in that the
exact rates that are used to
transport the data on
SONET/SDH are tightly
synchronized across the
entire network, using atomic
clocks.

 This synchronization system

allows entire inter-country
networks to operate
synchronously, greatly
reducing the amount of
buffering required between
elements in the network.
SYNCHRONOUS DIGITAL HIERARCHY

 In digital telephone transmission,

"synchronous" means the bits from
one call are carried within one
transmission frame. "Plesiochronous"
means "almost (but not)
synchronous," or a call that must be
extracted from more than one
transmission frame.
 SDH uses the following Synchronous
Transport Modules (STM) and rates:
◦ STM-1 (155 megabits per second),
◦ STM-4 (622 Mbps),
◦ STM-16 (2.5 gigabits per second), and
◦ STM-64 (10 Gbps).
SYNCHRONOUS DIGITAL HIERARCHY
SYNCHRONOUS DIGITAL HIERARCHY
SYNCHRONOUS DIGITAL HIERARCHY

 Regenerator
 Traditional regenerators terminate the
section overhead, but not the line or
path. Regenerators extend long-haul
routes in a way similar to most
regenerators, by converting an optical
signal that has already traveled a long
distance into electrical format and
then retransmitting a regenerated
high-power signal.
 Since the late 1990s, regenerators
have been largely replaced by optical
amplifiers. Also, some of the
functionality of regenerators has been
absorbed by the transponders of
wavelength-division multiplexing
systems.
SYNCHRONOUS DIGITAL HIERARCHY

 Add-drop multiplexer
 ADMs are the most common type of
network elements. Traditional ADMs
were designed to support one of the
network architectures, though new
generation systems can often
support several architectures,
sometimes simultaneously. ADMs
traditionally have a high-speed side
(where the full line rate signal is
supported), and a low-speed side,
which can consist of electrical as
well as optical interfaces. The low-
speed side takes in low-speed
signals, which are multiplexed by
the network element and sent out
from the high-speed side, or vice-
versa.
SYNCHRONOUS DIGITAL HIERARCHY

 Digital cross connect system

 Recent digital cross connect
systems (DCSs or DXCs) support
numerous high-speed signals,
and allow for cross-connection of
DS1s, DS3s and even STS-3s/12c
and so on, from any input to any
output. Advanced DCSs can
support numerous subtending
rings simultaneously.
SYNCHRONOUS OPTICAL NETWORK

 SONET is the American National

Standards Institute standard for
synchronous data transmission
on optical media. The
international equivalent of SONET
is synchronous digital hierarchy
(SDH). Together, they ensure
standards so that digital networks
can interconnect internationally
and that existing conventional
transmission systems can take
advantage of optical media
through tributary attachments.
SYNCHRONOUS OPTICAL NETWORK

 SONET provides standards for a

number of line rates up to the
maximum line rate of 9.953
gigabits per second (Gbps).
Actual line rates approaching 20
gigabits per second are possible.
SONET is considered to be the
foundation for the physical layer
of the broadband ISDN (BISDN).
 Asynchronous transfer mode runs
as a layer on top of SONET as well
as on top of other technologies.
 SONET defines a base rate of
51.84 Mbps and a set of multiples
of the base rate known as "
Optical Carrier levels (OCx)."
SYNCHRONOUS OPTICAL NETWORK
SYNCHRONOUS OPTICAL NETWORK
SYNCHRONOUS OPTICAL NETWORK

 Any type of service, ranging from voice to high-speed data and

video, can be accepted by various types of service adapters.  A
service adapter maps the signal into the payload envelope of the
STS-1 or virtual tributary (VT). New services and signals can be
transported by adding new service adapters at the edge of the
SONET network.  All inputs are eventually converted to a base
format of a synchronous STS-1 signal (51.84 Mbps or higher).
Lower speed inputs such as DS-1s are first bit- or byte-
multiplexed into virtual tributaries.

 Several synchronous STS-1s are then multiplexed together in

either a single- or two-stage process to form an electrical STS-n
signal (n = one or more).
◦ mapping—used when tributaries are adapted into VTs by
adding justification bits and POH information.
SYNCHRONOUS OPTICAL NETWORK

◦ aligning—takes place when a pointer is included in the STS

path or VT POH, to allow the first byte of the VT to be located.

