Internet Draft


Network Working Group                                A. Malis, K. Hsu 
Internet Draft                                  Vivace Networks, Inc. 
Document: draft-malis-sonet-ces-mpls-00.txt                 A. Vernon 
Expiration Date: January 2001                               BellSouth 
                                                         S. Vogelsang 
                                                Laurel Networks, Inc. 
                                                            July 2000 
 
 
          SONET/SDH Circuit Emulation Service Over MPLS (CEM) 
 
 
Status of this Memo 
 
   This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with 
   all provisions of Section 10 of RFC 2026 [1]. 
 
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1. Abstract 
    
   This document describes a method for providing a SONET circuit 
   emulation service across an MPLS network. 
    
    
2. Conventions used in this document 
    
   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", 
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED",  "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in 
   this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [2]. 
    
    
3. Introduction 
    
   This document describes a method for transporting time division 
   multiplexed (TDM) digital signals (TDM circuit emulation) over a 
   packet-oriented MPLS network. The transmission system for circuit-
   oriented TDM signals is the Synchronous Optical Network 
   (SONET)[3]/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) [4]. To support TDM 
  
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   traffic, which includes voice, data, and private leased line 
   service, the MPLS network must emulate the circuit characteristics 
   of SONET/SDH payloads.  MPLS labels and a new circuit emulation 
   header are used to encapsulate TDM signals and provide the Circuit 
   Emulation Service over MPLS (CEM). 
    
    
4. Scope 
    
   This document describes how to provide CEM for the following digital 
   signals: 
    
   1. SONET STS-1 synchronous payload envelope (SPE)/SDH VC-3 
    
   2. STS-Nc SPE (N = 3, 12, or 48)/SDH VC-4, VC-4-4c, VC-4-16c 
    
   Other SONET/SDH signals, such as virtual tributary (VT) structured 
   sub-rate mapping, are not explicitly discussed in this document; 
   however, it can be extended in the future to support VT services. 
   OC-192c SPE/VC-4-64c are also not included at this point, since most 
   MPLS networks use OC-192c or slower trunks, and thus would not have 
   sufficient capacity.  As trunk capacities increase in the future, 
   the scope of this document can be accordingly extended. 
    
    
5. SONET/SDH Rates and Formats 
    
   For simplicity, the discussion in this section uses SONET 
   terminology, but it applies equally to SDH as well.  SDH-equivalent 
   terminology is shown in the tables. 
    
   The basic SONET modular signal is the synchronous transport signal-
   level 1 (STS-1). A number of STS-1s may be multiplexed into higher-
   level signals denoted as STS-N, with N synchronous payload envelopes 
   (SPEs). The optical counterpart of the STS-N is the Optical Carrier-
   level N, or OC-N. Table 1 lists standard SONET line rates discussed 
   in this document. 
    
    
     OC Level          OC-1    OC-3    OC-12      OC-48     OC-192 
     SDH Term             -   STM-1    STM-4     STM-16     STM-64 
     Line Rate(Mb/s) 51.840 155.520  622.080  2,488.320  9,953.280 
    
    
                    Table 1. Standard SONET Line Rates 
    
    
   Each SONET frame is 125 ´s and consists of nine rows. An STS-N frame 
   has nine rows and N*90 columns. Of the N*90 columns, the first N*3 
   columns are transport overhead and the other N*87 columns are SPEs. 
   A number of STS-1s may also be linked together to form a super-rate 
   signal with only one SPE. The optical super-rate signal is denoted 
   as OC-Nc, which has a higher payload capacity than OC-N. 
  
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   The first 9-byte column of each SPE is the path overhead (POH) and 
   the remaining columns form the payload capacity with fixed stuff 
   (STS-Nc only).  The fixed stuff, which is purely overhead, is N/3-1 
   columns for STS-Nc.  Thus, STS-1 and STS-3c do not have any fixed 
   stuff, STS-12c has three columns of fixed stuff, and so on. 
    
