Fiber Optics and Networks 15EC82
Fiber Optics and Networks 15EC82
15EC82
MODULE 5 : OPTICAL NETWORKS
OVERVIEW
• Synchronous networks
• Asynchronous networks
• Open Systems Interconnection reference model
OPTICAL NETWORK TRANSMISSION MODES,
LAYERS AND PROTOCOLS
The end points of the optical network usually comprise network nodes
and network stations.
The nodes connect the fibers within the optical network while the
stations connect the optical network to the non optical systems in the
electronic domain.
The nodes also provide functions that control the optical signals
whereas the stations provide the terminating points for the optical
signal.
The stations and nodes therefore comprise both optoelectronic and
photonic components.
Therefore this practical scenario dictates the use of a combination of
both optical and electronic domains where various devices are required
to communicate with each other in order to establish a connection for
transmission between different segments of the optical network.
In order to establish useful communication among different
network elements of the same or other networks it is necessary to
employ certain physical network structures, transmission types,
rules and protocols which make networking implementation
more
straightforward and also allow the optical network to be
upgraded with new developments and to follow improved service
trends.
SYNCHRONOUS NETWORKS
In this multiplexing strategy, which is currently adopted
throughout the world, each 2 Mbit/s transmission circuit has its
own independent clock to provide for timing and synchronization.
This results in slightly different frequencies occurring throughout a
network and is referred to as pleisochronous* transmission.
a major drawback extra bits need to be inserted (bit stuffing) at
each intermediate level so as to maintain pleisochronous operation.
The presence of bit stuffing in the existing pleisochronous digital
hierarchy (PDH) makes it virtually impossible to identify and
extract an individual channel from within a high-bit-rate
transmission link . Thus to obtain an individual channel the whole
demultiplexing procedure through the various levels must be
carried out.
By the mid-1980s the lack of standards for optical networks
had led to a proliferation of proprietary interfaces where
transmission systems produced by one manufacturer would not
necessarily interconnect with those from any other
manufacturer such that the ability to mix and match different
equipment was restricted.
Hence standardization towards a synchronous optical network
termed SONET commenced in the United States in 1985
The ITU-T (formerly CCITT) began deliberation of the SONET
concepts in 1986 which resulted in basic recommendations for a
new synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) in November 1988.
Hence the synchronous optical network recommendations tend to
be referred to as SONET in North America and SDH in Europe.
The SONET standard as ultimately developed by ANSI defines a
digital hierarchy with a base rate of 51.840 Mbit s−1, as shown in
Table 15.1.
The OC notation refers to the optical carrier level signal. Hence the
base rate signal is OC-1.
The STS level in brackets refers to a corresponding synchronous
transport signal from which the optical carrier signal is obtained
after scrambling and electrical to optical conversion.*
STS-1 is the basic building block of the SONET signal hierarchy.
The STS-1 frame structure shown in Figure is precisely 125 μs
and hence there are 8000 frames per second.
This structure enables digital voice signal transport at 64 kbit/s.
The basic STS-1 frame structure illustrated in Figure comprises nine
rows, each of 90 bytes, which therefore provide a total of 810 bytes
or 6480 bits per 125 μs frame. This results in the 51.840 Mbit s−1
base rate.
The first 3 bytes in each row of the STS-1 frame contain transport
overhead bytes, leaving the remaining 783 bytes to be designated as
the synchronous payload envelope (SPE).
Apart from the first column (9 bytes) which is used for the path
overhead, the remaining 774 bytes in the SPE constitute the SONET
data payload.
The transport overhead bytes are utilized for functions such as
framing, scrambling, error monitoring, synchronization
and multiplexing while the path overhead within the SPE is used to
provide end-to-end communication between systems carrying digital
voice, video and other signals which are to be multiplexed onto the
STS-1 signal .
The STS-1 SPE does not have to be contained within a single
frame; it may commence in one frame and end in another.
A ‘payload pointer’ within the transport overhead is employed to
designate the beginning of the SPE within that frame.
Moreover, to accommodate sub-STS-1 signal rates a virtual
tributary (VT) structure is defined
comprising four rates: 1.728 Mbit s−1 (VT 1.5); 2.304 Mbit s−1
(VT 2); 3.456 Mbit s−1 (VT 3);
and 6.912 Mbit s−1 (VT 6).
• In this case the transport overhead bytes of each STS-1 are frame aligned to create
the 3N bytes of transport overhead, which is illustrated in Figure 15.11.
• However, the SPEs do not require alignment since the service payload pointers
within the associated transport overhead bytes provide the location for the
appropriate SPEs
The synchronous digital hierarchy, as defined by the ITU-T ,
operates in the same manner as described above but differs in
some of its terminology .
Asynchronous transfer mode transfers information in fixed size units called cells where
each cell contains the information identifying the source of the transmission but which
generally contain less data than packets.
An ATM cell comprises a header and payload data as shown in
Figure 15.12. It contains 48 bytes of data with 5 bytes of header
information.
Each single byte in the header field includes different
information to identify destination, path, channel and the error
control bits. Before sending ATM cells carrying user data, a
virtual connection between source and destination has to be
established.
All connections follow the same path within the network.