The Comparison Of PDH And SDH

1.Introduction
With the rapid development of internet industry, the
information
handled

content

by

transmitted,

network

has

exchanged

greatly

risen.

As

and
the

transmission system of internet, PDH fails to meet the

application of internet now, so SDH comes into being
as required. This article is written to give you a better
understanding

of

SDH

and

PDH

through

the

comparison of SDH and PDH.

2.What Is PDH and SDH?
PDH,

abbreviation

from

plesiochronous

digital

hierarchy, is a popular technology applied in the

networks of telecommunication in order to transport
huge

amounts

of

data

over

digital

transport

equipment like fibre optic or microwave radio systems.

As shown in Figure 1, in PDH, digital multiplexers
inputs are of same bit rate and are derived from
different clocks from different oscillators. Each will

differ within tolerance of few clock periods. Hence it is

called
derived

plesiochronous.
from

The term

Greek plsios,

plesiochronous is

which

means

near

and close time and refers to the fact that PDH

networks operate in a state where different parts of
the network are nearly synchronised, but not quite
perfectly synchronised.

Figure 1: The working principle of PDH

SDH, short for synchronous optical networking, are
standardized technology that is used for high-speed
data transmission of telecommunication and digital
signals. It can transfer multiple digital bit streams
synchronously

over optical

fiber using lasers or

highly coherent light from light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

As shown in Figure 2, In SDH, digital multiplexers
inputs are of same bit rate and are derived from
common clock. Hence it is called synchronous.At low
transmission rates data can also be transferred via an
electrical interface. SDH system is designed to replace
PDH

system

for

transporting

large

quantities

of telephonecalls and data traffic over the same fiber

without synchronization problems, providing a simple
and flexible network infrastructure.

Figure 2: The working principle of SDH

3.SDH Advantages over PDH
SDH is actually derived from PDH, but makes lots of
improvements on the basis of PDH. Compared with
PDH, SDH has a large number of advantages. The
advantages enjoyed by utilization of SDH includes:

(1)The standardized optical interfaces make it very

convenient for interconnection in lines.
(2)The world-standard frame structure and rate of
digital signals make it easy to interconnect in the
world.
(3)SDH has excellent ability of DXC.
(4)SDH is equipped with the powerful capacity of
networking and network protection.
(5)Synchronous structure is flexible.
(6)SDH

adopts

the

synchronous

mapping,

encapsulation and pointer to facilitate the add and the

drop branches.
(7)SDH is cost-effective and reduces networking cost
due to the transversal compatibility.
(8)SDH possesses forward and backward compatibility.
4.SDH Disadvantages over PDH
Though SDH has plenty of advantages compared with
PDH,

it

still

possess

some

disadvantages.

The

weaknesses of SDH is as follows.

(1)The utilization rate of SDH bandwidth is relatively
low. In SDH, about one twentieth of data frames are
used as the signals of management, thus resulting in

the reduction of data frames utilized to transmit

signals. SDH improves its maintainability but lowers
the utilization rate of bandwidth.
(2)SDH is lacking in network security because of
adopting the OAM as the monitoring and maintenance
instrument of its following performances. As the
common software, OAM is likely to be attacked by
viruses or Trojans owing some bugs of designing and
developing it.
5.Conclusion
With the advent of the information society, PDH fails to
satisfy the internet requirements for transmitting
signals. Though PDH has proved to be a breakthrough
in the domain of digital transmission , it is replaced by
SDH which is a very useful technology used in the
telecommunication

sector

owing

to

its

own

weaknesses now. As the transmission system, SDH is

able to transport large quantities of digital signals over
the same fiber without synchronization problems,
providing a simple and flexible network infrastructure.
SDH system has brought a considerable amount of
changes in the telecommunication networks that are

based on the optical fibers as far as performance and

cost are concerned.
View: www.fibercasa.com for more
information