Chapter Three

Digital Hierarchy Technologies

1
 Introduction
• Telephone companies make use of multiplexing long
distance calls onto high speed trunks.
• International standard bodies issue multiplexing rates
that from the digital transmission hierarchy.
• Digital Carrier is a digital signaling representing a
telecommunication service.
• The base level in the hierarchy is the equivalent of a
single 64Kbps digitized voice.
• The hierarchy differs from region to region.

2
 Introduction Continued ...
• Digital Service in North America defines a four level
transmission hierarchy called T-Carrier, range from
T1, T2, T3 and T4
• In Europe and South America, there is a five level
transmission hierarchy called E-carrier, E1, E2, E3, E4
and E5.
• Both Systems use PCM to encode an analogue signal
in digital form.

3
 T-1 Carrier System
• The first version Transmission System 1 (T-1), was introduced
in 1962 in the Bell System
• The T-1 carrier system was introduced to carry the traffic
between telephone central offices.
• Mainly the T1 Carrier system was to in increase the circuit
density on existing copper wiring between central offices.

4
The T-1 Carrier System Continued ….

• T1 Carries 24 digitized voice signals on a single set of copper

wires.
• It uses a transmission frame that consists of 24 slots of 8 bits
each.
• Each slot carries one PCM sample for a single connection.
• The beginning of each frame is indicated by a single bit that
follows a certain periodic pattern.

5
 Basic T1 Circuit Components

• A basic T1 System consists of: Multiplexers, demultiplexers,

Channels Service Units (CSU), and the T1 circuit which is four
copper wires with repeaters with every mile or so.
6
 Continued …
• Since T1 was designed to carry 24 trunks over 4
copper wires, the multiplexer has 24 hardware ports
each one running at 64kbps.
• The CSU is the interface device connecting the T1
multiplexer and the actual T1 circuit.
• The T1 circuit is four copper wires for each direction.
• Binary digits are represented on these copper wires
using pulses of voltage.
• Repeaters are spaced every 1 mile or 1.6km along
the T1 circuit.

7
 Table 3.1 Calculating Data Rate of T1 Carrier System

• Thus, the resulting transmission line has a speed (Data rate)

of: (1+24*8)bits/frame*8000 frames/seconds = 1.544Mbps.
Today, T1 is not used much for long distance circuits.
Fiber optic and Microwave based carrier systems are used for
long distance.
8
 Thus, T1 is:
• Full Duplex
• Purely Digital
• Uses Time Division Multiplexing (TDM)
• Uses Pulse Code Division (PCM)

9
Time Division Multiplexing (TDM)

 TDM is used in telephony.

 Voice analog signals are digitized at the end office using Pulse
Code Modulation (PCM).
 A voice signal is sampled 8000 times/sec, or every 125 sec
 That is a voice signal needs a bandwidth of 64Kb
 An 8-bit number is assigned to each sample at every 125
sec.

10
Time Division Multiplexing Continued …
 Time division multiplexing allows a link to be utilized
simultaneously by many users.

1 1
D
2 M E 2
U link
M
X U
N X N

N input N output
links links

Fig. Time Division Multiplexing (TDM)

11
TDM Cont’d …

 The transmission is organized into frames.

 Each frame contains a fixed number of time slots.
 Each time slot is pre-assigned to a specific input link.
 The duration of a time slot is either a bit or a byte.
 If the buffer of an input link has no data, then its associated
time slot is transmitted empty.
 A time slot dedicated to an input link repeats continuously
frame after frame, thus forming a channel or a trunk.

