SONET

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10 Slide Technology Series

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Introduction
„ SONET stands for Synchronous Optical NETwork

„ SONET is a set of coordinated ITU, ANSI and Bellcore standards for

high bit-rate fiber optic transmission

„ The SONET standard defines a hierarchical set of transmission rates

and transmission formats

„ The “synchronous” in SONET refers to the method used to perform

multiplexing in which all clocks are synchronized

„ SONET is predominantly a North American standard

„ SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) is the international equivalent of

SONET
Overview
„ The SONET hierarchy defines hierarchy levels for transmission

„ Each SONET level has an Optical Carrier (OC) level and a

corresponding electrical level transmission frame structure called the
Synchronous Transport Signal (STS)

„ The base transmission rate for SONET is 51.840 Mbps

„ STM (Synchronous Transport Module) is the SDH equivalent (i.e.

international equivalent) of STS

„ The base transmission rate for SDH is 155.52 Mbps

SONET Hierarchy
Optical Level Electrical Line Rate SDH
(OC) Level (STS) (Mbps) Equivalent
OC-1 STS-1 51.840 -
OC-3 STS-3 155.520 STM-1
OC-9 STS-9 466.560 STM-3

OC-12 STS-12 622.080 STM-4

OC-18 STS-18 933.120 STM-6

OC-24 STS-24 1244.160 STM-8

OC-36 STS-36 1866.240 STM-12

OC-48 STS-48 2488.320 STM-16

OC-96 STS-96 4976.640 STM-32

OC-192 STS-192 9953.280 STM-64

SONET Structure – High Level
„ The SONET hierarchy is linear unlike the T-n hierarchy which is non-
linear
¾ For example, 3 x OC-1 bit-rate = OC-3 bit-rate but 28 x DS-1 bit-rate is not
equal to DS-3 bit-rate

„ SONET is natively a channelized technology

¾ For example, an STS-3 contains 3 STS-1’s each with a bit-rate of 51.84 Mbps

„ STS-1 frames can be concatenated to form a single high bit-rate

SONET “channel”
¾ STS-1 frame concatenation is equivalent to unchannelized DS-n’s
¾ A concatenated SONET link is referred to as OC-nc or STS-nc (the “c” is for
concatenated)
¾ For example, 3 STS-1 frames can be concatenated to form an STS-3c frame
¾ An STS-3c frame has a single payload and a bit rate of 155.52 Mbps

„ STS/OC-n distinction
¾ STS frames are the electrical equivalent of the OC levels
¾ All SONET frame creation, multiplexing and adding of overhead bits is done in
the electrical (i.e. STS) domain rather than the optical domain
SONET Structure - STS
„ STS has a frame structure.
STS-1 Frame
„ An STS-1 frame Columns
¾ Consists of 810 bytes (9 rows and 90 columns) 1 2 3 4 5 87888990
¾ Is transmitted at 8000 frames per second 1 ... .
2 ... .
¾ Stores the “overhead” info in the first 3 columns of the frame
3 ... .

Rows
¾ Stores the payload (i.e. the user info) in the other 87 columns 4 ... .
5 ... .
... .
„ An STS-n frame 6
... .
7
¾ Consists of 810 x n bytes (9 rows and 90 x n columns) 8 ... .
¾ Is formed by byte-wise multiplexing of the “n” STS-1 frames 9 ... .
¾ Is transmitted at 8000 frames per second
¾ Stores the “overhead” info in the first 3 x n columns of the frame Overhead
Payload
„ STS-nc frames
¾ Consist of 810 x n bytes
¾ Are transmitted at 8000 frames per second

„ STS frames are transmitted one row at a time from top to

bottom
SONET Structure – Virtual Tributaries
„ Compatibility with lower rate existing digital hierarchies (i.e. T-n and E-n)
is achieved via Virtual Tributaries

„ Virtual Tributaries
¾ Allow SONET to carry lower rate info (e.g. DS-1)
¾ The lower rate (sub-rate) info is mapped into “sections” of an STS-1 frame
¾ These sections are each called a virtual tributary
¾ The virtual tributaries are independent of each other
¾ Each tributary can contain different types of information

„ The STS-1 frame is divided into exactly 7 virtual tributary groups (VTG)
¾ VT types (i.e. VT1.5, VT2, …) cannot be mixed within a single VTG
¾ Each VTG in an STS-1 frame consists of 108 bytes each (9 rows by 12 columns)
¾ VT super-frames are possible

