Advanced Networking Trends SONET

CHAPTER 2

SONET (SYNCHRONOUS OPTICAL NETWORK)

2.1 Introduction to SONET/ SDH

SONET was developed in the United States through ANSI T1X1.5

committee. ANSI work commenced in 1985 with the CCITT (now ITU)
initiating a standardization effort in 1986. The US wanted a data rate
close to 50Mbps. But the Europeans wanted the data rate to be around
150 Mbps. A compromise was reached and the US data rates were
made subset of ITU specification, known formally as Synchronous
Digital Hierarchy (SDH).

SONET/SDH networks are configured as linear networks, where

SONET/SDH nodes knows as Add Drop Multiplexers (ADMs) are hooked
together in a line as shown in figure-1. There may be two or four fibers
between the two consecutive ADMs with one set serving as
“protection” or “back up”.

Add/drop multiplexers (ADMs) are places where traffic enters

and leaves. The traffic can be at various levels in the SONET/ SDH
hierarchy (see Table-1). We will learn more about ADMs later.

Figure-1

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Also SONET network elements can receive signals from a variety of

facilities such as DS1, DS3, ATM, Internet, and LAN/MAN/WAN. They
can also receive signals from a variety of network topologies. We will
study how all this is done in subsequent sections. In addition SDH
signals my also be connected with a SONET and vice versa. In this
case, circuitry translates specific SDH information into its SONET
equivalent, and vice versa.

2.2 SONET/SDH Rates:

The SONET frame in its electrical nature is called Synchronous

Transport Signal-level N (STS-N). The SDH equivalent is called
Synchronous Transport Module level N (STM-N). After conversion into
optical pulses it is known as Optical Carrier level N. The line rates for
different levels of SONET and SDH signals are shown in Table-1 below.

Table-1:

Signal Designation
SONET SDH Optical Line Rate
(Mbps)

STS-1 STM-0 OC-1 51.85

STS-3 STM-1 OC-3 155.52

STS-12 STM-4 OC-12 622.08

STS-48 STM-16 OC-18 2488.32

STS-192 STM-64 OC-192 9953.28

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2.3 Basic SONET Frame Structure:

The basic SONET frame is as shown in figure 2. This signal is

known as Synchronous Transport Signal Level-1 (STS-1). It consists of 9
rows of 90 bytes i.e. a total of 810 bytes. It is transmitted from left to
right and top to bottom. The two dimensional figure is just for
convenience. Actual transmission takes place serially i.e. the left most
byte in the top row is transmitted, then the second byte in the first row
and so on. After the 90th byte in the first row the left most byte in the
second row is transmitted and it goes on. One more point to be noted
is that msb is transmitted first and the numbering of bits in a byte is
as shown in figure-3. The frame length is 125µs (i.e. 8000 frames per
second). The STS-1 has a bit rate of 51.84Mbps. The frame for the
lowest SDH rate STM-1 contains 270 columns by 9 rows. We will learn
more about it later.

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Figure-2

Figure-3

The first 3 columns of SONET frame are called Transport Overhead

(TOH). The remaining 87 columns are called Synchronous Payload
Envelope (SPE). The first column of SPE is called Payload Overhead
(POH). A point to be noted here is that every SONET frame repeats
every 125µs no matter how fast the line speed gets. As line rate goes
up SONET frame gets bigger, just sufficient to keep the frame rate at
8000 frames per second.

2.4 SONET and SDH Interleaving:

If three STS-1s are byte interleaved, the resulting frame is called STS-
3. Byte interleaving means 1st byte of 1st STS-1 (called A1) is
transmitted, then A1 byte of 2nd STS-1, then A1 byte of 3rd STS-1 and so
on. Now the resultant rate of the frame would be 3 times more. This
multiplexing is carried out for all levels of SONET and SDH. Because of
this, SONET/SDH maintains a frame rate of 125µs. See figure-4 in
which different colors for bytes of each frame are used to have clear
understanding of multiplexing and how higher order frames are
generated. Note that not all the overhead bytes in STS-1 frame are
used in higher order frames. These are represented as ‘X’ in the figure-
4.