12
Digital Transmission Hierarchies
 The growth of telephone network traffic and the advances in
digital transmission led to the development of a standard
digital transmission hierarchy.
 Different regions of the world use different digital
transmission hierarchies.
 There are three basic digital transmission hierarchies.
 Plesiochronous digital hierarchy (PDH)
 Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH)
 Synchronous optical network (SONET)

13
 PDH in North American
 The 24 channel PCM system is the primary order of Digital
MUX.
 If it is necessary to transmit more than 24 channels, the system
is build-up using the PDH.
 Digital Signal (DS) standard is a North American standard that
specifies how to multiplex several voice calls onto a single link.
 The DS1 signal corresponds to the output of a T-1 multiplexer.
 It is the basic building block of the digital hierarchy.
 The DS2 signal is obtained by combining 4 DS1 signals.
 The DS3 signal is obtained by combining 28 DS1 signals.

14
PDH in North American Cont’d…..

 The DS3 signal , with a speed of 44.736Mbps, has found

extensive use in providing high speed communications to large
users such as corporations .

Fig. 3: North American Digital Hierarchy

15
PDH in European

 The CEPT-1 (also referred to as E-1) signal is an European

standard digital hierarchy building block.
 It consists of 32 channels each with a capacity of 64Kbps.
 30 channels = used for voice channels
 1 channel = used for signaling
 1 channel = used for frame alignment and link maintenance
 The second, third and fourth levels of the hierarchy are
obtained by grouping 4 of the signals in the lower level.

16
PDH in European Cont’d….

 The DS and CEPT hierarchy is known as the

plesiochronous digital hierarchy (PDH).
 Plesion means “nearly the same” and chronos means
“time” in Greek.

Fig. 5: European Digital Hierarchy

17
PDH in North American and European

Digital signal number Voice channels Data Rate (Mbps)

DS0 1 0.064
DS1 24 1.544
DS1C 48 3.152
DS2 96 6.312
DS3 672 44.736
DS3C 1344 91.053
DS4 4032 274.176

Table 1.1: The North American Hierarchy

Level number Voice channels Data Rate (Mbps)

E-0 1 0.064
E-1 30 2.048
E-2 120 8.448
E-3 480 34.368
E-4 1920 139.264
E-5 7680 565.148

Table 1.2: The International (ITU-T) Hierarchy

18
PDH Hierarchies

19
SDH and SONET Technologies

 SDH and SONET are standards for communicating large

quantities of digital information over optical fibers.
 SONET was developed by American National Standards
Institute (ANSI) and SDH was developed by ITU-T.
• SONET and SDH were developed to replace the PDH system
for transporting large amounts of telephone and data traffic.
• SONET and SDH are fundamentally similar and ultimately
compatible.
• SONET/SDH is a synchronous network using synchronous
TDM multiplexing.

20
 SONET Architecture
• The architecture of a SONET system are:
1. Signals,
2. Devices, and
3. Connections.

21
 1. Signals
• SONET defines a hierarchy of electrical signaling levels called
synchronous transport signals (STSs).
• Each STS level (STS-1 to STS-192) supports a certain data rate,
specified in megabits per second (see Table below).
• The corresponding optical signals are called optical carriers
(OCs).
• SDH specifies a similar system called a synchronous transport
module (STM).
• STM is intended to be compatible with existing European
hierarchies, such as E lines, and with STS levels.
• To this end, the lowest STM level, STM-1, is defined as 155.520
Mbps, which is exactly equal to STS-3.

22
The SONET/SDH Digital Hierarchy

Optical SONET SDH Data rate Overhead Payload

level level level (Mbps) rate rate
(electrical) (electrical) (Mbps) (Mbps)
OC-1 STS-1 - 51.840 1.728 50.112
OC-3 STS-3 STM-1 155.520 5.184 150.336
OC-9 STS-9 STM-3 466.560 15.552 451.008
OC-12 STS-12 STM-4 622.080 20.736 601.344
OC-18 STS-18 STM-6 933.120 31.104 902.016
OC-24 STS-24 STM-8 1244.160 41.472 1202.688
Oc-36 STS-36 STM-12 1866.240 62.208 1804.932
OC-48 STS-48 STM-16 2488.320 82.944 2405.376
OC-96 STS-96 STM-32 4976.640 165.888 4810.752
OC-192 STS-192 STM-64 9953.280 331.776 9621.504
OC-768 STS-768 STM-256 39813.120 1327.104 38486.016
OC-N STS-N STM-N/3 N*51.840 N*1.728 N*50.112

