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TR - News

Topic:

Nr. 42 / 2000
04.12.2000

Subject: IP over SDH Tutorial

Authors: R. Castor, ICN TR CN M P1, tel.:+49(89)722-21071

Highlights: Understand the basics of IP over SDH

Approved by: M.Lahr

SIEMENS Copyright 2000
This publication provides outline information only which (unless agreed by the company in writing) may not be used, applied or reproduced
for any purpose or form part of any order or contract to be regarded as a representation relating to the products or services concerned. No
liability for errors or omissions. The company reserves the right to alter without notice the specification, design, price or conditions of supply
of any product or service.
_________________________________________________________________________
T CN M
R
IPs Emergency Call for SDH
A Summary for First Class Aid
A Short Introduction to IP,
Easily Digestible for Sales People
1 Overview
The objective is quite clear. Service Providers require
a mechanism that lets them deliver the proper
services where and when their customers need them.
Data traffic is increasing dramatically whilst carriers
will enjoy to use the existing circuit-switched
equipment. Although the combination of data and
voice sounds to be incompatible, the reality of both
networks is changing. New services like voice and
video over IP on the one hand and the rapidly
increasing bandwidth supply on the other suggest this
combination.
The existence of a widespread, commonly used and
highly reliable network well proven over years is in
store for the carriers that tread new paths towards IP.
Standardisation ensures a large degree of
interoperability. Bandwidth demand is no longer a real
obstacle, but low transit-delay (latency) is. Lowest
latency however is the favourite domain of SDH and
Sonet.
Starting with point to point connectivity solutions and
ending up with an entirely new generation of SDH-
integrated IP-Routers, Siemens presents the way how
to combine SDH/Sonet and IP in the most efficient
manner.
To understand how this can be achieved requires a
knowledge of both, basics of data traffic as well as
SDH precautions taken for it.
2 Data Traffic in Short
2.1 Local Area Networks
LANs (Local Area Networks) are mostly based on
CSMA/CD (carrier sense multiple access/collision detect)
generally referred to as Ethernet. Ethernet speed has been
increased from 10Mbps to 100Mbps (Fast Ethernet). Most
SIEMENS Copyright 2000
This publication provides outline information only which (unless agreed by the company in writing) may not be used, applied or reproduced
for any purpose or form part of any order or contract to be regarded as a representation relating to the products or services concerned. No
liability for errors or omissions. The company reserves the right to alter without notice the specification, design, price or conditions of supply
of any product or service.
Tutorial
of todays equipment automatically adjusts to the right data
rate (auto-sensing) and is designed to work with twisted
pair (UTP) and fibre media (100BaseT-FS). Gigabit
Ethernet builds on top of the Ethernet protocol but
increases speed tenfold over Fast Ethernet to 1000Mbps.
All participants of a network are grouped into so called LAN
segments or Collision Domains. Physically all stations
within a LAN segment are connected to one common Hub.
Thus each station contend with all others for access to the
network. If multiple stations send out packets
simultaneously, a collision occurs, which corrupts the data.
The more participants in a collision domain are, the more
collisions occur and the lower the data throughput of a LAN
segment is.
2.2 Bridges
Layer 2 MAC MAC
Layer 1 PHY PHY
LAN A LAN B
Bridges perform
filtering and increase MAC Media Access Control
throughput PHY Physical Layer
Bridges keep local traffic within a particular LAN segment
while allowing packets destined for other segments to pass
through. This process is called filtering. To increase the
throughput within a dedicated LAN segment, the segment
can be subdivided into two subsegments combined via
bridges, creating two separated collision domains and thus
minimising the probability of collisions.
1
Ethernet specifies the data link (layer 2 ) ) (with the MAC
sublayer) of the ISO protocol model, while IP (Internet
Protocol) and TCP (Transfer Control Protocol) in turn
specify the network (layer 3) and transport (layer 4) portions
and allow communication services between applications.
1
According to IEEE 802 Reference Model (ISO seven-layer protocol
model)
_________________________________________________________________________
2.3 Switches overloaded and to make things even worse, large data
packets are occasionally queued ahead of shorter packets,
thus introducing longer-than-average delays and creating
Layer 2 MAC MAC jitter.
Such delays as the result of queuing are variable because
Layer 1 PHY PHY of the bursty nature of IP traffic. The
LAN A LAN B Mb/s higher those bursts are, the longer
the delays.
In fact, studies of IP networks
show that traffic patterns are
LAN C
self linear, like a fractal.
Traffic still has the same
Switches provide burstiness, no matter how
multiple dedicated t
large or how small the
connections
aggregate channel is. There is no
S
smoothing of traffic peaks and valleys as with the
witches are based on traditional bridges capabilities to combination of large numbers of voice phone calls.
segment busy networks by providing multiple dedicated Increases in latency cause packets to arrive at their
connections. After decoding the address, the switch sends destination out of their sequential order, especially during
the packet directly toward its destination. In Ethernet peak traffic periods. The packets are stored in a buffer at
switching, the MAC address (Media Access Control) the receiving device until all packets arrive to be put in the
defined in Layer 2 determines the switch port to which the right order.
packet has to go. Although these delays do not affect e-mail and file transfers,
Two nodes connected via a full-duplex, switched path can which are no real-time applications, excess latency does
simultaneously send and receive packets. affect multimedia applications arriving out of voice and
video synchronisation like a badly dubbed movie.
2.4 Router
Layer 3 IP IP
3 To Overcome the IP
Layer 2 MAC MAC
Corset ...
The bandwidth limitations of the Internet, as well as its high
Layer 1 PHY PHY latency and slow response time, have to be overcome.
Network managers have to employ appropriate routing
LAN A
MAN protocols that conserve bandwidth and/or reserve network
resources and implement flow control.

