path: root/doc/rfc/rfc4842.txt

Network Working Group                                           A. Malis
Request for Comments: 4842                        Verizon Communications
Category: Standards Track                                        P. Pate
                                                       Overture Networks
                                                           R. Cohen, Ed.
                                                       Resolute Networks
                                                                D. Zelig
                                                       Corrigent Systems
                                                              April 2007


 Synchronous Optical Network/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SONET/SDH)
                  Circuit Emulation over Packet (CEP)

Status of This Memo

   This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
   Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
   improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
   Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
   and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2007).

Abstract

   This document provides encapsulation formats and semantics for
   emulating Synchronous Optical Network/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy
   (SONET/SDH) circuits and services over MPLS.




















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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   2.  Scope  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   3.  Requirements Notation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   4.  Acronyms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   5.  CEP Encapsulation Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
     5.1.  SONET/SDH Fragment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
     5.2.  CEP Header . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
     5.3.  RTP Header . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
     5.4.  PSN Encapsulation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
   6.  CEP Operation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
     6.1.  CEP Packetizer and De-Packetizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
     6.2.  Packet Synchronization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
       6.2.1.  Acquisition of Packet Synchronization  . . . . . . . . 13
       6.2.2.  Loss of Packet Synchronization . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
   7.  SONET/SDH Maintenance Signals  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
     7.1.  SONET/SDH to PSN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
       7.1.1.  CEP-AIS: AIS-P/V Indication  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
       7.1.2.  Unequipped Indication  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
       7.1.3.  CEP-RDI: Remote Defect Indication  . . . . . . . . . . 15
     7.2.  PSN to SONET/SDH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
       7.2.1.  CEP-AIS: AIS-P/V Indication  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
       7.2.2.  Unequipped Indication  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
   8.  SONET/SDH Transport Timing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
   9.  SONET/SDH Pointer Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
     9.1.  Explicit Pointer Adjustment Relay (EPAR) . . . . . . . . . 17
     9.2.  Adaptive Pointer Management (APM)  . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
   10. CEP Performance Monitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
     10.1. Near-End Performance Monitors  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
     10.2. Far-End Performance Monitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
   11. Payload Compression Options  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
     11.1. Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
     11.2. Service-Specific Payload Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
       11.2.1. Fractional STS-1 (VC-3) Encapsulation  . . . . . . . . 21
         11.2.1.1.  Fractional STS-1 CEP Header . . . . . . . . . . . 23
         11.2.1.2.  B3 Compensation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
         11.2.1.3.  Actual Payload Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
       11.2.2. Asynchronous T3/E3 STS-1 (VC-3) Encapsulation  . . . . 25
         11.2.2.1.  T3 Payload Compression  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
         11.2.2.2.  E3 Payload Compression  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
       11.2.3. Fractional VC-4 Encapsulation  . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
         11.2.3.1.  Fractional VC-4 Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
         11.2.3.2.  Fractional VC-4 CEP Header  . . . . . . . . . . . 28
         11.2.3.3.  B3 Compensation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
         11.2.3.4.  Actual Payload Sizes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
   12. Signaling of CEP Pseudowires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
     12.1. CEP/TDM Payload Bytes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31



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     12.2. CEP/TDM Bit Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
     12.3. CEP Options  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
   13. Congestion Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
   14. Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
   15. IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
   16. Acknowledgments  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
   17. Co-Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
   Appendix A.  SONET/SDH Rates and Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
   Appendix B.  Example Network Diagrams  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
   18. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
     18.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
     18.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41







































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1.  Introduction

   This document provides encapsulation formats and semantics for
   emulating SONET/SDH circuits and services over MPLS.

2.  Scope

   The generic requirements and architecture for Pseudowire Emulation
   Edge-to-Edge (PWE3) are described in [PWE3-REQ] and [PWE3-ARCH].
   Additional requirements for emulation of SONET/SDH and lower-rate TDM
   circuits are described in [PWE3-TDM-REQ].

   This document provides encapsulation formats and semantics for
   emulating SONET/SDH circuits and services over MPLS packet-switched
   networks (PSNs).  Emulation of the following digital signals are
   defined:

   1.  Synchronous Payload Envelope (SPE)/Virtual Container (VC-n): STS-
       1/VC-3, STS-3c/VC-4, STS-12c/VC-4-4c, STS-48c/VC-4-16c, STS-192c/
       VC-4-64c, etc.

   2.  Virtual Tributary (VT)/Virtual Container (VC-n): VT1.5/VC-11,
       VT2/VC-12, VT3, VT6/VC-2

   For the remainder of this document, these constructs are referred to
   as SONET/SDH channels.

3.  Requirements Notation

   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 [RFC2119].

4.  Acronyms

   ADM    Add Drop Multiplexer
   AIS    Alarm Indication Signal
   APM    Adaptive Pointer Management
   AU-n   Administrative Unit-n (SDH)
   AUG    Administrative Unit Group (SDH)
   BIP    Bit Interleaved Parity
   BITS   Building Integrated Timing Supply
   CEP    Circuit Emulation over Packet
   DBA    Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation
   EBM    Equipped Bit Mask
   EPAR   Explicit Pointer Adjustment Relay





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   LOF    Loss of Frame
   LOS    Loss of Signal
   LTE    Line Terminating Equipment
   POH    Path Overhead
   PSN    Packet Switched Network
   PTE    Path Terminating Equipment
   PW     Pseudowire
   RDI    Remote Defect Indication
   SDH    Synchronous Digital Hierarchy
   SONET  Synchronous Optical Network
   SPE    Synchronous Payload Envelope
   STM-n  Synchronous Transport Module-n (SDH)
   STS-n  Synchronous Transport Signal-n (SONET)
   TDM    Time Division Multiplexing
   TOH    Transport Overhead
   TU-n   Tributary Unit-n (SDH)
   TUG-n  Tributary Unit Group-n (SDH)
   UNEQ   Unequipped
   VC-n   Virtual Container-n (SDH)
   VT     Virtual Tributary (SONET)
   VTG    Virtual Tributary Group (SONET)

5.  CEP Encapsulation Format

   In order to transport SONET/SDH circuits through a packet-oriented
   network, the SPE (or VT) is broken into fragments, and a CEP header
   and optionally an RTP header are prepended to each fragment.
