Table: SONET/SDH Digital Hierarchy

23
SDH and SONET Signals Cont’d…..

 The STS-1 signal with a bit rate of 51.84Mbps is the basic

building block of the SONET hierarchy.
 A higher level signal in the hierarchy is obtained by combining
lower level component signals.
 Each STS-n electrical signal has a corresponding OC-n signal.
 The STM-1 signal with a bit rate of 155.52Mbps is the basic
building block of the SDH hierarchy.

24
 SONET Layers
• The SONET defines four layers:
1. Photonic,
2. Section,
3. Line, And
4. Path Layer.
• They correspond to both the physical and the data-
link layers.

Fig.4.3 SONET Layers

compared with OSI or
Internet layers
25
 Path Layer
• The path layer is responsible for the movement of a
signal from its optical source to its optical destination.
• At the optical source, the signal is changed from an
electronic form into an optical form, multiplexed with
other signals, and encapsulated in a frame.
• At the optical destination, the received frame is
demultiplexed, and the individual optical signals are
changed back into their electronic forms.
• Path layer overhead is added at this layer.
• STS multiplexers provide path layer functions.

26
 Line Layer
• The line layer is responsible for the movement
of a signal across a physical line.
• Line layer overhead is added to the frame at
this layer.
• STS multiplexers and add/drop multiplexers
provide line layer functions.

27
 Section Layer
• The section layer is responsible for the movement of
a signal across a physical section.
• It handles framing, scrambling, and error control.
Section layer overhead is added to the frame at this
layer.

28
 Photonic Layer
• The photonic layer corresponds to the physical
layer of the OSI model.
• It includes physical specifications for the
optical fiber channel, the sensitivity of the
receiver, multiplexing functions, and so on.
• SONET uses NRZ encoding, with the presence
of light representing 1 and the absence of light
representing 0.

29
 SONET Frames
• Each synchronous transfer signal STS-n is
composed of 8000 frames.
• Each frame is a two-dimensional matrix of
bytes with 9 rows by 90 × n columns.
• For example, an STS-1 frame is 9 rows by 90
columns (810 bytes), and an STS-3 is 9 rows by
270 columns (2430 bytes).
• Fig.4.4 (next slide) Shows the general format
of an STS-1 and an STS-n.

30
 Fig.4.4 STS-1 and STS-n Frames

 A SONET STS-n signal is transmitted at 8000 frames per second.

 If we sample a voice signal and use 8 bits(1 byte) for each sample, we can
say that each byte in a SONET frame can carry information from a digitized
voice channel.
 In other words, an STS-1 signal can carry 774 voice channels
simultaneously (810 minus required bytes for overhead).
 Each byte in a SONET frame can carry a digitized voice channel.
 Note that in SONET there is an exact relationship between the data rates
of different STS signals.
 We could have found the data rate of STS-3 by using the data rate of STS-1
(multiply the latter by 3).
 In SONET, the data rate of an STS-n signal is n times the
 data rate of an STS-1 signal.
31
 Examples
Example 1: Find the data rate of an STS-1 signal.
Solution
• STS-1, like other STS signals, sends 8000
frames per second. Each STS-1 frame is made
of 9 by (1 ×90) bytes. Each byte is made of 8
bits.
• Thus, the STS-1 data rate = 8000 ×9 ×(1 ×90)
×8 = 51.840 Mbps

32
Example 2: Find the data rate of an STS-3 signal.
Solution
STS-3, like other STS signals, sends 8000 frames per
second. Each STS-3 frame is made of 9 by (3 ×90)
bytes. Each byte is made of 8 bits. The data rate is:
STS-3 data rate = 8000 ×9 ×(3 ×90) ×8 = 155.52 Mbps

33
• Example 3: What is the duration of an STS-1 frame?
STS-3 frame? STS-n frame?
Solution
In SONET, 8000 frames are sent per second.
• This means that the duration of an STS-1, STS-3, or
STS-n frame is the same and equal to 1/8000 s, or
125 μs.

