Introduction

are standardized TDM technologies This tutorial will explain:

TDM Basics

E1 and T1

of E1 and T1 Higher hierarchies of E1 and T1 Details of E1 and T1 frames

In the

end there is a short quiz to verify your understanding

Time Division Multiplexing

There is a clear motivation to connect between two sites with more then 1 channel. Nevertheless there is no point in stretching separate lines, (physical or microwave) for each channel. Therefore grew the need for multiplexing channels. Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) is one of the multiplexing methods.

Voice Sampling


The Multiplexed channels can carry data or audio Audio is sampled and coded to data


101000011

Code

Sample

Sample - Multiplexing
First let s see 1 channel transmitting every 3 seconds: 1 0 1 0 1 0 Sampler

6 7

9 10 11 12 13

Time

Sample - Multiplexing
Now Bit Stream multiplexing of 3 channels: Sampler

00 0 1 11 0 0
TS2 TS1 TS0

Sampler

Sampler
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Time
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E1 / T1
 E1 and T1 are both TDM interfaces.  They belong to

the first two layers of the ISO (International Standards Organization) OSI (Open System Interconnect) model: The physical and data-link layers. When using signaling mechanism the E1 and T1 can be considered as a data-link layer and when they are used as a raw bit stream it can be considered as a physical layer.  T1 technology was developed by AT&T in 1957 and is used in America and Asia  E1 Technology is used in Europe

E1 / T1 in telephony
The E1 and T1 are

common in the telephony world for connection between switches. Today they are used also for connections between ISPs inside states and between states.

E1 / T1 in telephony - PDH
Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy Uses E1 (30 channels) up to E4 (1920 channels). The PDH is restricted to the E4 because in each level more bits are added for framing until it s getting hard to get the channels. In order to get to one E1 in a switch, all the hierarchy need to be de-multiplexed to E1s
PDH -

E1 / T1 in telephony - SDH
SDH -

Synchronous Digital Hierarchy Base hierarchy of SDH uses E1-E4 SDH is based on high synchronization using atomics clocks rather then adding framing bits Thanks to the synchronization it gets to higher rates that goes from 1980 channels (STM-1) to 120000 channels (STM-64), still allowing adding and dropping separate E1s without de-multiplexing all the channels.

E1/T1 used for PPP

 Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) -

a common layer two protocol that provides a standard method for transporting multi-protocol data-grams over point-to-point links. PPP was designed for simple links that transport packets between two peers. These links provide full-duplex simultaneous bi-directional operation, and are assumed to deliver packets in order.  E1 / T1 are used as links for PPP.

E1

E1 bit Structure
There are several E1 modes, all use 2048 Kb/s:  Unframed (UNF) - stream of 2048 Kb/s with no channel association  Framed (FR) all 32 slots are used for data, detection of boundaries is gained with TS0  Multi-Framed (MF) TS0 is used for synchronization, all other channels are unaffected  MF + Channel Associated Signaling (CAS)1  MF + Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC)  MF + Common Channel Signaling (CCS)/CAS + CRC1

E1 Frame Structure
A Frame

is composed from 256 bits that are divided to 32 Time Slots (TS) x 8 bits per TS Each channel rate is 64 Kb/s The channels are in consecutive time slots numbered 0-31 Frame rate is 8 KHz

E1 Frame Structure
TS 1-15,

17-31 are used for user data and are referred as channels 1-30 TS0 is used for synchronization, alarms and messages (future use) TS16 is used for signaling (but can be also used for data)

E1 Multi Frame Structure

A multi-frame is

formed from consecutive 16 frames

numbered 0-15 It is used for adding information regarding the data:
In TS0

synchronization between frames & Error Correcting In TS16 Signaling

TS-0 in E1 Multi Frame Structure

Synchronization is

gained in every 2nd frame. The synchronization pattern is 0011011. Specifically in the even numbered frames (0, 2 ) bits 1-7 (from 0-7) holds the mentioned pattern. Note that this synchronization does not involves a clock, but bits are transmitted constantly even when the line is idle.

TS-0 in E1 Multi Frame Structure

(optional) is done using a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC-4) that uses 4 bits for every half multi-frame (8 frames). specifically the 4 bits are placed in bit 0 of every 2nd (even) frame, before the synchronization pattern. Error indication bits using CRC-4 are held in frames 13 and 15 Remote alarm indication bit is held in bit 3 of odd numbered frames (1, 3 ) Other bits in the odd frames are spare bits.
Error correcting

TS-0 in E1 Multi Frame Structure

Fr# / bit # 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 0 C1 0 C2 0 1 0 1 0 1 2 0 Alarm 0 3 1 Spare 1 4 1 Spare 1 Spare 1 Spare 1 Spare 1 Spare 1 Spare 1 Spare 1 Spare 5 6 7 1 Spare 1 Spare 1 Spare 1 Spare 1 Spare 1 Spare 1 Spare 1 Spare

Synchronization bits 1 0
Spare 0 Spare 0 Spare 0 Spare 0 Spare 0 Spare 0 Spare 0 Spare Spare 1 Spare 1 Spare 1 Spare 1 Spare 1 Spare 1 Spare 1 Spare