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   The basic CEP packet appears in Figure 1.

                +-----------------------------------+
                |   PSN and Multiplexing Layer      |
                |             Headers               |
                +-----------------------------------+
                |           CEP Header              |
                +-----------------------------------+
                |           RTP Header              |
                |           (RFC 3550)              |
                +-----------------------------------+
                |                                   |
                |                                   |
                |           SONET/SDH               |
                |            Fragment               |
                |                                   |
                |                                   |
                +-----------------------------------+

                        Figure 1: Basic CEP Packet

5.1.  SONET/SDH Fragment

   The SONET/SDH fragments MUST be byte aligned with the SONET/SDH SPE
   or VT.  The first bit received from each byte of the SONET/SDH MUST
   be the Most Significant Bit of each byte in the SONET/SDH fragment.

   SONET/SDH bytes are placed into the SONET/SDH fragment in the same
   order in which they are received.

   SONET/SDH optical interfaces use binary coding and therefore are
   scrambled prior to transmission to ensure an adequate number of
   transitions.  For clarity, this scrambling is referred to as physical
   layer scrambling/descrambling.

   In addition, many payload formats (such as for Asynchronous Transfer
   Mode (ATM) and High-Level Data Link Control (HDLC)) include an
   additional layer of scrambling to provide protection against
   transition density violations within the SPEs.  This function is
   referred to as payload scrambling/unscrambling.

   CEP assumes that physical layer scrambling/unscrambling occurs as
   part of the SONET/SDH section/line termination Native Service
   Processing (NSP) functions.







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   However, CEP makes no assumption about payload scrambling.  The
   SONET/SDH fragments MUST be constructed without knowledge or
   processing of any incidental payload scrambling.

   CEP implementations MUST include the H3 (or V3) byte in the SONET/SDH
   fragment during negative pointer adjustment events, and MUST remove
   the stuff byte from the SONET/SDH fragment during positive pointer
   adjustment events.

   VT emulation implementations MUST NOT carry the VT pointer bytes V1,
   V2, V3, and V4 as part of the CEP payload.  The only exception is the
   carriage of V3 during negative pointer adjustment as described above.

   All CEP SPE implementations MUST support a packet size of 783 bytes
   and MAY support other packet sizes.

   VT emulation implementations MUST support payload size of full VT
   super-frame, and MAY support 1/2 and 1/4 VT super-frame payload
   sizes.

   Table 1 below describes single super-frame payload size per VT type.

                      +-------------+--------------+
                      | VT type     | Size (Bytes) |
                      +-------------+--------------+
                      | VT1.5/VC-11 |      104     |
                      | VT2/VC-12   |      140     |
                      | VT3         |      212     |
                      | VT6/VC-2    |      428     |
                      +-------------+--------------+

                   Table 1: VT Super-Frame Payload Sizes

   OPTIONAL SONET/SDH Fragment formats have been defined to reduce the
   bandwidth requirements of the emulated SONET/SDH circuits under
   certain conditions.  These OPTIONAL formats are included in
   Section 11.

5.2.  CEP Header

   The CEP header supports both a basic and extended mode.  The Basic
   CEP header provides the minimum functionality necessary to accurately
   emulate a SONET/SDH circuit over a PSN.  Extended headers are
   utilized for some of the OPTIONAL SONET/SDH fragment formats
   described in Section 11.

   Enhanced functionality and commonality with other real-time Internet
   applications is provided by RTP encapsulation.



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   The CEP 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
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |0|0|0|0|L|R|N|P|FRG|Length[0:5]|    Sequence Number[0:15]      |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |               Reserved                |Structure Pointer[0:11]|
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

                        Figure 2: CEP Header Format

   L bit:  CEP-AIS.  This bit MUST be set to 1 to signal to the
      downstream PE that a failure condition has been detected on the
      attachment circuit.  Failure conditions leading to generation of
      CEP-AIS and the mapping of CEP-AIS signal on the downstream
      attachment circuit are described in Section 7.

   R bit:  CEP-RDI.  This bit MUST be set to 1 to signal to the upstream
      PE that a loss of packet synchronization has occurred.  This bit
      MUST be set to 0 once packet synchronization is acquired.  See
      Section 6.2 for details.

   N and P bits:  These bits are used to explicitly relay negative and
      positive pointer adjustments events across the PSN.  The use of N
      and P bits is OPTIONAL.  If not used, N and P bits MUST be set to
      0.  See Section 9 for details.

      Table 2 describes the interpretation of N and P bits settings.

                  +---+---+-----------------------------+
                  | N | P | Interpretation              |
                  +---+---+-----------------------------+
                  | 0 | 0 | No Pointer Adjustments      |
                  | 0 | 1 | Positive Pointer Adjustment |
                  | 1 | 0 | Negative Pointer Adjustment |
                  | 1 | 1 | Loss of Pointer Alarm       |
                  +---+---+-----------------------------+

                  Table 2: Interpretation of N and P Bits

   FRG bits:  FRG bits MUST be set to 0 by sender and ignored by
      receiver.

      SONET data is continuously fragmented into packets.  The structure
      pointer field designates the offset between the SONET SPE or VT
      structure and the packet boundary.




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   Length [0:5]:  The Length field, if other than zero, indicates the
      length of the CEP header, plus the length of the RTP header if
      used, plus the length of the payload.  The Length field MUST be
      set if the length of CEP header plus RTP header if used, plus
      payload is less than or equal to 64 bytes and MUST be set to 0
      otherwise.  In particular, if the payload is suppressed (e.g.,
      DBA) the Length field MUST be set to the CEP header length plus
      the RTP header length if used.

   Sequence Number [0:15]:  The packet sequence number MUST continuously
      cycle from 0 to 0xFFFF.  It is generated and processed in
      accordance with the rules established in [RTP].

   Structure Pointer [0:11]:  The structure pointer MUST contain the
      offset of the first byte of the SONET structure within the packet
      payload.  For SPE emulation, the structure pointer locates the J1
      byte within the CEP packet.  For VT emulation, the structure
      pointer locates the V5 byte within the packet.  The structure
      pointer value ranges between 0 to 0xFFE, where 0 represents the
      first byte after the CEP header.  The structure pointer MUST be
      set to 0xFFF if a packet does not carry the J1 (or V5) byte.  An
      arbitrary pointer change (New Data Flag (NDF) event) in the
      attachment circuit changes the offset of the SONET structure
      within the CEP packet and therefore changes the structure pointer
      value.