Note: In SONET, the duration of any frame is 125 μs.

34
 SONET Networks
• Using SONET equipment, we can create a
SONET network that can be used as a high-
speed backbone carrying loads from other
networks such as ATM
• We can roughly divide SONET networks into
three categories:
1. Linear,
2. Ring, and
3. Mesh Networks
35
Fig.4.5 Taxonomy of SONET Networks

36
 Point-to-Point Network
• A point-to-point network is normally made of an STS
multiplexer, an STS demultiplexer, and zero or more
regenerators with no add/drop multiplexers, as
shown in Fig.4.5 below.
• The signal flow can be unidirectional or bidirectional,
although Fig.4.5 shows only unidirectional for
simplicity.
Fig.4.7 A point-to-Point SONET Network

37
 Multipoint Network
• A multipoint network uses ADMs to allow communications between
several terminals.
• An ADM removes the signal belonging to the terminal connected to it and
adds the signal transmitted from another terminal. Each terminal can send
data to one or more downstream terminals.
• Fig.4.8 below shows a unidirectional scheme in which each terminal can
send data only to the downstream terminals, but a multipoint network
can be bidirectional, too.
• In Fig. below, T1 can send data to T2and T3 simultaneously. T2, however,
can send data only to T3.

Fig.4.8 A Multipoint SONET Network

38
 Ring Networks
• ADMs make it possible to have SONET ring networks.
• SONET rings can be used in either a unidirectional or
a bidirectional configuration.
• In each case, we can add extra rings to make the
network self-healing, capable of self-recovery from
line failure.

39
 Mesh Networks
• One problem with ring networks is the lack of
scalability.
• When the traffic in a ring increases, we need to
upgrade not only the lines, but also the ADMs.
• In this situation, a mesh network with switches
would probably give better performance.
• A switch in a network mesh is called a cross-connect.
• A cross-connect, like other switches we have seen,
has input and output ports.

40
 Continued …
• In an input port, the switch takes an OC-n signal,
changes it to an STS-n signal, demultiplexes it into
the corresponding STS-1 signals, and sends each STS-
1 signal to the appropriate output port.
• An output port takes STS-1 signals coming from
different input ports, multiplexes them into an STS-n
signal, and makes an OC-n signal for transmission.
Fig.4.10 shows a mesh SONET network, and the
structure of a switch.

41
Fig.4.10 A Mesh SONET Network

42
 SONET Devices

• SONET transmission relies on four basic

devices:
1. STS Multiplexers/Demultiplexers,
2. Regenerators,
3. Add/Drop Multiplexers and
4. Terminals.

43
 Fig. 3.2 A Simple Network Using SONET Equipment

ADM: Add/drop multiplexer

STS MUX: Synchronous transport signal multiplexer
STS DEMUX: Synchronous transport signal demultiplexer
R: Regenerator
T: Terminal
44
 1. STS Multiplexer/Demultiplexer
• STS multiplexers/demultiplexers mark the beginning
points and endpoints of a SONET link.
• They provide the interface between an electrical
tributary network and the optical network.
• An STS multiplexer multiplexes signals from multiple
electrical sources and creates the corresponding OC
signal.
• An STS demultiplexer demultiplexes an optical OC
signal into corresponding electric signals.

45
 2. Regenerator
• Regenerators extend the length of the links.
• A regenerator is a repeater that takes a received optical signal
(OC-n), demodulates it into the corresponding electric signal
(STS-n), regenerates the electric signal, and finally modulates
the electric signal into its correspondent OC-n signal.
• A SONET regenerator replaces some of the existing overhead
information (header information) with new information.