◦ multiplexing—used when multiple lower order path-layer

signals are adapted into a higher-order path signal, or when
the higher-order path signals are adapted into the line
overhead.

◦ stuffing—SONET has the ability to handle various input

tributary rates from asynchronous signals; as the tributary
signals are multiplexed and aligned, some spare capacity has
been designed into the SONET frame to provide enough space
for all these various tributary rates; therefore, at certain points
in the multiplexing hierarchy, this space capacity is filled with
fixed stuffing bits that carry no information but are required to
fill up the particular frame
SYNCHRONOUS OPTICAL NETWORK

 SONET uses a concept called

“pointers” to compensate for
frequency and phase variations.
Pointers allow the transparent
transport of synchronous
payload envelopes (either STS
or VT) across plesiochronous
boundaries, i.e., between nodes
with separate network clocks
having almost the same timing.
The use of pointers avoids the
delays and loss of data
associated with the use of large
(125-microsecond frame) slip
buffers for synchronization.
SYNCHRONOUS OPTICAL NETWORK
SYNCHRONOUS OPTICAL NETWORK
 SONET LAYERS
 Photonic - this layer carries the
optical signals and includes the
optical fibres that connect the
various network elements
together.

 The main considerations here are

the optical characteristics of the
fibre and the interfaces between
the fibre and the section
terminating equipment (STE).
 SONET LAYERS
 Section - a section is a single
physical optical fibre link between
any two adjacent network elements
(including optical regenerators),
and transmission over a section is
controlled using the section
overhead (SOH) bytes embedded
within the SONET frame.

 Section terminating equipment is

responsible for adding the section
overhead to create the SONET
frames, for converting electrical
signals to optical signals and vice
versa, and for signal scrambling.
 SONET LAYERS
 Line - a line is the physical
connection between two adjacent
SONET network elements
(excluding optical regenerators).

 It differs from a section only in

as far as it may include, but
cannot be terminated by, one or
more network elements whose
purpose is simply to regenerate
and amplify weak signals.

 Transmission over a line is

controlled using the line
overhead (LOH) bytes embedded
within the SONET frame. The
responsibility for generating the
line overhead and multiplexing
 SONET LAYERS
 Path - a path is the complete path
followed by a signal from the point at
which it enters the SONET network to
the point at which it leaves the
network.

 Transmission over a path is controlled

using the path overhead (POH) bytes
embedded within the SONET frame
(these bytes occupy the first column
in the Synchronous Payload Envelope
(SPE).

 Path terminating equipment (PTE) is

responsible for mapping non-SONET
tributary signals into the STS-1 SPE
and creating the path overhead.
 SDH VS. SONET
SIMILARITY SONET and SDH, which are essentially the
same, were originally designed to
transport
circuit mode communications (e.g., DS1,
DS3)
from a variety of different sources, but
they
were primarily designed to support real-
time,
uncompressed, circuit-switched voice
encoded in PCM format.
 SDH VS. SONET
SONET
 The SONET standard was
defined by Telcordia and
American National Standards
Institute (ANSI) standard
T1.105.
 SONET offers an additional
basic unit of transmission, the
STS-1 (Synchronous Transport
Signal 1) or OC-1, operating
at 51.84 Mbit/s—exactly one
third of an STM-1/STS-
3c/OC-3c carrier.
 SDH
 The SDH standard was originally
defined by the European
Telecommunications Standards
Institute(ETSI), and is formalized
as International
Telecommunications Union(ITU)
standards G.707,G.783,G.784,
and G.803.
 The basic unit of framing in SDH
is a STM-1 (Synchronous
Transport Module, level 1), which
operates at 155.520
megabits per second (Mbit/s).
 SONET/SDH Designations and bandwidths

SDH VS. SONET

SONET/SDH Designations and bandwidths

SONET Payload
SONET frame SDH level and Line rate
Optical bandwidth
format frame format (kbit/s)
Carrier level (kbit/s)
OC-1 STS-1 STM-0 50,112 51,840
OC-3 STS-3 STM-1 150,336 155,520
OC-12 STS-12 STM-4 601,344 622,080
OC-24 STS-24 – 1,202,688 1,244,160
OC-48 STS-48 STM-16 2,405,376 2,488,320
OC-192 STS-192 STM-64 9,621,504 9,953,280
OC-768 STS-768 STM-256 38,486,016 39,813,120
END