R K Gangwar

DE(TRANS),BRBRAITT, Jabalpur

Digital Wrapper
With the growing demand for services and bandwidth, now telecom
operators are trying to converge their networks in order to reduce Operational
Expenses (OPEX), and also to eliminate additional Capital Expenditures (CAPEX)
on multiple parallel networks. The amount of data traffic relative to voice traffic on
optical networks and the total traffic volume keeps increasing. These factors are the
drivers behind emerging, flexible technologies to supplement the mature, voice
optimized, SONET/SDH transport infrastructure and help manage network
complexity. The aim of the optical transport network (OTN) is to combine the
benefits of SONET/SDH technology with the bandwidth expandability of DWDM.
OTN (Optical Transport Network) provides a vehicle to enable convergence, and for
providing a common and SONET/SDH-like operational model for network
operations, administration, maintenance and provisioning (OAM&P) functionality,
without altering the individual services. This newly developed OTN is specified in
ITU-T G.709 Network Node Interface for the Optical Transport Network (OTN).
Since the 1980s, SONET/SDH is supporting a flexible and transparent mix of
traffic protocols including IP, Fiber Channel, Ethernet and GFP by providing protection
and performance monitoring. Whilst deployment of dense wavelength division multiplex
(DWDM) networks during the following decade served to increase existing fiber
bandwidth, it severely lacked the protection and management capabilities inherent in
SONET/SDH technology.
The optical transport network (OTN) was created with the intention of combining
the benefits of SONET/SDH technology with the bandwidth expansion capabilities
offered by dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) technology.
What is OTN?
An Optical Transport Network (OTN) is composed of a set of Optical Network
Elements connected by optical fibre links, able to provide functionality of transport,
multiplexing, routing, management, supervision and survivability of optical channels
carrying client signals. A distinguishing characteristic of the OTN is its provision of
transport for any digital signal independent of client-specific aspects, i.e. client
independence.
ITU Standard G.709 is commonly called Optical Transport Network (OTN)
sometimes referred to as digital wrapper (DW), allows network operators to converge
networks through seamless transport of the various types of legacy protocols while
providing the flexibility required to support future client protocols.
OTN provides transport for all digital payloads with superior performance and
support for the next generation of dynamic services with operational efficiencies not
expected from current optical wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) transport
solutions and support for a wide range of narrowband and broadband services like
SDH/SONET
IP based services
Ethernet services
ATM services
Frame Relay services
Audio/Video services
Why use OTN?
The aim of the OTN is to enable the multi-service transport of packet based data and
legacy traffic. OTN offers the following advantages relative to SONET/SDH:
Transparency for native transport of client signals protecting client-generated
management information in the overhead
Low overhead for efficient transport and reduced latency
More Levels of Tandem Connection Monitoring (TCM)
Enhanced maintenance capability for signals traversing through multi-operator
networks
Stronger Forward Error Correction (FEC) for improving long distance transport
FEC helps extend the reach and also provides some comfort in the Indian network
which suffers from repeated fiber cuts, resulting in increase of loss due to
numerous splices over a period of time
Backward compatibility for existing protocols
OTN levels provides sub-lambda grooming, i.e. at granularity coarser than
SONET/SDH, but finer than DWDM
Provides protection protocols similar to SDH which was missing in pure DWDM
Provides inband management channels as in SDH, for which DWDM had to rely
on OSC for management
Reduction in 3Rregeneration (through flexible optical network designs)
The last point is of particular significance as it minimizes network complexity which
leads to reduced costs.
Interfaces and Payload of OTN
G.709 defines standard interfaces and rates. OTN is currently offered in three rates,
OTU1, OTU2 and OTU3. These rates have been derived from the existing SONET/SDH
rates where the G.709 overhead and FEC information have been taken into account. The
resulting interfaces thus operate at line rates, roughly 7 percent higher, than the
corresponding SONET/SDH that becomes the OTN payload. Table 1 lists the G.709 line
rates and the matching SONET/SDH interfaces. An additional interface type, which is not
part of the G.709 recommendation, applies to 10 Gigabit Ethernet local area network
(LAN) clients. In this case, the same overhead structure and FEC is applied resulting in a
line rate of 11.095 Gbps.

Table 1
G.709 Line Rate Corresponding Ethernet /
Interface SONET / SDH Rate
OTU-0 1.25 Gbps GigE
OTU-1 2.666 Gbps OC-48/STM-16
OTU-2 10.709 Gbps OC-192/STM-64
OTU-3 43.018 Gbps OC-768/STM-256
OTU-4 111.8099 Gbps 100GE

ITU-T has also defined OTU (Flex) which gives the data rate as client data
rate x n, or ODU-0xn

OTN Frame
Figure 1 illustrates the three parts that constitute the G.709 OTN frame; namely
the overhead, the payload, and the FEC. No direct correlation exists between the size
of a G.709 frame and that of a SONET/SDH frame. As an example, transmitting a single
STM-64 frame takes about eleven OTU-2 frames. The SONET/SDH payload clients, also
referred to as constant bit rate (CBR), are accompanied by stuff bytes amounting to 64
and 128 per frame in the case of OTU2 and OTU3, respectively. These additional bytes
leave room to support the multiplexing of multiple G.709 lower transmission rate signals.
For example, four individual OTU1 signals, with their FEC stripped and minor overhead
modifications, may be combined and interleaved into the payload of an OTU2 frame.
 Fig. 1 OTN Frame
The OTN is protocol agnostic as it supports payload types other than SONET/SDH and
multiplexed G.709 signals. More specifically, native data protocols such as
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) and GFP can be mapped directly into the payload
area of the G.709 frame. Though the initial development efforts focus on SONET/SDH
clients, G.709 also considers the management of optical wavelengths for wavelength
division multiplexing (WDM). Presently, simple wavelength identification can be
provided in the existing G.709 overhead. The implementation of additional dedicated
overhead for optical channels remains for future standardization.