46
 3. Add/drop Multiplexer
• Add/drop multiplexers allow insertion and extraction of signals.
• An add/drop multiplexer (ADM)can add STSs coming from different sources
into a given path or can remove a desired signal from a path and redirect it
without demultiplexing the entire signal.
• In the simple configuration shown by Fig.3.2, a number of incoming
electronic signals are fed into an STS multiplexer, where they are combined
into a single optical signal.
• The optical signal is transmitted to a regenerator, where it is recreated
without the noise it has picked up in transit.
• The regenerated signals from a number of sources are then fed into an
add/drop multiplexer.
• The add/drop multiplexer reorganizes these signals, if necessary, and sends
them out as directed by information in the data frames.
• These remultiplexed signals are sent to another regenerator and from there
to the receiving STS demultiplexer, where they are returned to a format
usable by the receiving links.
47
 4. Terminals
• A terminal is a device that uses the services of a
SONET network.
• For example, in the Internet, a terminal can be a
router that needs to send packets to another router
at the other side of a SONET network.

48
 Connections
• The SONET devices are connected using:
 Sections,
 Lines, and
 Paths.

49
 Sections: A section is the optical link connecting two
neighboring devices: multiplexer to multiplexer,
multiplexer to regenerator, or regenerator to
regenerator.
 Lines: A line is the portion of the network between
two multiplexers: STS multiplexer to add/drop
multiplexer, two add/drop multiplexers, or two STS
multiplexers.
• Paths: A path is the end-to-end portion of the
network between two STS multiplexers.
• In a simple SONET of two STS multiplexers linked
directly to each other, the section, line, and path are
the same.
50
SONET/SDH Devices

 Several different equipment exist for SONET/SDH digital

hierarchy including:
 Terminal multiplexer (TM)
 Add/drop multiplexer (ADM)
 Digital cross connect (DCS)

51
The Terminal Multiplexer (TM):

 It multiplexes a number of DS-n or E1 signals into a

single OC-N signal
 It consists of a controller, low-speed interfaces for DS-n
or E1 signals, an OC-N interface, and a time slot
interchanger (TSI).
 It works also as a demultiplexer .

DS-n

OC-N
... TM

DS-n

52
The Add/Drop Multiplexer (ADM)

 It is a more complex version of the TM.

 It receives an OC-N signal from which it can demultiplex
and terminate (i.e., drop) any number of DS-n or OC-M
signals, where M<N, while at the same time it can add new
DS-n and OC-M signals into the OC-N signal.

OC-N OC-N
ADM

...

DS-n. OC-M
53
SONET/SDH rings using ADM

ADM OC3 ADM

1 2

OC3 OC3

ADM ADM
4 3
OC3

 SONET/SDH ADM devices are typically connected to

form a SONET/SDH ring.
 SONET/SDH rings are self-healing, that is they can
automatically recover from link failures.
54
SONET/SDH rings using ADM Cont’d….

TM ADM OC12 ADM

1 1
A 2
DS1 OC3

OC12 OC12

OC3 DS1
ADM ADM TM
4 3 2
OC12 B

Fig. An example of SONET/SDH self-healing connection

55
The Add/Drop Multiplexer (ADM)

 Transmits a DS-1 signal to TM 1

 TM 1 transmits an OC-3 signal to ADM 1
 ADM 1 adds the OC-3 signal into the STS-12 payload and
transmits it out to the next ADM.
 At ADM 3, the DS-1 signal belonging to A is dropped from
the payload and transmitted with other signals to TM 2.
 TM 2 in turn, demultiplexes the signals and transmits A’s
DS-1 signal to B.