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Figure-4

2.5 Transport Overhead:

Let us go through each and every byte of Transport Overhead (TOH). I made
sure that by the end of this section you will have fairly good idea of overheads in
a SONET frame. Transport Overhead is divided into two parts -Section Overhead
and Line Overhead. The first three rows inside the TOH constitute Section
Overhead and the remaining six rows of TOH constitute Line Overhead (See
figure-2).

2.5.1 Section Overhead:

Framing Bytes (A1 and A2): These bytes are used to indicate the
start of SONET/SDH frame. A1 byte is 1111 0110 and A2 byte is 0010
1000. These values remain the same in all STS-1s in an STS-N. SDH
uses the same values for framing.

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Section Trace (J0)/Section Growth: This byte formerly defined as

STS-1 ID (C1), is redefined as Section Trace byte. It allows two
connected sections to verify the connections between them by
transmitting a sixteen-byte message. This message is transmitted in
sixteen consecutive frames with first byte carried in first frame, second
byte in second frame and so on. If no such section trace message is
defined or being transmitted, then in STS-48 or lower bit rate the, J0
and each Z0 shall be set corresponding to its order of appearance in
the STS-N frame (i.e. J0 shall be set to 000000001, first Z0 to 0000010,
second Z0 to 00000011 etc.) Where as in STS-192 frame each Z0 byte
is set to the fixed pattern ‘11001100’.

Section BIP-8 (B1): B1 byte indicates bit error rate to the receiving
terminal. This byte is known as Bit Interleaved Parity (BIP-8). The first
bit in all the bytes in the previous frame are taken and then B1 is set
so that the parity is even. Similarly all the other bits in B1 are set. The
parity is calculated after scrambling and placed before scrambling.
Scrambling is explained in later sections. The parity represented by
this octet is the parity of the previous frame. It is used to estimate the
bit error rate (BER) on the line. Note that the B1 parity is computed
over all the bytes in the frame, no matter how large the frame.
Because of this, the B1 byte does not provide a good BER estimation
for large frames (perhaps STS-48 and larger) under adverse error
conditions. SDH uses this byte for the same purpose.

Orderwire (E1): The E1 byte is located in the first STS-1 of an STS-N.

It is called Local Orderwire (LOW). The corresponding byte locations in
the second through Nth STS-1s are currently undefined. This byte is
used for a voice channel between two technicians as they installed and
tested an optical link. It has a bit rate of 64kb/s. SDH uses this octet for
the same purpose.

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Section User Channel (F1): The F1 byte is located in the first STS-1
of an STS-N, and is used by the network provider. The corresponding
byte locations in the second through Nth STS-1s are currently
undefined. This byte is passed from Section to Section within a Line
and can be read, written, or both at each Section Terminating
Equipment (STE) in that line. The use of this function is optional. SDH
also uses this byte for the same purpose.

Section Data Communication Channel (D1, D2 and D3): These

are the bytes, which form communication channel. These bytes are
defined only for first STS-1 of an STS-N frame. These three bytes are
considered as one 192-kb/s, message-based channel for alarms,
maintenance, control, monitoring, administering and other
communication needs between STE. This channel is used for internally
generated, externally generated and supplier-specific messages. SDH
uses this channel for the same purpose.

2.5.2 Line Overhead:

Pointers (H1 and H2): The processing of H1 and H2 bytes in SONET

and SDH is a beautiful concept. Consider figure-2 which describes the
STS-1 frame. The SPE can be floating in a SONET frame. It can start in
one frame and end in the next frame. Now these two bytes are
allocated to a pointer that indicates the offset in bytes between the
pointer and the first byte of the STS SPE. The pointer bytes are used in
all STS-1s within an STS-N to align the STS-1 Transport Overheads in
the STS-N, and to perform frequency justification. You need not worry
about this concept as of now as I am going to explain it much more
detail in later sections. SDH handles these pointer bytes in the same
way.

