Chap 4 Circuit-Switching Networks

Provide dedicated circuits between users

Example:
1. telephone network: provides 64Kbps circuits for voice
signals 64Kbps=8 k samples/sec * 8 bits/sample
2. transport network: high bandwidth circuit.
Backbone interconnects telephone switches
Backbone interconnects large routers (internet)
Provide the physical layer that transfer bits
Circuit switching networks require:
Multiplexing & switching of circuits
Signaling & control for establishing circuits

4.1 Multiplexing
Sharing of transmission systems by several connections
Desirable when the bandwidth of individual connections
is much smaller than that of the transmission system.
E.g. FM radio 25MHz (total) a standard FM radio signal
150Khz
Cost can be reduced by combining many signals into
one
Fewer wires/pole; fiber replaces thousands of cables

(a) (b)
A A A A

B B B MUX MUX B

C C C C

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 4.1.1 Frequency-Division
Multiplexing (FDM)
Frequency slots: each connection uses
different frequency slot
Demultiplexer: recovers the signals
Example:
Broadcast radio AM, FM, Television
AM: 10 KHz, FM: 200KHz, Television: 6MHz
Cellular telephony: e.g. AMPS, 30KHz
Guard bands: voice signal 3.4KHz, assigned
4KHz to provide guard bands

Frequency-Division Multiplexing
Channel divided into frequency slots (Fig 4.2)

A
f
0 Wu
(a) Individual
signals occupy B
Wu Hz f
0 Wu

C
f
0 Wu

(b) Combined
signal fits into
channel A B C
bandwidth f
0 W

2
 4.1.2 Time-Division Multiplexing
(TDM)
Share a high-speed digital transmission line using
temporal interleaving (Fig 4.3)
A1 A2
t
0T 3T 6T

(a) Each signal B1 B2

t
transmits 1 unit 3T 6T
0T
every 3T
seconds
C1 C2
t
0T 3T 6T
(b) Combined
signal transmits
1 unit every T C2
A1 B1 C1 A2 B2
t
seconds
0T 1T 2T 3T 4T 5T 6T

Digital Multiplexing Hierarchy

TDM used in the telephone network from early 1960s
Digital voice: 64 Kbps = 8K samples/sec *8 bit/sample
PCM sample (pulse code Modulation)
T-1 carrier: 24 digital telephone connections
T-1 frame: 24 slots (8 bits/slot) + 1 framing bit

1 1

2 MUX MUX 2
...

...

22 23 24 b 1 2 ... 24 b
24 Frame 24
Framing bit
Bit Rate = 8000 frames/sec. x (1 + 8 x 24) bits/frame
= 1.544 Mbps

3
 Digital Multiplexing Hierarchy
T-1 or DS1 (Digital signal 1) North America and Japan
basic building block of digital multiplexing hierarchy
DS2: 4DS1 + 136Kbits synchronization information (per sec)
= 6.312 Mbps
DS3: 7DS2 + 552Kbits sync info = 44.736 Mbps
In Europe: CEPT-1 (E-1) = 32 64Kbps channels
(30 for voices and 2 for signaling, frame alignment etc)

Primary M12 M23

multiplex DS1 1.544 Mbps Multiplex DS2 6.312 Mbps Multiplex DS3 44.736 Mbps
e.g., digital

...
switch x4 x7
24 channel
PCM
M13
Multiplex DS3 44.736 Mbps
...

x28 North American digital hierarchy (Fig 4.5)

Clock Synch & Bit Slips

Digital streams cannot be kept perfectly synchronized
If the clock of input stream is slower than that of the
multiplexer, bit slips can occur (Fig 4.6)
If faster, bits will accumulate at the multiplexer and get
dropped
Slow clock results in late
bit arrival and bit slip

MUX t

5 4 3 2 1 5 4 3 2 1

4
 Clock Synch & Bit Slips
Solution:
Multiplexer operates at a speed slightly higher
than the combined speed of inputs
Indicate to the receiving multiplexer when a
slip occurs
To extract an individual input stream, need to
de-multiplex the entire combined signal.
64 Kbps DS1 DS2 DS3 DS2
DS1 voice