56
Digital Cross Connect (DCS)

 It is used to interconnect multiple SONET rings

 It is connected to multiple incoming and outgoing OC-N
interfaces.
 It can drop and add any number of DS-n and/or OC-M
signals, and it can switch DS-n and/or OC-M signals from an
incoming interface to any outgoing one.
ADM ADM

ADM
Ring 1 Ring 2
DCS ADM

ADM ADM

57
 Self-healing SONET/SDH rings

 SONET/SDH rings have been specially architected so that

they are available 99.99% of the time.
 Causes for ring failures:
 Fiber link failure due to accidental cuts, and transmitter/receiver
failure
 SONET/SDH device failure (rare)

58
 Automatic Protection Switching (APS)
• To create protection against failure in linear
networks, SONET/SDH defines automatic protection
switching (APS).
• APS in linear networks is defined at the line layer,
which means the protection is between two ADMs or
a pair of STS multiplexer/demultiplexers.
• The idea is to provide redundancy; a redundant line
(fiber) can be used in case of failure in the main one.

59
 SONET/SDH rings are self-healing, that is, the ring’s
services can be automatically restored following a link
failure or degradation in the network signal.
 The time to restore the services has to be less than 50 msec.
• The main line is referred to as the work line and the
redundant line as the protection line.

Working

ADM
ADM

Protection

60
Working/Protection Fibers

 The working and protection fibers have to be diversely

routed. That is, the two fibers use separate conduits and
different physical routes.
 Often, for economic reasons, the two fibers use different
conduits, but they use the same physical path. In this case,
we say that they are structurally diverse.

61
Classification of self-healing rings

 Various ring architectures have been developed based on the

following three features:
 Number of fibers
• 2 or 4 fibers
 Direction of transmission
• Unidirectional bidirectional
 Line or path switching

62
Number of fibers: 2- or 4-fiber rings

1
ADM 1 ADM 2 ADM 1 ADM 2
5

4 8 6 2

7
ADM 4 ADM 3 ADM 4 ADM 3
3

 Two-fiber ring: fibers 1, 2, 3, and 4 are used to form the

working ring (clockwise), and fibers 5, 6, 7, and 8 are used
to form the protection ring (counter-clockwise).

63
Two-fiber ring
1
ADM 1 ADM 2
5

4 8 6 2

7
ADM 4 ADM 3
3

 In another variation of the two-fiber ring, each set of fibers

form a ring which can be both a working and a protection
ring.
 The capacity of each fiber is divided into two equal parts,
one for working traffic and the other for protection traffic.
64
 Four-fiber ring

ADM 1 ADM 2

ADM 4 ADM 3

 In a four-fiber SONET/SDH ring there are two working

rings and two protection rings, one per working ring.

65
Direction of transmission

 Unidirectional ring:
 signals are only transmitted in one direction of the ring.
 Bidirectional ring:
 signals are transmitted in both directions.

66
Line and path switching

 Path switching:
 Restores the traffic on the paths affected by a link failure
 Line switching:
 Restores all the traffic that passes through a failed link.

67
Possible Ring Architectures

 Based on these three features, we have the following 2-

fiber or 4-fiber possible ring architectures:
 Unidirectional Line Switched Ring (ULSR)
 Bidirectional Line Switched Ring (BLSR)
 Unidirectional Path Switched Ring (UPSR)
 Bidirectional Path Switched Ring (BPSR)

68
 Bidirectional Line Switching Ring (BLSR).
• Another alternative in a SONET ring network is a bidirectional
line switching ring.
• In this case, communication is bidirectional, which means that
we need two rings for working lines.
• We also need two rings for protection lines.
• This means BLSR uses four rings.
• The operation, however, is similar to the one-to-one APS
scheme.
• If a working ring in one direction between two nodes fails, the
receiving node can use the reverse ring to inform the
upstream node in the failed direction to use the protection
ring.

69
 Continued …
• Note that the discovery of a failure in BLSR is at the line layer,
not the path layer.
• The ADMs find the failure and inform the adjacent nodes to
use the protection rings.