   The POH of an STS-1 or STS-Nc is always nine bytes in nine rows. The 
   payload capacity of an STS-1 is 86 columns (774 bytes) per frame. 
   The payload capacity of an STS-Nc is (N*87)û(N/3) columns per frame.  
   Thus, the payload capacity of an STS-3c is (3*87 û 1)*9 = 2,340 
   bytes per frame. As another example, the payload capacity of an STS-
   192c is 149,760 bytes, which is exactly 64 times larger than the 
   STS-3c. 
    
   There are 8,000 SONET frames per second. Therefore, the SPE size, 
   (POH plus payload capacity) of an STS-1 is 783*8*8,000 = 50.112 
   Mb/s. The SPE size of a concatenated STS-3c is 2,349 bytes per frame 
   or 150.336 Mb/s. The payload capacity of an STS-192c is 149,760 
   bytes per frame, which is equivalent to 9,584.640 Mb/s. Table 2 
   lists the SPE and payload rates supported. 
    
    
   SONET STS Level     STS-1   STS-3c  STS-12c    STS-48c   STS-192c 
   SDH VC Level            -     VC-4  VC-4-4c   VC-4-16c   VC-4-64c 
   Payload Size(Bytes)   774    2,340    9,360     37,440    149,760 
   Payload Rate(Mb/s) 49.536  149.760  599.040  2,396.160  9,584.640 
   SPE Size(Bytes)       783    2,349    9,396     37,584    150,336 
   SPE Rate(Mb/s)     50.112  150.336  601.344  2,405.376  9,621.504 
    
                      Table 2. Payload Size and Rate 
 
 
   To support circuit emulation, the entire SPE of a SONET STS or SDH 
   VC level is encapsulated into packets, using the encapsulation 
   defined in the next section, for carriage across MPLS networks. 
    
    
6. CEM Encapsulation Format 
    
   A TDM data stream is segmented into packets and encapsulated in MPLS 
   packets. Each packet has one or more MPLS labels, followed by a 32-
   bit TDM header to associate the packet with the TDM stream.  
    
   The outside label is used to identify the MPLS LSP used to tunnel 
   the TDM packets through the MPLS network (the tunnel LSP).  The 
   interior label is used to multiplex multiple TDM connections within 
   the same tunnel.  This is similar to the label stack usage defined 
   in [5]. 
    



  
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   The 32-bit TDM header has the following format: 
    
      0                   1                   2                   3 
      0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ 
      |   Payload Bytes   |   Struct Pointer  |N|P|  Seq num  | BIP-4 | 
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ 
 
                        Figure 1. TDM Header Format 
    
    
   The above fields are defined as follows: 
    
   Payload Bytes(N): the number of TDM payload bytes contained in this 
   packet,  from 48 to 1,023 bytes.  All of the packets in a given CES 
   stream have the same number of payload bytes.  Note that there is a 
   possibility that the packet size may exceed the SPE size in the case 
   of an STS-1 SPE, which could cause two pointers to be needed in the 
   CEM header, since the payload may contain two J1 bytes for 
   consecutive SPEs.  For this reason, the number of payload bytes must 
   be less than 783 for STS-1 SPEs. 
    
   Structure Pointer: The pointer points to the J1 byte in the payload 
   area. The value is from 0 to 1,022, where 0 means the first byte 
   after the TDM header. The pointer is set to 0x3FF (1,023) if a 
   packet does not carry the J1 byte.  See [3] and [4] for more 
   information on the J1 byte and the structure pointer. 
    
   The N and P bits: See Section 7 below for their definition. 
    
   Seq Num:  This is a packet sequence number, which continuously 
   cycles from 0 to 63.  It begins at 0 when a TDM LSP is created. 
    
   BIP-4: The bit interleaved even parity is over the first 28 header 
   bits. 
 
7. Clocking Mode 
    
   It is necessary to be able to regenerate the input service clock at 
   the output interface.  Two clocking modes are supported: synchronous 
   and asynchronous. 
    