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Pointer Action Byte (H3): This byte is used when negative

frequency justification is carried out. The value carried by H3 is not
defined when there is no negative frequency justification. SDH handles
this byte in the same way.

Line BIP-8 (B2): The operation of this B2 byte is same as that of B1

byte in the SOH except that B2 is calculated over Line Overhead and
Synchronous Payload Envelope of the previous frame before
scrambling and placed in the current STS-1 frame before scrambling.
SDH uses this byte for the same purpose.

Automatic Protection Switching (APS) Channel (K1, K2): In the

beginning of this article, I told that a set of fibers is used for protection.
These K1 and K2 are the bytes, which are transmitted over these
protection channels for Automatic Protection Switching (APS) signaling
between line level entities. These bytes are defined only for first STS-1
of an STS-N. In the remaining STS-1s it is undefined. These bytes are
used to indicate a number of defects, alarms etc. detected at the
receiving terminal back to the corresponding transmitting terminal
through protection channels. SDH uses these bytes for the same
purpose. There is lot more explanation to be done on this concept of
APS. I’ll discuss this in later sections.

Line Data Communication Channel (D4-D12): These bytes form a

communication channel to send administrative messages just as D1 to
D3. These nine bytes are considered as one 576-kb/s, message-based
channel for alarms, maintenance, control, monitoring, administering
and other communication needs. This channel is available for internally
generated, externally generated and supplier-specific messages. These
bytes are defined only for STS-1 number 1 of an STS-N signal. SDH
uses these bytes for the same purpose but with additional codes.

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Synchronization Status (S1): This byte is allocated for transporting

synchronization status messages. S1 is defined only for first STS-1 of
an STS-N signal. Currently only bits 5-8 of S1 are used to transport
synchronization status messages. Bits 1-4 are undefined. These
messages contain clock quality labels that allow a SONET NE to select
the most suitable synchronization reference from the set of available
references. The purpose of these messages is to allow SONET NEs to
reconfigure their synchronization references autonomously while
avoiding the creation of timing loops. Let me give a few examples for
bits 5-8 in S1. Bits 5-8 are 0001 for stratum 1 traceable, 0111 for
stratum 2 traceable, 0000 Synchronized traceability unknown etc. SDH
uses this byte for the same purpose

Growth (Z1): Z1 byte is located in second through Nth STS-1s of an

STS-N. This byte is undefined.

STS-1 REI (M0): The M0 byte is defined only for the STS-1 in an OC-1
or STS-1 electrical signal. Bits 5 through 8 of the M0 byte are allocated
for a Line Remote Error Indication function (REI-L), which conveys the
error count detected by LTE (using the B2 code) back to its peer LTE.
Bits 1 through 4 of the M0 byte are currently undefined. The error
count shall be a binary number from zero (i.e., ‘0000’) to 8 (i.e.,
‘1000’). The remaining seven values represented by the four REI-L bits
(i.e., ‘1001’ through ‘1111’) shall not be transmitted, and shall be
interpreted by receiving LTE as zero errors. Since there is no rate in
SDH equivalent to STS-1, SDH does not define an M0 value for this
byte.

STS-N REI (M1): The M1 byte is located in the third STS-1 in an STS-N
(N³ 3) and is used for Line Remote Error Indication (REI-L). The entire
M1 byte is used to convey the count of errors detected by the Line BIP-
8 (B2) byte. This count has (8 times N) + 1 legal values, namely 0 to

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8N errors. For rates below STS-48, the remaining possible 255-(8 times
N) values are interpreted as zero errors. For the STS-48 and STS-192
rates, if the line BIP-8 detects greater than 255 errors, the line REI will
relay a count of 255 errors. SDH uses this byte for the same purpose.

Growth (Z2): These bytes are allocated for future growth, and their
use is currently undefined. Note that STS-1 signal does not contain a
Z2 byte.