   Reserved field:  The reserved field MUST be set to 0 by the sender
      and ignored by receiver.

5.3.  RTP Header

   Usage of the RTP header is OPTIONAL.  Although CEP MAY employ an RTP
   header when explicit transfer of timing information is required, this
   is purely a formal reuse of the header format.  RTP mechanisms, such
   as header extensions, contributing source (CSRC) list, padding, RTP
   Control Protocol (RTCP), RTP header compression, Secure Realtime
   Transport Protocol (SRTP), etc., are not applicable to pseudowires.
   CEP uses the RTP Header as shown below.













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       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
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |V=2|P|X|  CC   |M|     PT      |       Sequence Number         |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |                           Timestamp                           |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |           Synchronization Source (SSRC) Identifier            |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

                           Figure 3: RTP Header

   V: Version.  The Version field MUST be set to 2.

   P: Padding.  No padding is required.  The P bit MUST be set to 0 by
      sender and ignored by receiver.

   X: Header extension.  No extensions are defined.  The X bit MUST be
      set to 0 by sender and ignored by receiver.

   CC:  CSRC count.  The CC field MUST be set to 0 by sender and ignored
      by receiver.

   M: Marker.  The M bit MUST be set to 0 by sender and ignored by
      receiver.

   PT [0:6]:  Payload type.  A PT value SHOULD be allocated from the
      range of dynamic values for each direction of the PW.  The same PT
      value MAY be reused both for direction and between different CEP
      PWs.

   Sequence Number [0:15]:  The packet sequence number MUST continuously
      cycle from 0 to 0xFFFF.  It is generated and processed in
      accordance with the rules established in [RTP].  The CEP receiver
      MUST sequence packets according to the Sequence Number field of
      the CEP header and MAY verify correct sequencing using RTP
      Sequence Number field.

   Timestamp [0:31]:  Timestamp values are used in accordance with the
      rules established in [RTP].  Frequency of the clock used for
      generating timestamps MUST be 19.44 MHz based on a local
      reference.

   SSRC [0:31]:  Synchronization source.  The SSRC field MAY be used for
      detection of misconnections.






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5.4.  PSN Encapsulation

   This document defines the transport of CEP over MPLS PSNs.  The
   bottom label in the MPLS label stack MUST be used to de-multiplex
   individual CEP channels.  In keeping with the conventions used in
   [PWE3-CONTROL], this de-multiplexing label is referred to as the PW
   Label and the upper labels are referred to as Tunnel Labels.  The CEP
   header follows the generic PWE3 Control Word format specified in
   [PWE3-MPLSCW] for use over an MPLS PSN.

   Transport of CEP over other PSN technologies is out of scope of this
   document.

6.  CEP Operation

   A CEP implementation MUST support a normal mode of operation and MAY
   support additional bandwidth conserving modes as described in
   Section 11.  During normal operation, SONET/SDH payloads are
   fragmented, prepended with the appropriate headers, and then
   transmitted into the packet network.

6.1.  CEP Packetizer and De-Packetizer

   As with all adaptation functions, CEP has two distinct components:
   adapting TDM SONET/SDH into a CEP packet stream, and converting the
   CEP packet stream back into a TDM SONET/SDH.  The first function is
   referred to as CEP packetizer or sender and the second as CEP de-
   packetizer or receiver.  This terminology is illustrated below.

                +------------+              +---------------+
                |            |              |               |
      SONET --> |    CEP     | --> PSN  --> |      CEP      | --> SONET
       SDH      | Packetizer |              | De-Packetizer |      SDH
                |            |              |               |
                +------------+              +---------------+
                   (sender)                    (receiver)

                         Figure 4: CEP Terminology

   The CEP de-packetizer requires a buffering mechanism to account for
   delay variation in the CEP packet stream.  This buffering mechanism
   is generically referred to as the CEP jitter buffer.

   During normal operation, the CEP packetizer receives a fixed-rate
   byte stream from a SONET/SDH interface.  When a packet worth of data
   is received from a SONET/SDH channel, the necessary headers are
   prepended to the SPE fragment and the resulting CEP packet is
   transmitted into the packet network.  Because all CEP packets



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   associated with a specific SONET/SDH channel have the same length,
   the transmission of CEP packets for that channel SHOULD occur at
   regular intervals.

   At the far end of the packet network, the CEP de-packetizer receives
   packets into a jitter buffer and then plays out the received byte
   stream at a fixed rate onto the corresponding SONET/SDH channel.  The
   jitter buffer SHOULD be adjustable in length to account for varying
   network delay behavior.  On average, the receive packet rate from the
   packet network should be balanced by the transmission rate onto the
   SONET/SDH channel.

   The CEP sequence numbers provide a mechanism to detect lost and/or
   misordered packets.  The sequence number in the CEP header MUST be
   used when transmission of the RTP header is suppressed.  The CEP de-
   packetizer MUST detect lost or misordered packets.  The CEP de-
   packetizer SHOULD play out an all-ones pattern (AIS) in place of any
   dropped packets.  The CEP de-packetizer SHOULD re-order packets
   received out of order.  If the CEP de-packetizer does not support re-
   ordering, it MUST drop misordered packets.

6.2.  Packet Synchronization

   A key component in declaring the state of a CEP service is whether or
   not the CEP de-packetizer is in or out of packet synchronization.
   The following paragraphs describe how that determination is made.

   As packets are received from the PSN, they are placed into a jitter
   buffer prior to play out on the SONET/SDH interface.  If a CEP de-
   packetizer supports re-ordering, any packet received before its play
   out time will still be considered valid.

   The determination of acquisition or loss of packet synchronization is
   always made at SONET/SDH play out time.  During SONET/SDH play out,
   the CEP de-packetizer will play received CEP packets onto the SONET/
   SDH interface.  However, if the jitter buffer is empty or the packet
   to be played out has not been received, the CEP de-packetizer will
   play out an 'empty packet' composed of an all-ones AIS pattern onto
   the SONET/SDH interface in place of the unavailable packet.