WAN NET B 3.1 Tunnelling

Router perform path Tunnelling is a method of using an inter-network (e.g. SDH
calculation and packet backbone network or another IP network) to transfer data
forwarding
In e.g. frames of another protocol (i.e. IP packets) as payloads
traditional IP networks, each router working at layer 3 from one network over another network. The payload is
calculates the appropriate hop to the next router for each encapsulated in a PPP (Point to Point
IP Packet
destination. Packets are forwarded hop-by-hop rather than Protocol) frame to be sent across the
travelling along a set-up end-to-end connection. IP delivers inter-network.
PPP
a connectionless service contrary to a transport network. encapsulation POS (Packet over
When the network is congested, packets are stored inside SDH/SONET) is a high speed WAN
the router, referred to as queuing, and forwarded according transport, that leaves LAN traffic
to special rules e.g. FIFO or priority. Thus bursty sources in its native format. It is a serial
can cause high delays in delivering time-sensitive
HDLC link between two access points
framing
application traffic. SDH/Sonet like any other - only much more
Network reliable and a whole lot
2.5 Latency faster. With POS, IP Traffic
PPP
runs over PPP with the
The characteristic that is most harmful to the performance decapsulation resulting frame embedded into
of multimedia applications is latency. This is the amount of HDLC-like framing (High-level
IP Packet
delay that affects all types of communications links, Data Link Control), just it would like
including those used for the public Internet and private any other type of WAN- circuits-like
Intranets. Demand for immediate backbone bandwidth will leased lines. These link layer protocols
inevitably force some traffic to be queued in routers in turn run directly over SDH.
independent of the provided bandwidth. Most increases in
latency occur because network devices (mainly routers) get

SIEMENS Copyright 2000

This publication provides outline information only which (unless agreed by the company in writing) may not be used, applied or reproduced
for any purpose or form part of any order or contract to be regarded as a representation relating to the products or services concerned. No
liability for errors or omissions. The company reserves the right to alter without notice the specification, design, price or conditions of supply
of any product or service.
_________________________________________________________________________
3.2 Multi Link PPP 4 ... and Pep it up with SDH
Link 1
Or all roads lead to
Rome. Most carriers have made very substantial investments to
Link 2
MLPPP (Multi-Link build SDH/Sonet networks, and they attract more customers
PPP) co-ordinates and implicitly new as profitable as possible services. IP
multiple independent market is the highest increasing one and after all, carriers
links between a fixed know that it is better to customise their network than to
Link 3

pair of participants, leave fibre buried in the ground unused. Obviously a

providing a virtual link combination of both SDH and IP would be the most
with greater bandwidth desirable solution.
than each had by itself. With the increasing rate of data streams Gigabit Ethernet
In order to establish comes along with, coping with the biggest SDH containers,
communications over a which only offer 155 Mbit/s, problems are encountered,
point to point link, each end of the PPP link must first send which need to be resolved.
Link Control Protocol packets to configure the data link. Standard SDH-Interfaces for IP use multiple independent
Once the link is established, the source is free to send the Virtual Containers which allow the transport of data via
payload encapsulated with the multi link header. established SDH-networks. Those solutions are offered by
any important IP-vendor.
3.3 Multiprotocol Label Switching SDH-NE
Carrier B
Use of multiple CTPs CTPs

MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) is a technique that independent virtual