„ There are four virtual tributary sizes (i.e. VT types) defined in SONET
¾ A single VTG can carry 4 VT-1.5s. Each is contained in three 9-byte columns (9 rows by 3
columns = 27 bytes). VT1.5 carries enough bandwidth to transport a DS-1 signal.
¾ A single VTG can carry 3 VT2s. Each is contained in four 9-byte columns (9 rows by 4
columns = 36 bytes). VT2 carries enough bandwidth to transport an E-1 signal.
¾ A single VTG can carry 2 VT3s. Each is contained in six 9-byte columns (9 rows by 6 columns
= 54 bytes). VT3 carries enough bandwidth to transport a DS-1C signal.
¾ A single VTG can carry 1 VT6. It is contained in twelve 9-byte columns (9 rows by 12 columns
= 108 bytes). VT6 carries enough bandwidth to transport a DS-2 signal.
SONET Networks
„ SONET is a fixed bandwidth “trunking” technology

„ Service providers can overlay FR, ATM and other technologies on

SONET to provide bandwidth on demand types of features

„ Service adapters are used to map incoming signals from one

service type (e.g. DS-1) to another service type (e.g. VT1.5) for
SONET transmission

„ Fiber optic links are inherently unidirectional and not full duplex and
therefore are generally deployed in pairs

„ SONET can be deployed in a point-to-point or ring configuration

(ring configurations are much more common than point-to-point)
SONET Rings
„ A SONET ring is a collection of more than 2 SONET network elements
(nodes) forming a closed loop

„ SONET ring architectures can be described by 3 basic attributes

¾ Number of fibers per link (2-fiber vs. 4-fiber)
¾ Direction of signal (unidirectional vs. bidirectional)
¾ Level of switch protection (line switching vs. path switching)

„ SONET ring nomenclature uses abbreviations SONET Ring

¾ ULSR – unidirectional line switched ring Node 1 Node 2
¾ BLSR – bidirectional line switched ring
¾ UPSR – unidirectional path switched ring
¾ BPRS – bidirectional path switched ring
Node 4 Node 3
¾ Each of the above options can be 2-fiber or 4-fiber

„ Of the 8 possible ring architectures, only 3 are generally used in practice

¾ 2-fiber unidirectional path switched (2-fiber UPSR)
¾ 2-fiber unidirectional line switched (2-fiber ULSR)
¾ 4-fiber bidirectional path switched (4-fiber BPSR)
SONET Rings …cont’d
„ 2-fiber vs. 4 fiber
¾ 2-fiber rings have 2 physical fibers between each pair of nodes
¾ 4-fiber rings have 4 physical fibers between each pair of nodes

„ Unidirectional vs. bidirectional

¾ In unidirectional rings, information flow between 2 nodes (node 1 to node 2 or node
2 to node 1) always travels in a single direction
¾ Unidirectional rings use a loop (or pair of loops) for working traffic and the other loop
(or pair of loops) for protection
¾ In bidirectional rings, information flow between 2 nodes (node 1 to node 2 or node 2
to node 1) travels in 2 (opposite) directions
¾ Unidirectional and bidirectional rings are indistinguishable physically

„ Line switching vs. path switching

¾ Line switching and path switching are forms of protection switching
¾ Line switching works by switching traffic to the protection fiber at both end of a span
in the event of a failure
¾ Path switching works by sending traffic along both the working and protection fibers
in the event of a failure and allowing the receiver the select the best signal
¾ Path switching can occur at the STS-1 or VT level as opposed to only the OC-n
level for line switching
Conceptual SONET Network

TM TM

ADM ADM

DSC ADM
MN MN
ADM DSC DSC D+R
MN MN
ADM D+R

TM (Terminal Multiplexer) - an end-point SONET device that converts from SONET to non-SONET format

ADM (Add/Drop Multiplexer) - aggregates or splits (grooms) SONET traffic on to one of two SONET links

DCS (Digital Cross-Connect) – similar to the ADM but can interconnect a large number of STS-n links

MN (Matched Nodes) – used to interconnect SONET rings and provide an alternative path in case of failure

D+R (Drop and Repeat Nodes) – used to send duplicate copies of signals along alternate paths
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