   The acquisition of packet synchronization is based on the number of
   sequential CEP packets that are played onto the SONET/SDH interface.
   Loss of packet synchronization is based on the number of sequential
   'empty' packets that are played onto the SONET/SDH interface.
   Specific details of these two cases are described below.






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6.2.1.  Acquisition of Packet Synchronization

   At startup, a CEP de-packetizer will be out of packet synchronization
   by default.  To declare packet synchronization at startup or after a
   loss of packet synchronization, the CEP de-packetizer must play out a
   configurable number of CEP packets with sequential sequence numbers
   towards the SONET/SDH interface.

6.2.2.   Loss of Packet Synchronization

   Once a CEP de-packetizer is in packet synchronization state, it may
   encounter a set of events that will cause it to lose packet
   synchronization.

   If the CEP de-packetizer encounters more than a configurable number
   of sequential empty packets, the CEP de-packetizer MUST declare a
   Loss of Packet Synchronization (LOPS) defect.

   LOPS failure is declared after 2.5 +/- 0.5 seconds of LOPS defect,
   and cleared after 10 seconds free of LOPS defect state.  The circuit
   is considered down as long as LOPS failure is declared.

7.  SONET/SDH Maintenance Signals

   This section describes the mapping of maintenance and alarm signals
   between the SONET/SDH network and the CEP pseudowire.  For clarity,
   the mappings are split into two groups: SONET/SDH to PSN, and PSN to
   SONET/SDH.

   For coherent failure detection, isolation, monitoring, and
   troubleshooting, SONET/SDH failure indications MUST be transferred
   correctly over the CEP pseudowire, and CEP connection failures MUST
   be mapped to SONET/SDH SPE/VT failure indications.  Failure detection
   capabilities and performance monitoring capabilities are dependent on
   the NSP functionality, e.g., LTE, PTE, Tandem Connection Monitoring
   [G.707], or Non-intrusive Monitoring (intermediate connection
   monitoring).

7.1.  SONET/SDH to PSN

   The following sections describe the mapping of SONET/SDH Maintenance
   Signals and Alarm conditions into CEP pseudowire indications.

7.1.1.  CEP-AIS: AIS-P/V Indication

   SONET/SDH Path outages are signaled by using maintenance alarms such
   as Path AIS (AIS-P).  AIS-P, in particular, indicates that the SONET/
   SDH Path is not currently transmitting valid end-user data, and the



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   SPE contains all ones.  Similarly, AIS-V indicates that the VT is not
   currently transmitting valid end-user data, and the VT contains all
   ones.

   It should be noted that nearly every type of service-affecting
   section or line defect would result in an AIS-P/V condition.

   The mapping of SONET/SDH failures into the SPE/VT layer is considered
   part of the NSP function and is based on the principles specified in
   [GR253], [SONET], [G.707], [G.806], and [G.783].  For example, should
   the SONET Section Layer detect a Loss of Signal (LOS) or Loss of
   Frame (LOF) or Section Trace Mismatch (TIM) conditions, an AIS-L is
   sent up to the Line Layer.  If the Line Layer detects AIS-L or Loss
   of Pointer (LOP), an AIS-P is sent to the Path Layer.  If the Path is
   terminated at the PE (i.e., a PTE) and the Path Layer detects AIS-P
   or UNEQ-P or TIM-P or PLM-P an AIS-V is sent to the VT Layer.

   The AIS-P/V indication is transferred to the CEP packetizer.  During
   AIS-P/V, CEP packets are generated as usual.  The L bit in the CEP
   header MUST be set to 1 to signal AIS-P/V explicitly through the
   packet network.  The N and P bits SHOULD be set to 1 to indicate loss
   of pointer indication.

   If DBA has been enabled for AIS-P/V, only the necessary headers and
   optional padding are transmitted into the packet network.  The Length
   field MUST be set to the size of the CEP header plus the size of the
   RTP header if used.

7.1.2.  Unequipped Indication

   Unequipped indication is used for bandwidth conserving modes defined
   in Section 11 as a trigger for payload removal.

   The declaration of the SPE/VT channel as Unequipped MUST conform to
   [GR253], [SONET], [G.806], and [G.783].  Unequipped circuits do not
   carry valid end-user data, but MAY be used for transporting valid
   information in the SPE/VT overhead bytes.  Supervisory Unequipped
   signals and Tandem Connection transport are two such applications:

      Supervisory Unequipped signal (called TEST-P in [SONET]) is used
      to provide a test signal for pre-service testing or in-service
      supervision of a path connection to a remote PTE from a PTE or an
      intermediate non-terminating path network element.  Both
      Unequipped and Supervisory Unequipped signals carry Unequipped
      Signal Label defined to be zero.  To distinguish between
      Unequipped and Supervisory Unequipped signals, [G.806] recommends
      that the SPE/VT Trace bytes J1/J2 be set to a non-zero value in
      Supervisory Unequipped signals.



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      The SPE/VT overhead bytes N1/Z6 (SDH refers to Z6 as N2)
      optionally transport Tandem Connection signals between
      intermediate network elements.  Unequipped signals transporting
      Tandem Connection would have non-zero N1 or N2/Z6 bytes.

   Therefore, the CEP packetizer MUST declare a circuit unequipped only
   if the Signal Label, Trace (J1/J2), and Tandem Connection (N1/N2/Z6)
   bytes all have zero value.

   During SPE/VT Unequipped, the N and P bits MUST be interpreted as
   usual.  The SPE/VT MUST be transmitted into the packet network along
   with the appropriate headers.

   If DBA has been enabled for Unequipped SPE/VT, only the necessary
   headers and optional padding are transmitted into the packet network.
   The Length field MUST be set to the size of the CEP header plus the
   size of the RTP header if used.  The N and P bits MAY be used to
   signal pointer adjustments as normal.

7.1.3.  CEP-RDI: Remote Defect Indication

   The CEP function MUST send CEP-RDI indication towards the packet
   network during loss of packet synchronization by setting the R bit to
   one in the CEP header.  The CEP function SHOULD clear the R bit once
   packet synchronization is restored.

7.2.  PSN to SONET/SDH

   The following sections describe the mapping of pseudowire indications
   to SONET/SDH Maintenance Signals and Alarm conditions.