Orderwire (E2): This byte has the same purpose for line entities as
the E1 byte has for section entities. It is called Express Orderwire
(EOW) channel. The corresponding bytes in the second through the Nth
STS-1s of an STS-N frame are currently undefined. SDH uses this byte
for the same purpose.

2.6 scrambling.

Before getting into Synchronous Payload Envelope (SPE), I feel its

better to know about scrambling.

Every add/drop multiplexer sample incoming bits according to a

particular clock frequency. Now this clock frequency is recovered by
using transitions between 1s and 0s in the incoming OC-N signal.
Suppose, incoming bit stream contains long strings of all 1s or all 0s.
Then clock recovery would be difficult. So to enable clock recovery at
the receiver such long strings of all 1s or 0s are avoided. This is
achieved by a process called Scrambling.

Scrambler is designed as shown in the figure-5 below.

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Figure-5

It is a frame synchronous scrambler of sequence length 127. The

generating polynomial is 1+x6+x7. The scrambler shall be reset to
‘1111111’ on the most significant byte following Z0 byte in the Nth
STS-1. That bit and all subsequent bits to be scrambled shall be added,
modulo 2, to the output from the x7 position of the scrambler, as shown
in Figure 5.

The framing bytes A1 and A2, Section Trace byte J0 and Section
Growth byte Z0 are not scrambled to avoid possibility that bytes in the
frame might duplicate A1/A2 and cause an error in framing. The
receiver searches for A1/A2 bits pattern in multiple consecutive
frames, allowing the receiver to gain bit and byte synchronization.
Once bit synchronization is gained, everything is done, from there on,
on byte boundaries – SONET/SDH is byte synchronous, not bit
synchronous.

An identical operation called descrambling is done at the receiver to

retrieve the bits

As already said in one of the previous sections that the STS SPE would
be floating and the pointers give the position from where it is going to
start. The phase differences between Transport Overhead and SPE
must be accommodated. Also SONET/SDH systems are synchronous
systems, i.e., all the clocks are supposed to be same, but in reality
they are not. There shall always be small differences. Even when all
the clocks are same there can be jitter, which must also be
accommodated. Data can come into a device slower or faster than it is
transmitted out at the other side. So something has to be done to
adjust the differences between the transmit and receive clocks. This is
where pointer action bytes H1, H2, and H3 come in.

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H1 and H2 bytes are called pointer bytes. Consider H1 and H2 as

shown in figure-6. Bits 1 to 4 are called New Data Flag (NDF) bits
represented by Ns. It is set to 0110 for normal operation. Bits 5 and 6
are currently undefined in SONET but are used in SDH, which we will
study when we go through SDH. Bits 7 to 16 carry the pointer value.

Figure-6

The value of the bits 7 to 16 can vary from 0 to 782. A value of 0

indicates that SPE starts at the first byte immediately after H3 byte. If
the pointer value is 1 the payload starts at the second byte after H3
etc. Figure 6 shows the layout of H1 and H2 pointer. For the time being
ignore the meaning of “I” and “D” labels.

Figure 7 below shows locations of SPE for different values of pointer.

1 2 3 4 5 6 89 90

H1H2 H3 0 1 2 85 86
87 88

521

522523

781 782
H1H2 H3 0 1

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Negative stuff Opportunity

Positive stuff opportunity

Figure 7

Now let us see why and how H3 is used. Suppose the incoming clock is
faster than the outgoing clock. Then an extra byte is accumulated in
our receive buffer, compared to what we can transmit. Now this extra
byte is put into H3 location. So when we transmit one SONET frame of
810 bytes, we actually transmit 784 bytes of payload (86 columns
times 9 rows, plus one H3 octet), rather than 783 bytes of payload.

A similar problem occurs if the incoming clock is slower than the

outgoing clock. Then there will be a deficit in the receiver buffer. To
overcome this problem a stuff byte in the location after the H3 byte is
sent. Moving of SPE backwards is called negative justification and
moving it forward is called positive justification.