containers
brings many of the qualities and attributes of switched n VC-4

networks to IP networks. It introduces the concept of paths

to the routed network. MPLS works by building engineered SDH-NE SDH-NE
paths across the core of a network. Like trains go along Carrier A Carrier C
CTPs CTPs CTPs CTPs
predefined railway tracks from one switch/point to the next,
the IP packets go along predefined paths from one router to n VC-4 n VC-4
IP STM-n STM-n IP
the next. An Ingress
Router forms the
starting point of a path.
Then the packets are The biggest advantage is, that the transport of data is
sent encapsulated and supported by any established SDH-network even via third
labelled along those party networks (CrossDomain). Because of the
predefined LSP (label independence of the different transport channels, transport
switched paths) planning remains highly flexible.
hopping from one Unfortunately additional processing effort in the appropriate
Label Switch Router to the next. The termination of the data machines comes along, which reduces data
LSP is built by an Egress Router. At the Ingress Router, throughput and subsequently leads to loss of performance
the IP-packets are packed into MPLS Layer 2 frames. A so on the one hand and to highly priced equipment on the
called Shim-Header is added and the resulting packet is other.
sent to the next Transit Router on the LSP. At the end of
the LSP the Egress Router takes the MPLS encapsulation Also SDH specification bodies acknowledged these arising
away and directs the packet to the next destination in the IP problems and directed their specification work to make SDH
network. more convenient to data traffic.
Thus a network will seamlessly use native IP packet Concatenation provides a mechanism for transporting
forwarding at the edge, and LSP switching in the core. payloads greater than the capacity of a VC-4. Under normal
Labels can be used to identify traffic that should receive circumstances the float of containers within the supporting
special treatment to meet QoS (quality of service) higher order virtual container is controlled by the respective
requirements. pointer mechanisms. The VC-4s are linked together by
setting the concatenation indicator at each container but the
Ingress LER
first, which takes the respective pointer. A set of n in this
LSR MPLS Domain way contiguously concatenated VC-4s is designated as
VC-4-nc. The whole structure looks like one coherent
LSP Egress
container.
Header

LSR
LER

SIEMENS Copyright 2000

This publication provides outline information only which (unless agreed by the company in writing) may not be used, applied or reproduced
for any purpose or form part of any order or contract to be regarded as a representation relating to the products or services concerned. No
liability for errors or omissions. The company reserves the right to alter without notice the specification, design, price or conditions of supply
of any product or service.
_________________________________________________________________________
STM-n
VC-4-nc
5 How it should be
RSOH
A successful strategy to support IP with the reliable and
AU4-nc-Ptr powerful SDH backbone network must be aimed at the
P
VC-4-nc
augmentation of carriers profit. The flexibility to offer
O C-4-nc
H
different services at any time to their customers under
MSOH highly optimised exploitation of the available resources will
be the most sophisticated criteria.
The solution to maximise network utilisation and flexibility is
The advantages are lower pricing and better performance Traffic Engineering. Obviously, this is the basis which
due to higher throughput. But contiguous concatenation offers the required varied services. It allows control of traffic
requires support in each intermediate network element, streams to avoid congested data paths and to switch it to
which is less supported in established SDH networks and sparsely used ones. Thus it increases the degree of
nearly impossible to maintain in multi carrier topologies. network utilisation allocating transport channels specifically
SDH-NE after the demands of the services asked for. MPLS as
Carrier B
Contiguous Concatenation
CTPs CTPs
described above is a powerful aid to support Traffic
requires support in each
intermediate network Engineering. Mainly developed for core networks, it meets
element n VC-4
all the necessary features, e.g. path switching and QoS
indication.
SDH-NE SDH-NE Ethernet
Carrier A Carrier C

CTP CTP CTP CTP

VC-4-nc VC-4-nc
Transit
Router
STM-nc STM-nc MPLS supported
IP IP
Traffic Engineering VC-n

ADM

LSP

The solution to overcome these problems is virtual

Ingress VC-n A A VC-n Egress
concatenation. The appropriate concatenated payload is Router D D Router
M M
designated as VC-4-nv. According ITU-T G.707 the virtual Ethernet Ethernet

concatenation is identical to the contiguous concatenation

but breaks the contiguous bandwidth in individual VCs for But to become effective this needs label switch routers
transportation. As a consequence the CrossDomain entirely integrated in the network elements, working directly
transport of data is ensured, and the advantages of on the switched circuit paths (VC-n). This enables Traffic
contiguous concatenation (lower pricing and better Engineering to use the knowledge of path utilisation within
performance) still remain. the network to divert traffic avoiding congestion and
overload of paths.
Current IP routers often demand contiguous concatenation
for the transport of high bandwidth signals through SDH. Normal router cores suffer from the lack of scalability and
Virtual Concatenation can cope with this problem by easy bad exploitation of the network capacity. IP-over-ATM
conversion of VC-4-nc to individual VC-4-nv and vice versa. topologies are expensive and complex caused by the
contiguous virtual contiguous
additional cell tax and the co-ordination and management of
two separate networks. Scalability should be proven up to
STM-16 and higher.
VC-4-nc nc => nv VC-4-nv nv => nc VC-4-nc

Traffic Engineering as a basis for offering varied services

SDH-NE should be possible.
Carrier B
Contiguous to Virtual CTP CTP
Concatenation and All these features and more are gained by an SDH
vice versa VC-4-nv
backbone network with integrated label switch routers.

SDH-NE
Carrier A
SDH-NE
Carrier C
So dont plug away at IP, plug it to SDH.
CTPs CTPs
CTP CTP
VC-4-nc
VC-4-nv

IP STM-nc STM-nc IP

With all these features SDH is the ideal transport

network for IP wide area connectivity.

SIEMENS Copyright 2000

This publication provides outline information only which (unless agreed by the company in writing) may not be used, applied or reproduced
for any purpose or form part of any order or contract to be regarded as a representation relating to the products or services concerned. No
liability for errors or omissions. The company reserves the right to alter without notice the specification, design, price or conditions of supply
of any product or service.