OTN Layers
An OTN network is made up of several networking layers as shown in figure 2.
Service layer represents the end-user services such as GbE, SONET, SDH, FC
(Fiber Channel) or any other protocol. For asynchronous services such as ESCON,
GbE or FC, the service is passed through a Generic Framing Procedure (GFP)
mapper.

The Optical channel Payload Virtual Container (OPVC) handles mapping the
service into a uniform format. OPVC monitors end-to-end client paths for sub-
wavelength services.
The Optical channel Payload Tributary Unit (OPTU) maps the output of the
OPVC into a timeslot and performs timing adaptations to unify the clocking.
 Services
GFP
OPVC

OPTU
OPU

ODU

OTU

Physical

Fig. 2 OTN Layers

The Optical channel Payload Unit (OPU) contains all of the timeslots in the
OTN frame.
The Optical channel Data Unit (ODU) provides the path level transport
functions of the OPU and monitors end-to-end client paths for wavelength
services.
The Optical Transport Unit (OTU) provides the section-level overhead for the
ODU.
The Physical layer maps the OTU into a wavelength or WDM multiplexing
system.
OTN Transport Structure
As shown in figure 3, to create an OTU frame, a client signal rate is first adapted at
the OPU layer. The adaptation consists of adjusting the client signal rate to the OPU rate.
Its overhead contains information to support the adaptation of the client signal. Once
adapted, the OPU is mapped into the ODU. The ODU maps the OPU and adds the
overhead necessary to ensure end-to-end supervision and tandem connection monitoring
(up to six levels). Finally, the ODU is mapped into an OTU, which provides framing as
well as section monitoring and FEC.
 OTS
Optical Transmission Section (OTS) OH

OMS
Optical Multiplex Section (OMS) OH

OCh
OCh OCh OCh ............. OCh OH

OCh

OTU
OH OTU Payload FEC

ODU
OH ODU Payload

OPU
OH OPU Payload

Client
Fig. 3 Basic OTN Transport Structure
The OTN structure OTUks (k = 1, 2, 3) are transported using the Optical Channel
(OCh); each channel is assigned a specific wavelength of the ITU grid. Several channels
can be mapped into the OMS (Optical Multiplex Section) and then transported via the
OTS (Optical Transmission Section) layer. The OCh, OMS and OTS layers each have
their own overhead for management purposes at the optical level. The overhead of these
optical layers is transported outside of the ITU grid in an out-of-band channel called the
optical supervisory channel (OSC). When the OTU frame structure is complete (OPU,
ODU and OTU), ITU G.709 provides OAM&P functions that are supported by the
overhead
The future of OTN
The OTN is intended to provide robust management features to support the high
bandwidth in OTNs. The OTN delivers management functionality to DWDM networks,
meaning that it is capable of managing multiple colors a function comparable to the
effect of SONET/SDH on single wavelengths. The major advantage of the OTN is its full
backward compatibility which makes it possible to build on the existing management
functionalities available with SONET/SDH. In addition to this, full transparency of
existing communication protocols such as IP, PoS and GFP is also provided. The OTN
and in particular the implementation of FEC, enables network operators to operate their
existing networks both efficiently and economically.
Conclusion
To accommodate the ever-increasing demand for greater bandwidth, optical
transport networks (OTNs) have become the backbone for our next-generation
networks. OTN can provide transparent SONET/SDH transport, and extends
SONET/SDH-like OAM capabilities to data protocols like Ethernet, FC, ESCON, and
Digital Video. OTN implementation maps all services into a common set of
wavelengthssimplifying everything from monitoring and deployment to sparing and
capacity management.

References:
1. ITU-T G.709 (01/03), Interfaces for the Optical Transport Network (OTN)
2. ITU-T G.872 (10/01), Architecture for the Optical Transport Network (OTN)
3. www.exfo.com
4. www.innocor.com
5. www.jdsu.com
6. www.ciena.com
7. www.ecitele.com.

Mr. R K Gangwar, DE(TR)

Shri Rajeev Kumar Gangwar did his M.Sc. (Electronics) from Kanpur University in
the year 1990 and also completed A.N.S.I.(Sugar Tech) from National Sugar Institute,
Kanpur in 1993 and joined Department of Telecom (Now BSNL) in 1993. Presently he is
working as a Divisional Engineer (Transmission) at BRBRAITT, Jabalpur. He is
engaged from last few years in design and development of various Optical Technologies
courses. He has also attended training on 10G DWDM at Shenzhen, China. His area of
interest includes SDH, DWDM, Passive Optical Network, FSO etc.