7.2.1.  CEP-AIS: AIS-P/V Indication

   There are several conditions in the packet network that cause the CEP
   de-packetization function to play out an AIS-P/V indication towards a
   SONET/SDH channel.  The CEP de-packetizer MUST play out one packet's
   worth of all ones for each packet received, and MUST set the SONET/
   SDH Overhead to signal AIS-P/V as defined in [SONET], [GR253], and
   [G.707].

   The first of these is the receipt of CEP packets with the L bit set
   to one indicating that the far end has detected an error leading to
   declaration of AIS-P/V alarm.  In addition to the play out of
   AIS-P/V, the CEP de-packetizer SHOULD set the pointer value to all-
   ones value.






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   The second case that will cause a CEP de-packetization function to
   play out an AIS-P/V indication onto a SONET/SDH channel is during
   loss of packet synchronization.

   The third case is the receipt of CEP packets with both the N and P
   bits set to 1.  This is an explicit indication of Loss of Pointer
   LOP-P/V received at the far-end of the packet network.  In addition
   to play out of AIS-P/V, the CEP de-packetizer SHOULD set the pointer
   value to all-ones value.

7.2.2.  Unequipped Indication

   There are several conditions in the packet network that cause the CEP
   function to transmit Unequipped indications onto the SONET/SDH
   channel.

   The first, which is transparent to CEP, is the receipt of regular CEP
   packets that happen to carry an SPE/VT containing the appropriate
   Path overhead or VT overhead set to Unequipped.  This case does not
   require any special processing on the part of the CEP de-packetizer.

   The second case is the receipt of CEP packets with the Length field
   indicating that the payload was removed by DBA, while the L bit is
   set to 0, indicating that the DBA was triggered by an Unequipped
   indication and not by an AIS-P/V indication.  The CEP de-packetizer
   MUST use this information to transmit a packet of all zeros onto the
   SONET/SDH interface.

   The third case when a CEP de-packetizer MUST play out an SPE/VT
   Unequipped indication towards the SONET/SDH interface is when the
   circuit has been de-provisioned.

8.  SONET/SDH Transport Timing

   It is assumed that the distribution of SONET/SDH transport timing
   information is addressed either through external mechanisms such as
   Building Integrated Timing Supply (BITS), Stand Alone Synchronization
   Equipment (SASE), Global Positioning System (GPS), or other such
   methods, or is obtained through an adaptive timing recovery
   mechanism.

   Details about specific adaptive algorithms for recovery of SONET/SDH
   transport timing are not considered to be within scope for this
   document.  The wander and jitter limits for networks based on the SDH
   hierarchy are defined in [G.825] and for the SONET hierarchy in
   [GR253].  The wander and jitter limits specified in these standards
   must be maintained when CEP PWs are used.




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9.  SONET/SDH Pointer Management

   A pointer management system is defined as part of the definition of
   SONET/SDH.  Details on SONET/SDH pointer management can be found in
   [SONET], [GR253], [G.707], and [G.783].  If there is a frequency
   offset between the frame rate of the transport overhead and that of
   the SONET/SDH SPE, the alignment of the SPE will periodically slip
   back or advance in time through positive or negative stuffing.
   Similarly, if there is a frequency offset between the SPE rate and
   the VT rate it carries, the alignment of the VT will periodically
   slip back or advance in time through positive or negative stuffing
   within the SPE.

   The emulation of this aspect of SONET/SDH networks may be
   accomplished using a variety of techniques including Explicit Pointer
   Adjustment Relay (EPAR) and Adaptive Pointer Management (APM).

   In any case, the handling of the SPE or VT data by the CEP packetizer
   is the same.

   During a negative pointer adjustment event, the CEP packetizer MUST
   incorporate the H3 (or V3) byte from the SONET/SDH stream into the
   CEP packet payload in order with the rest of the SPE (or VT).  During
   a positive pointer adjustment event, the CEP packetizer MUST strip
   the stuff byte from the CEP packet payload.

   When playing out a negative pointer adjustment event, the appropriate
   byte of the CEP payload MUST be placed into the H3 (or V3) byte of
   the SONET/SDH stream.  When playing out a positive pointer
   adjustment, the CEP de-packetizer MUST insert a stuff byte into the
   appropriate position within the SONET/SDH stream.

   The details regarding the use of the H3 (and V3) byte and stuff byte
   during positive and negative pointer adjustments can be found in
   [SONET], [GR253], and [G.707].

9.1.  Explicit Pointer Adjustment Relay (EPAR)

   CEP provides an OPTIONAL mechanism to explicitly relay pointer
   adjustment events from one side of the PSN to the other.  This
   technique is referred to as Explicit Pointer Adjustment Relay (EPAR).
   EPAR is only effective when both ends of the PW have access to a
   common timing reference.

   The following text only applies to CEP implementations that choose to
   implement EPAR.  Any CEP implementation that does not support EPAR
   MUST set the N and P bits to 0.




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   The pointer adjustment event MUST be transmitted in three consecutive
   packets by the packetizer.  The de-packetizer MUST play out the
   pointer adjustment event when any one packet with N/P bit set is
   received.  The CEP de-packetizer MUST utilize the CEP sequence
   numbers to ensure that SONET/SDH pointer adjustment events are not
   played any more frequently than once per every three CEP packets
   transmitted by the remote CEP packetizer.

   The VT EPAR packetizer MUST relay pointer adjustment indications
   received at the SPE level in addition to relaying VT pointer
   adjustment indications.  Because of the rate differences between VT
   and SPE, the magnitude of a VT pointer adjustment is much larger than
   that of an SPE adjustment.  Therefore, the VT EPAR packetizer has to
   convert multiple SPE pointer adjustments to fewer VT pointer
   adjustment indications signaled over the PSN using the N and P CEP
   header bits.  A simple algorithm can be used for this purpose using
   an accumulator (counter):

      The accumulator value is reset to 0 when the circuit is in Loss of
      Packet Synchronization (LOPS) state.

      A positive pointer adjustment indication increases the accumulator
      value by a fixed quota, while negative pointer adjustment
      subtracts the same quota from the accumulator.  A VT pointer
      adjustment changes the accumulator value by 783 units (one STS-1
      SPE size).  An SPE pointer adjustment changes the accumulator
      value by quota that depends on the VT emulation type.  The quota
      is 1/4 of the VT size as defined in Table 1, e.g., 26 bytes for
      VT1.5 emulation and 35 bytes for VT2 emulation.