Fig.4.9 A Bidirectional Line Switching Ring

70
Possible Ring Architectures Cont’d……

 Of these rings the following three are used:

 Two-fiber unidirectional path switched ring (2F-UPSR)
 Two-fiber bidirectional line switched ring (2F-BLSR)
 Four-fiber bidirectional line switched ring (4F-BLSR)

1
A ADM 1 ADM 2 B
5

Working ring

4 8 6 2

Protection ring

7
ADM 4 ADM 3
3

Fig. Two-fiber unidirectional path switched ring (2F-UPSR)

71
Features of 2F-UPSR

 Working ring consists of fibers 1, 2, 3 and 4, and the

protection ring of fibers 5, 6, 7, and 8.
 Unidirectional transmission means that traffic is transmitted
in the same direction.
 A transmits to B over fiber 1 of the working ring, and B
transmits over fibers 2, 3, and 4 of the working ring.
 Used as a metro edge ring to interconnect PBXs and access
networks to a metro core ring.

72
Self-healing mechanism

 Path level protection using the 1+1 scheme.

 The signal transmitted by A is split into two.
 One copy is transmitted over the working fiber 1, and the
other copy is transmitted over the protection fibers 8, 7, and 6.
 During normal operation, B receives two identical signals
from A, and selects the one with the best quality.
 If fiber 1 fails, B will continue to receive A’s signal over the
protection path.
 The same applies if there is a node failure.
73
Possible Ring Architectures Cont’d……

ADM 1 ADM 2 2 ADM 3

1
A B
7 8

6 12 9 3

11 10
C
5 4
ADM 6 ADM 5 ADM 4

Fig. Two-fiber bidirectional line switched ring (2F-BLSR)

74
Features of 2F-BLSR
 Used in metro core rings.
 Fibers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 form a ring, call it ring 1, on
which transmission is clockwise. Fibers 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and
12 form another ring, call it ring 2, on which transmission
is counter-clockwise.
 Both rings 1 and 2 carry working and protection traffic.
This is done by dividing the capacity of each fiber on ring
1 and 2 to two parts. One part is used to carry working
traffic and the other protection traffic.
 A transmits to B over the working part of fibers 1 and 2 of
ring 1, and B transmits to A over the working part of fibers
8 and 7 of ring 2.
75
Self-healing mechanism

 The ring provides line switching.

 If fiber 2 fails then the traffic that goes over fiber 2 will be
automatically switched to the protection part of ring 2.
 That is, all the traffic will be re-routed to ADM 3 over the
protection part of ring 2 using fibers 7, 12, 11, 10, and 9.
 From there, the traffic for each connection will continue on
following the original path of the connection.

76
Possible Ring Architectures Cont’d……

ADM 1 ADM 2 ADM 3

A B

Working rings

Protection rings

ADM 6 ADM 5 ADM 4

Fig. Four-fiber bidirectional line switched ring (4F-BLSR)

77
Features of 4F-BLSR

 Two working rings and two protection rings.

 The two working rings transmit in opposite directions, and
each is protected by a protection ring which transmits in the
same direction.
 The advantage of this four-fiber ring is that it can suffer
multiple failures and still function.
 In view of this, it is deployed by long-distance telephone
companies in regional and national rings.

78
Self-healing operation (span switching)

 If a working fiber fails, the working traffic will be

transferred over its protection ring.
 This is known as span switching.

ADM 1 ADM 2 ADM 3 ADM 1 ADM 2 ADM 3

Normal operation Span switching

79
 Self-healing operation (span switching) Cont’d….

 Often, the working and protection fibers are part of the

same bundle of fibers.
 When the bundle is cut the traffic will be switched to the
protection fibers. This is known as ring switching.

ADM 1 ADM 2 ADM 3

Working rings
Protection rings

ADM 4

80
81