Remote Alarm indication

C3 1 C4 0 C1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1

Spare bits Alarm Spare

0 Alarm 0 Alarm 0 Alarm 0 1 Spare 1 Spare 1 Spare 1

Sub multi-frame 1
C2 1 C3 Error alert C4 Error alert

Alarm C1-C4 Spare bits 0for CRC4 1 Alarm 0 Alarm Spare 1 Spare

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TS-16 in E1 Multi Frame Structure

(CCS) at least one channel (usually TS16) is used for signaling and serves asynchronously all the channels  Channel Associated Signaling (CAS) in each multi-frame, for each channel, there is a frame that half of it s TS16, is dedicated for that channel signaling:
 Frame 0

 Common Channel Signaling

is used for alarm indication and spare bits  Frame 1 is used for channels 1 and 16 (4 bits each)  Frame 2 is used for channels 2 and 17 (4 bits each)
  Frame 15

is used for channels 15 and 30 (4 bits each)

E1 / T1 Tutorial 20

TS-16 in E1 Multi Frame Structure

When the bits

aren t used for signaling 2nd and 4th bits should be 1 and the 3rd should be 0 . The bits can be used for signaling of 2 states (1 bit), 4 states (2 bits) or 15 states (4 bits minus 0000 ). This was used mainly to the on-off-keying slow dial method (OOK). Today DTMF is used in each data channel as part of the data

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Higher E1 Hierarchies
Name
E1 E2 E3 E4 E5

Rate [Mb\s]
2.048 8.448 34.368 139.264 565.148

#Channels
30 120 480 1920 7680

Capacity
30 Channels 4xE1 4xE2 4xE3 4xE4

T1

T1 bit Structure options

All modes uses 1544 Kb/s:  Unframed (UNF) - stream of 1544 Kb/s with no channel association  Framed  Super-Frame (SF)  SF + CAS1  Extended Super Frame (ESF)  ESF + FDL1  ESF + CA/CRC/FDL1  CCS1
1

Will be explained later

T1 Frame Structure
The T1 frame

is composed from 24 channels that come in consecutive time slots numbered 0-23 The frame is 193 bits that are composed from 1 framing bit + 8 bits * 24 Time Slots (TS Framing bit creates an additional channel of 8 kb/s Frame rate is 8 KHz

T1 Super Frame (SF) Structure

The T1 Super

Frame (SF) is composed from 12 frames that are numbered 1-12 The SF structure includes a synchronization mechanism (pattern of 001001 ) and can include a signaling mechanism. These mechanisms are using the framing bit that is added to each frame. Some of them are used for frame boundaries and some for the SF boundaries

T1 Super Frame Structure

Channel Association

Signaling (CAS) is also

optional. It uses 2 bits for every channel, 1 bit of the 6th frame and the 12th frames. I.e. every channel looses 2 bits in each SF The CAS therefore forms a 10.666 kb/s channel. Accordingly the channels rate decreases from 64 kb/s to 56 kb/s which will not interfere to audio channels, but may interfere to data transmissions
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T1 Super Frame Structure

Frame #
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Frame Boundaries
1 0 1 0 1 0 -

SF Boundaries
0 0 1 1 1 0

Information bits
1-8 1-8 1-8 1-8 1-8 1-8 / 1-7 + 1 CAS 1-8 1-8 1-8 1-8 1-8 1-8 / 1-7 + 1 CAS

Synchronizing pattern for the frame Synchronizing pattern for the SF CAS is using 2 bits in every channel

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T1 SF Framing bit
Fr# in a multiframe 1 2 3 4 5 6 Bit # in the multi-frame 1 194 387 580 773 966 FAS 0 DL B B B CRC E1 E2

First bit in every frame Frame Alignment Signal, forms the pattern 001001 4 kb/s data link for messages (B message bit) for maintenance and supervisory control.

6 bits for CRC-6

22 23 24

4054 4247 4440

B -

E6

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Extended Super Frame (ESF)

The Extended Super

Frame (ESF) is composed from 24 frames. It is also known as D5 and Fe Signaling using 1 bit from each 6th frame (6, 12, 18, 24) for each channel. Also known as A/B/C/D signaling. Can for up-to 16 features (4 bits) similar to the SF s CAS.

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Extended Super Frame (ESF)

There are 3 types of framing information:
Synchronization

using the pattern 001011 in every 4 frames 4, 8, 12, 16, 20 and 24 CRC-6 in frames 2, 6, 10, 14, 18, 22 The CRC-6 detects all errors of less then 6 bits, and 98.4 % of errors in more bits. It also prevents synchronization loss that can occur from identical pattern to the synchronization pattern. Data link in the odd frames 1, 3 23 creating a 4 kb/s channel for maintenance and supervisory control.
E1 / T1 Tutorial 31

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Extended Super Frame (ESF)

Frame #
1 2 3 4 5 6

Synch
0 -

Data link
B B B -

CRC
C1 C2

Information bits
1-8 1-8 1-8 1-8 1-8 1-7 + 1

Data link for messages (B message bit)

Synchronizing pattern for the frame 001011

6 bits for CRC-6

Signaling is using 4 bits (1bit*4 frames) per channel

22 23 24

B -

C6 -

1-8 1-8 1-7 + 1

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Higher T1 Hierarchies
Name
T1 T2 T3 T4

Rate [Mb\s]
1.544 6.312 44.736 274.176

#Channels
24 96 672 4032

Capacity
24 Channels 4xT1 7xT2 6xT3

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