      When the accumulator value is larger than or equal to 783 units, a
      positive pointer adjustment is signaled towards the PSN using the
      CEP header P bit and 783 units are subtracted from the
      accumulator.

      When the accumulator value is smaller than or equal to minus 783
      units, a negative pointer adjustment is signaled towards the PSN
      using the CEP header N bit and 783 units are added to the
      accumulator.

   The same algorithm is applicable for SDH Virtual Container carried in
   VC-4, i.e., positive VC-4 pointer adjustment adds 35 units to a VC-12
   accumulator, while positive VC-12 pointer adjustment adds 783 units
   to the accumulator.







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   If both N and P bits are set, then a Loss of Pointer event has been
   detected at the PW ingress, making the pointer invalid.  The de-
   packetizer MUST play out an AIS-P/V indication and SHOULD set the
   pointer value to all-ones value.

9.2.  Adaptive Pointer Management (APM)

   Another OPTIONAL method that may be used to emulate SONET/SDH pointer
   management is Adaptive Pointer Management (APM).  In basic terms, APM
   uses information about the depth of the CEP jitter buffers to
   introduce pointer adjustments in the reassembled SONET/SDH SPE.

   Details about specific APM algorithms are not considered to be within
   scope for this document.

10.  CEP Performance Monitors

   SONET/SDH as defined in [SONET], [GR253], [G.707], and [G.784]
   includes a definition of several counters used to monitor the
   performance of SONET/SDH services.  These counters are referred to as
   Performance Monitors.

   In order for CEP to be utilized by traditional SONET/SDH network
   operators, CEP SHOULD provide similar functionality.  The following
   sections describe a number of counters that are collectively referred
   to as CEP Performance Monitors.

10.1.  Near-End Performance Monitors

   These performance monitors are maintained by the CEP de-packetizer
   during reassembly of the SONET/SDH stream.

   The performance monitors are based on two types of defects.

      Type 1: missing or dropped packet.

      Type 2: buffer underrun, buffer overrun, LOPS, missing packets
              above predefined configurable threshold.

   The specific performance monitors defined for CEP are as follows:

      ES-CEP    - CEP Errored Seconds
      SES-CEP   - CEP Severely Errored Seconds
      UAS-CEP   - CEP Unavailable Seconds







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   Each second that contains at least one type 1 defect SHALL be
   declared as ES-CEP.  Each second that contains at least one type 2
   defect SHALL be declared as SES-CEP.

   UAS-CEP SHALL be declared after configurable number of consecutive
   SES-CEP, and cleared after a configurable number of consecutive
   seconds without SES-CEP.  Default value for each is 10 seconds.

   Once unavailability is declared, ES and SES counts SHALL be inhibited
   up to the point where the unavailability was started.  Once
   unavailability is removed, ES and SES that occurred along the
   clearing period SHALL be added to the ES and SES counts.

   CEP-NE failure is declared after 2.5 +/- 0.5 seconds of CEP-NE type 2
   defect, and cleared after 10 seconds free of CEP-NE defect state.
   Sending notification to the OS for CEP-NE failure is local policy.

10.2.  Far-End Performance Monitors

   Far-end performance monitors provide insight into the CEP de-
   packetizer at the far end of the PSN.

   Far-end statistics are based on the CEP-RDI indication carried in the
   CEP header R bit.  CEP-FE defect is declared when CEP-RDI is set in
   the incoming CEP packets.

   CEP-FE failure is declared after 2.5 +/- 0.5 seconds of CEP-FE
   defect, and cleared after 10 seconds free of CEP-FE defect state.
   Sending notification to the OS for CEP-FE failure is local policy.

11.  Payload Compression Options

   In addition to pure emulation, CEP also offers a number of options
   for reducing the total bandwidth utilized by the emulated circuit.
   These options fall into two categories: Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation
   (DBA) and Service-Specific Payload Formats.

   DBA suppresses transmission of the CEP payload altogether under
   certain circumstances such as AIS-P/V and SPE/VT Unequipped.  The use
   of DBA is dependent on network architectures, e.g., support of Tandem
   Connection Monitoring, test signals (TEST-P) [SONET], or Supervisory
   Unequipped [G.806] signals.

   Service-Specific Payload Formats reduce bandwidth by suppressing
   transmission of portions of the SPE based on specific knowledge of
   the SPE payload.





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   Details on these payload compression options are described in the
   following subsections.

11.1.  Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation

   Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation (DBA) is an OPTIONAL mechanism for
   suppressing the transmission of the SPE (or VT) fragment when one of
   two trigger conditions are met, AIS-P/V or SPE/VT Unequipped.

   Implementations that support DBA MUST include a mechanism for
   disabling DBA on a channel-by-channel basis to allow for
   interoperability with implementations that do not support DBA.

   When a DBA trigger is recognized at PW ingress, the CEP payload will
   be suppressed.  The CEP Length field MUST be set to the CEP header
   length plus the RTP header length if used, and padding bytes SHOULD
   be added if the intervening packet network has a minimum packet size
   that is larger than the payload-suppressed DBA packet.

   Other than the suppression of the CEP payload, the CEP behavior
   during DBA should be equivalent to normal CEP behavior.  In
   particular, the packet transmission rate during DBA should be
   equivalent to the normal packet transmission rate.

11.2.  Service-Specific Payload Formats

   In addition to the standard payload encapsulations for SPE and VT
   transport, several OPTIONAL payload formats have been defined to
   provide varying amounts of payload compression depending on the type
   and amount of user traffic present within the SPE.  These are
   described below.

11.2.1.  Fractional STS-1 (VC-3) Encapsulation

   Fractional STS-1 (VC-3) encapsulation carries only a selected set of
   VTs within an STS-1 container.  This mode is applicable for STS-1
   with POH signal label byte C2=2 (VT-structured SPE) and for C2=3
   (Locked VT mode).

   Implementations of fractional STS-1 (VC-3) encapsulation MUST support
   payload length of one SPE and MAY support payload length of 1/3 SPE.