7.1 Synchronous 
    
   When synchronous SONET timing is available at both ends of the 
   circuit, the N(JE) and P(JE) bits are set for negative or positive 
   justification events. The event is carried in five consecutive 
   packets at the transmitter. The receiver plays out the event when 
   three out of five packets with NJE/PJE bit set are received. If both 
   bits are set, then path AIS event has occurred.  If there is a 
   frequency offset between the frame rate of the transport overhead 
   and that of the STS SPE, then the alignment of the SPE shall 
   periodically slip back or advance in time through positive or 
  
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   negative stuffing. The N(JE) and P(JE) bits are used to replay the 
   stuff indicators and eliminate transport jitter. 
    
7.2 Asynchronous 
    
   If synchronous timing is not available, the N and P bits are not 
   used for frequency justification and adaptive methods are used to 
   recover the timing. The N and P bits are only checked for the 
   occurrence of a path AIS event. An example adaptive method can be 
   found in Section 3.4.2 of [6]. 
 
 
8. CEM LSP Signaling 
    
   For maximum network scaling, CEM LSP signaling may be performed 
   using the LDP Extended Discovery mechanism as described in [5].  
   MPLS traffic tunnels may be dedicated to CEM, or shared with other 
   MPLS-based services.  A new value, TBD, will be added to the VC 
   types in the VC FEC Element defined in [5] in order to signify that 
   the LSP being signaled is to carry CEM.  Note that the sequencing 
   control word in [5] is not used, as its functionality is included in 
   the CEM encapsulation. 
    
   Alternatively, a dedicated traffic engineered LSP may be used for 
   each CEM circuit. 
    
    
9.  Open Issues 
    
   Future revisions of this draft will discuss QoS requirements for 
   CEM, methods to provide (or simulate) bi-directional LSPs (perhaps 
   using the Group ID from [5]), signaling for the number of payload 
   bytes, and sending additional end-to-end alarm information in 
   addition to AIS. 
 
 
10. Security Considerations 
 
   As with [5], this document does not affect the underlying security 
   issues of MPLS. 
    
    
11. References 
    
 
   1  Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision 3", BCP 
      9, RFC 2026, October 1996. 
    
   2  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement 
      Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997 
    
 

  
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   3  American National Standards Institute, "Synchronous Optical 
      Network (SONET) - Basic Description including Multiplex 
      Structure, Rates and Formats," ANSI T1.105-1995. 
    
   4  ITU Recommendation G.707, "Network Node Interface For The 
      Synchronous Digital Hierarchy", 1996. 
    
   5  Martini et al, "Transport of Layer 2 Frames Over MPLS", draft-
      martini-l2circuit-trans-mpls-01.txt, work in progress, May 2000. 
    
   6  ATM Forum, "Circuit Emulation Service Interoperability 
      Specification Version 2.0", af-vtoa-0078.000, January 1997. 
 
 
12. Acknowledgments 
    
   The authors would like to thank Mitri Halabi and Bob Colvin, both of 
   Vivace Networks, for their comments and suggestions. 
    
    
13. Authors' Addresses 
    
   Andrew G. Malis 
   Vivace Networks, Inc. 
   2730 Orchard Parkway 
   San Jose, CA 95134 
   Phone: +1 408 383 7223 
   Email: Andy.Malis@vivacenetworks.com 
    
   Ken Hsu 
   Vivace Networks, Inc. 
   2730 Orchard Parkway 
   San Jose, CA 95134 CA 
   Phone: +1 408 432 7772 
   Email: Ken.Hsu@vivacenetworks.com 
    
   Andrew Vernon 
   BellSouth 
   Room 40F82 BSC 
   675 West Peachtree St NE 
   Atlanta, GA, 30375 
   Phone: +1 404 332 2101 
   Email: ajv@snt.bellsouth.com 
    
   Steve Vogelsang 
   Laurel Networks, Inc. 
   2706 Nicholson Rd. 
   Sewickley, PA  15143 
   Phone: +1 724 933 7330 
   Email: sjv@laurelnetworks.com 
    
    
  
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