4.1.3 Wavelength-Division
Multiplexing (WDM)
Optical domain version of FDM (f=c)
Electrical signals optical signals optical electrical

limited at tens of Gbps. fiber: tens of terahertz (THz)

1 THz = 1000 GHz
e.g. 160 wavelengths * 10Gbps/wavelength = 1.6 Tbps
Huge increase in available bandwidth without investment
on additional optical fiber

5
 4.2 SONET
Synchronous optical network (SONET)
North America
Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH)
Europe
S: synchronous (tightly synchronized to
network based clocks, atomic clocks)

4.2.1 SONET Multiplexing

STS-1 (Synchronous-transport signal level-1)
51.84 Mbps is the basic building block
STS-n: obtained by interleaving of bytes from n STS-1
no additional synchronization information needed
e.g. STS-3: 3 x 51.84 = 155.52 Mbps
OC-n (optical carrier level-n)
Modulation STS-n electrical signal to optical signal
In SDH, STM-n (Synchronous transfer module-n)
STM-1 STS-3
STS-48/STM-16 is widely deployed in the backbone of
modern communication networks

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 4.2.1 SONET Multiplexing
SONET uses the term tributary to refer to component streams that are
multiplexed (Fig 4.10)
Flexible
Several STS-1 frames can be concatenated to accommodate signals with
bit rates that cannot be handled by a single STS-1, e.g. STS-3C

DS1 Low-speed
DS2 mapping
E1 function STS-1
51.84 Mbps
Medium
DS3 speed STS-1
44.736 mapping
STS-n OC-n
...

function
...

MUX Scrambler E/O

STS-3c
E4
High- STS-1
speed STS-1
mapping STS-1
139.264 function
STS-3c
STS-1
High- STS-1
ATM or speed
STS-1
POS mapping
function

4.2.2 SONET Frame Structure

Four layers: optical, section, line, path
Section: the span of fiber between two
adjacent devices e.g. two regenerators
regenerator
Line: the span between two adjacent
multiplexers
Path: the span between two SONET-terminals
e.g. large routers, can be SONET terminals

7
 Section, Line, & Path in SONET
PTE PTE
LTE LTE
STE STE STE
SONET SONET
terminal MUX MUX terminal
Reg Reg Reg

Section Section Section Section

STS Line
STS-1 Path

STE = Section Terminating Equipment, e.g., a repeater/regenerator

LTE = Line Terminating Equipment, e.g., a STS-1 to STS-3 multiplexer
PTE = Path Terminating Equipment, e.g., an STS-1 multiplexer

Fig 4.11

SONET Frame Structure

STS-1 frame structure (Fig 4.12)
9 rows x 90 columns per frame (810 bytes)
Frame rate: 8000 frames/sec
The bits are physically transmitted row by row and
from left to right
Overall bit rate: 8 x 9 x 90 x 8000 = 51.84 Mbps
First three columns: section and line overhead
Section overhead: 3 rows (framing, error monitoring)
Line overhead: 6 rows (synchronization, multiplexing etc)
H1, H2, H3, in line overhead; very important
Remaining 87 columns information payload
8 x 9 x 87 x 8000 = 52.122 Mbps

8
 SONET Frame Structure

90 bytes

Section A1 A2 87B
overhead B1
3 rows
H1 H2 H3 9 rows
B2 K1 K2
Line
overhead
6 rows

125 s
Transport
overhead Information payload

SONET Frame Structure

SPE (synchronous payload envelope)
Fig 4.13
First column: path overhead
SPE is not necessarily aligned to the
information payload of an STS-1 frame
H1, H2 (first two bytes of line overhead) are used as a
pointer to indicate where the SPE begins
When n STS-1 signals are multiplexed, they are first
synchronized to the clock of the multiplexer
The STS-n frame is produced by interleaving the
bytes of the n synchronized STS-1 frames
9 rows x 90n columns (3n section, line
overhead, 87n payload information)

9
 Pointer First octet
Frame 87 Columns
k

Synchronous
9 Rows
payload
envelope
Pointer Last octet
Frame
k+1
First column is path overhead

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