   The mapping of VTs into an STS-1 container is described in Section
   3.2.4 of [GR253], and the mapping into VC-3 is defined in Section
   7.2.4 in [G.707].  The CEP packetizer removes all fixed column bytes
   (columns 30 and 59) and all bytes belonging to the removed VTs.  Only





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   STS-1 POH bytes and bytes that belong to the selected VTs are carried
   within the payload.  The CEP de-packetizer adds the fixed stuff bytes
   and generates unequipped VT data replacing the removed VT bytes.

   The figure below illustrates VT1.5 mapping into an STS-1 SPE.

        1   2   3  * * *  29 30 31 32   * * *  58 59 60  61  * * *  87
       +--+------------------+-+------------------+-+------------------+
     1 |J1|  Byte 1 (V1-V4)  |R|   |   |      |   |R|   |   |      |   |
       +--+---+---+------+---+-+------------------+-+------------------+
     2 |B3|VT |   |      |   |R|   |   |      |   |R|   |   |      |   |
       +--+1.5|   |      |   +-+---+---+------+---+-+------------------+
     3 |C2|   |   |      |   |R|   |   |      |   |R|   |   |      |   |
       +--+   |   |      |   +-+---+---+------+---+-+------------------+
     4 |G1|   |   |      |   |R|   |   |      |   |R|   |   |      |   |
       +--+   |   |      |   +-+---+---+------+---+-+------------------+
     5 |F2|   |   |      |   |R|   |   |      |   |R|   |   |      |   |
       +--|1-1|2-1| * * *|7-4|-|1-1|2-1| * * *|7-4|-|1-1|2-1| * * *|7-4|
     6 |H4|   |   |      |   |R|   |   |      |   |R|   |   |      |   |
       +--+   |   |      |   +-+---+---+------+---+-+------------------+
     7 |Z3|   |   |      |   |R|   |   |      |   |R|   |   |      |   |
       +--+   |   |      |   +-+---+---+------+---+-+------------------+
     8 |Z4|   |   |      |   |R|   |   |      |   |R|   |   |      |   |
       +--+   |   |      |   +-+---+---+------+---+-+------------------+
     9 |Z5|   |   |      |   |R|   |   |      |   |R|   |   |      |   |
       +--+---+---+------+---+-+---+---+------+---+-+------------------+
        |                     |                    |
        +-- Path Overhead     +--------------------+-- Fixed Stuffs

                   Figure 5: SONET SPE Mapping of VT1.5

   The SPE always contains seven interleaved VT groups (VTGs).  Each VTG
   contains a single type of VT, and each VTG occupies 12 columns (108
   bytes) within each SPE.  A VTG can contain 4 VT1.5s (T1s), 3 VT2s
   (E1s), 2 VT3s, or a single VT6.  Altogether, the SPE can carry 28 T1s
   or carry 21 E1s.

   The fractional STS-1 encapsulation can optionally carry a bit mask
   that specifies which VTs are carried within the STS-1 payload and
   which VTs have been removed.  This optional bit mask attribute allows
   the ingress circuit emulation node to remove an unequipped VT on the
   fly, providing the egress circuit emulation node enough information
   for reconstructing the VTs in the right order.  The use of bit mask
   enables on-the-fly compression, whereby only equipped VTs (carrying
   actual data) are sent.






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11.2.1.1.  Fractional STS-1 CEP Header

   The fractional STS-1 CEP header uses the STS-1 CEP header
   encapsulation as defined in this document.  Optionally, an additional
   4-byte header extension word is added.

   The extended 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
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |0|0|0|0|L|R|N|P|FRG|Length[0:5]|    Sequence Number[0:15]      |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |               Reserved                |Structure Pointer[0:11]|
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |0|0|0|0|            Equipped Bit Mask (EBM) [0:27]             |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

                Figure 6: Extended Fractional STS-1 Header

   The L, R, N, P, FRG, Length, Sequence Number, and Structured Pointer
   fields are used as defined in this document for STS-1 encapsulation.

   Each bit within the Equipped Bit Mask (EBM) field refers to a
   different VT within the STS-1 container.  A bit set to 1 indicates
   that the corresponding VT is equipped, hence carried within the
   fractional STS-1 payload.

   The STS-1 EBM has the following format:

       0                   1                   2
       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
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |  VTG7 |  VTG6 |  VTG5 |  VTG4 |  VTG3 |  VTG2 |  VTG1 |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

          Figure 7: Equipped Bit Mask (EBM) for Fractional STS-1

   The 28 bits of the EBM are divided into groups of 4 bits, each
   corresponding to a different VTG within the STS container.  All 4
   bits are used to indicate whether VT1.5 (T1) tributaries are carried
   within a VTG.  The first 3 bits read from right to left are used to
   indicate whether VT2 (E1) tributaries are carried within a VTG.  The
   first 2 bits are used to indicate whether VT3 (DS1C) tributaries are
   carried within a VTG.  The rightmost bit is used to indicate whether
   a VT6 (DS2) is carried within the VTG.  The VTs within the VTG are
   numbered from right to left, starting from the first VT as the first
   bit on the right.  For example, the EBM of a fully occupied STS-1



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   with VT1.5 tributaries is all ones, while that of an STS-1 fully
   occupied with VT2 (E1) tributaries has the binary value
   0111011101110111011101110111.

11.2.1.2.  B3 Compensation

   Fractional STS-1 encapsulation can be implemented in Line Terminating
   Equipment (LTE) or in Path Terminating Equipment (PTE).  PTE
   implementations terminate the path layer at the ingress PE and
   generate a new path layer at the egress PE.

   LTE implementations do not terminate the path layer, and therefore
   need to keep the content and integrity of the POH bytes across the
   PSN.  In LTE implementations, special care must be taken to maintain
   the B3 bit-wise parity POH byte.  The B3 compensation algorithm is
   defined below.