In figure-6 pointer bits are labeled as IDIDIDIDID. “I” indicates

increment and “D” indicates decrement. With the help of these I and D
bits we can make positive or negative justification. Let us go through
how these positive and negative justifications are done.

Sonet equipment will have a register using which it compares the

present pointer bits with the previous bits. If “I” bits are inverted then
pointer value is incremented (positive justification) or if “D” bits are
inverted then pointer value is decremented (negative justification). By
changing the NDF value also new pointer value can be introduced. We
shall discuss all this in more detail.

Positive Justification:

Frame New Data Unused I D D I I D D

Status Flag Bits

Normal 0 1 1 X 0 0 1 0 0 1 0
Frame X
Inverted I 0 1 1 X X 1 0 1 1 1 1 0
bits

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New Ptr 0 1 1 X X 0 0 1 0 0 1 1
Value

New Ptr 0 1 1 X X 0 0 1 0 0 1 1
Value

Normal 0 1 1 X X 0 0 1 0 0 1 1
Frame

Figure-8

12

Figure-9

Consider Figures 8 and 9 for the explanation that follows. Let the
pointer value be 214. Its decimal equivalent is 0011010110 which is
shown in first row in figure-8. Now at the frame where positive

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justification should be done the I bits are inverted which is shown in

the second row in figure-8. It is in this frame that the byte after the H3
is stuffed. As soon as the receiver detects that the I bits are inverted, it
discards the byte after H3 as the content is meaningless-but it usually
contains all 0s and also the pointer value is incremented at the
receiver side to point to the adjusted payload.

In the next frame the receiver receives the incremented pointer value.
This new pointer value is repeated for the next frame as well as for the
fourth frame. The new pointer value received in the fourth frame is
available for pointer adjustment again where as that received in the
previous two frames is not available for adjustment. This is because a
new pointer value is accepted only when it is received for three
consecutive frames.

Negative Justification:

Frame New Data Unused I D I D I D I D I D

Status Flag Bits

Normal 0 1 1 0 X X 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 0
Frame

Inverted 0 1 1 0 X X 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1
D bits

New Ptr 0 1 1 0 X X 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 1
Value

New Ptr 0 1 1 0 X 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 1
Value X

Norm 0 1 1 0 X X 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 1
Frame

Figure-10

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Figure-11

Consider Figures 10 and 11 for the explanation that follows. It is very

much similar to positive justification. Let the pointer value be 214. Its
decimal equivalent is shown in first row in figure-8. Now at the frame
where negative justification should be done the ‘D’ bits are inverted
which is as shown in the second row in figure-10. It is in this frame that
the byte after the H3 is used to carry a data byte. As soon as the
receiver detects that the ‘D’ bits are inverted, it immediately takes up
H3 as it contains some relevant data and also the pointer value is
decremented at the received SONET equipment to point to the
adjusted payload.

In the next frame the receiver receives the decremented pointer value.
This new pointer value is repeated for the next frame as well as for the
fourth frame. The new pointer value received in the fourth frame is
available for pointer adjustment again.

2.7 Pointer Adjustment Using NDF:

Frame New Data Unused I D I D I D I D I D

Status Flag Bits

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Normal 0 1 1 0 X X 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1
Frame
NDF Set 1 0 0 1 X X 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0
New Ptr 0 1 1 0 X X 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0
Value
New Ptr 0 1 1 0 X X 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0
Value
Normal 0 1 1 0 X X 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0
Frame

Figure-12

Till now we have discussed incrementing or decrementing of pointer

value only by 1. What if we want to adjust pointer value by more than
1. This can be achieved using NDF. To make adjustments using NDF,
it's bits must be set to1001. The frame in which NDF is set new pointer
value is introduced immediately. Here there is no need for inversion of
“I” or “D” bits. Pointer adjustments using NDF cannot occur more often
than every fourth frame in SONET. This is so because the new pointer
value is accepted only if it is received for three consecutive frames.
Another reason for the limit of every fourth SONET frame is because of
two special cases.

Special Cases:

In the positive pointer adjustment case suppose the pointer is changed

from 782 to zero. Here you can see that the pointer in the frame
following the frame with the NDF inverted will point to the same SPE as
the (implied) pointer of the frame with the inverted NDF. This means
that the system has to ignore the pointer for one SONET frame and the
first valid pointer will be the third SONET frame (the frame with the
NDF inverted is one, the next frame is two, and the third frame has a
valid pointer).

A similar special case occurs when the pointer rolls over backwards
from zero to 782. The zero value pointer is pointing at the byte after
the H3 byte. The next frame has the NDF set and the H3 byte is used
for data. The resultant pointer is pointing to the H3 byte. The
beginning of the next SPE is the last byte in row 3 of the SONET frame
after the frame with the NDF inverted. However, the pointer in that
frame cannot point backwards in the frame, so the SONET equipment
has to handle this situation as a special case. The pointer in that
SONET frame points to the last byte in row 3 of the next (third) SONET
frame. This can be confusing but if you draw pictures similar to Figure
9 and Figure 11 you shall see how it works.

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2.8 Multiplexing STS-1 signals into an STS-n

signal
• byte-interleaved time-division multiplexing
• each STS-1 signal is synchronised to the local mux clock
• section and line overhead of incoming STS-1 signal are
terminated
• SPE payload remapped into a new STS-1 frame synchronised
with local clock:
• pointer in new STS-1 frame adjusted as necessary

• to multiplex k STS-n signals into an STS-kn signal, STS-n signal

first
• de-interleaved into STS-1 signals and then re-interleaved

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SONET standards define a multiplexing hierarchy to create higher rate

SONET signals by multiplexing lower rate SONET signals. The SONET
multiplexing scheme is extremely simplified compared to the PDH
multiplexing scheme, which leads to simplified and inexpensive
multiplexing equipment.

SONET multiplexing is synchronous, that is, the data rate of a higher

rate signal is an integral multiple of the lower rate signal. For example,
the data rate of STS-3 is exactly three times that of STS-1. The
multiplexing hierarchy of SONET is shown in Table 1 below.

Table 1 - SONET Multiplexing Hierarchy

Rate
Signal
(Mbps)
STS-1, OC-1 51.84
STS-3, OC-3 155.52
STS-12, OC-12 622.08
STS-48, OC-48 2488.32

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STS-192, OC-192 9953.28

Unlike the multiplexing in PDH, SONET does not use stuffing to

compensate for the difference in data rates of the lower rate signals
that are being multiplexed .

The lower rate signals are byte-multiplexed to create the higher level
signal. For example, three STS-3 signals are byte-multiplexed to
generate an STS-3 signal. The byte multiplexing is illustrated in Figure
1.

Figure 1 - SONET Multiplexing

The multiplexing hierarchy proceeds further up through the same

principle of byte multiplexing. STS-3 signals can be multiplexed to
create an STS-12 signal, and these can be multiplexed further to
create an STS-48 signal, and so on. Any higher level signal can contain
a combination of any of the lower rate signals. For example, an STS-12
could contain any of the following combinations:

• Four STS-3c signals

• Three STS-3c signals and three STS-1 signals
• Two STS-3c signals and six STS-1 signals
• One STS-3c signal and nine STS-1 signals
• Twelve STS-1 signals

Similarly, an STS-48 signal can contain various combinations of STS-1,

STS-3c and STS-12c signals.

The byte-interleaved synchronous multiplexing ensures that any lower

rate signal is visible directly from the higher rate signal, and can be
added/dropped in a single step. This feature of SONET multiplexing is
what gives strength to its extremely scalable structure.

The signals that are multiplexed have frequency variations across

them. To multiplex these signals without using stuffing, SONET uses
the concept of "pointers" to phase-align the signals being multiplexed.
Pointers are explained in detail in the following section.

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