   Since the BIP-8 value in a given frame reflects the parity check over
   the previous frame, the changes made to BIP-8 bits in the previous
   frame shall also be considered in the compensation of BIP-8 in the
   current frame.  Therefore, the following equation shall be used for
   compensation of the individual bits of the BIP-8:

      B3[i]'(t) = B3[i](t-1) || B3[i]'(t-1) || B3[i](t) || B*3[i](t-1)

      Where:

         B3[i]   = the existing B3[i] value in the incoming signal
         B3[i]'  = the new (compensated) B3[i] value
         B3*[i]  = the B3[i] value of the unequipped VTs in the
                   incoming signal
         ||  =  exclusive OR operator
         t   =  the time of the current frame
         t-1 =  the time of the previous frame

   The egress PE MUST reconstruct the unequipped VTs and modify the B3
   parity value in the same manner to accommodate the additional VTs
   added.  In this way, the end-to-end BIP is preserved.

11.2.1.3.  Actual Payload Size

   The actual CEP payload size depends on the number of virtual
   tributaries carried within the fractional SPE.  The contributions of
   each tributary to the fractional STS-1 payload size as well as the
   path overhead contribution are described below.

      Each VT1.5 contributes 27 bytes




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      Each VT2 contributes 36 bytes

      Each VT3 contributes 54 bytes

      Each VT6 contributes 108 bytes

      STS-1 POH contributes 9 bytes

   For example, a fractional STS-1 carrying 7 VT2 circuit in full-SPE
   encapsulation would have an actual size of 261=36*7+9 bytes.  Divide
   by 3 to calculate the third-SPE encapsulation actual payload sizes.

11.2.2.  Asynchronous T3/E3 STS-1 (VC-3) Encapsulation

   Asynchronous T3/E3 STS-1 (VC-3) encapsulation is applicable for
   signals with POH signal label byte C2=4, carrying asynchronously
   mapped T3 or E3 signals.

   Implementations of asynchronous T3/E3 STS-1 (VC-3) encapsulation MUST
   support payload length of one SPE and MAY support payload length of
   1/3 SPE.

11.2.2.1.  T3 Payload Compression

   A T3 is encapsulated asynchronously into an STS-1 SPE using the
   format defined in Section 3.4.2.1 of [GR253].  The STS-1 SPE is then
   encapsulated as defined in this document.

   Optionally, the STS-1 SPE can be compressed by removing the fixed
   columns leaving only data columns.  STS-1 columns are numbered 1 to
   87, starting from the POH column numbered 1.  The following columns
   have fixed values and are removed: 2, 3, 30, 31, 59, and 60.

   Bandwidth saving is approximately 7% (6 columns out of 87).  The B3
   parity byte need not be modified as the parity of the fixed columns
   amounts to 0.  The actual payload size for full-SPE encapsulation
   would be 729 bytes and 243 bytes for third-SPE encapsulation.

   A T3 is encapsulated asynchronously into a VC-3 container as
   described in Section 10.1.2.1 of [G.707].  VC-3 container has only 85
   data columns, which is identical to the STS-1 container with the two
   fixed stuff columns 30 and 59 removed.  Other than that, the mapping
   is identical.








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11.2.2.2.  E3 Payload Compression

   An E3 is encapsulated asynchronously into a VC-3 SPE using the format
   defined in Section 10.1.2.2 of [G.707].  The VC-3 SPE is then
   encapsulated as defined in this document.

   Optionally, the VC-3 SPE can be compressed by removing the fixed
   columns leaving only data columns.  VC-3 columns are numbered 1 to 85
   (and not 87), starting from the POH column numbered 1.  The following
   columns have fixed values and are removed: 2, 6, 10, 14, 18, 19, 23,
   27, 31, 35, 39, 44, 48, 52, 56, 60, 61, 65, 69, 73, 77, and 81.

   Bandwidth saving is approximately 28% (24 columns out of 85).  The B3
   parity byte need not be modified as the parity of the fixed columns
   amounts to 0.  The actual payload size for full-SPE encapsulation
   would be 567 bytes and 189 bytes for third-SPE encapsulation.

11.2.3.  Fractional VC-4 Encapsulation

   SDH defines a mapping of VC-11, VC-12, VC-2, and VC-3 directly into
   VC-4.  This mapping does not have an equivalent within the SONET
   hierarchy.  The VC-4 mapping is common in SDH implementations.

       VC-4 <--x3-- TUG-3 <--------x1-------- TU-3 <-- VC-3 <---- E3/T3
                        |
                        +--x7-- TUG-2 <--x1-- TU-2 <-- VC-2 <---- DS2
                                 |
                                 +----x3---- TU-12 <-- VC-12<---- E1
                                 |
                                 +----x4---- TU-11 <-- VC-11<---- T1

                    Figure 8: Mapping of VCs into VC-4

   Figure 8 describes the mapping options of VCs into VC-4.  A VC-4
   contains three TUG-3s.  Each TUG-3 is composed of either a single
   TU-3 or 7 TUG-2s.  A TU-3 contains a single VC-3.  A TUG-2 contains
   either 4 VC-11s (T1s), 3 VC-12s (E1s), or one VC-2.  Therefore, a
   VC-4 may contain 3 VC-3s, 1 VC-3 and 42 VC-12s, 63 VC-12s, etc.

   Fractional VC-4 encapsulation carries only a selected set of VCs
   within a VC-4 container.  This mode is applicable for VC-4 with POH
   signal label byte C2=2 (TUG structure) and for C2=3 (Locked TU-n).
   The mapping of VCs into a VC-4 container is described in Section 7.2
   of [G.707].  The CEP packetizer removes all fixed column bytes and
   all bytes that belong to the removed VCs.  Only VC-4 POH bytes and
   bytes that belong to the selected VCs are carried within the payload.
   The CEP de-packetizer adds the fixed stuff bytes and generates
   unequipped VC data replacing the removed VC bytes.



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   The fractional VC-4 encapsulation can optionally carry a bit mask
   that specifies which VCs are carried within the VC-4 payload and
   which VCs have been removed.  This optional bit mask attribute allows
   the ingress circuit emulation node to remove unequipped VCs on the
   fly, providing the egress circuit emulation node enough information
   for reconstructing the VCs in the right order.  The use of bit mask
   enables on-the-fly compression, whereby only equipped VCs (carrying
   actual data) are sent.

   VC-3 carrying asynchronous T3/E3 signals within the VC-4 container
   can optionally be compressed by removing the fixed column bytes as
   described in Section 11.2.2, providing additional bandwidth saving.

   Implementations of fractional VC-4 encapsulation MUST support payload
   length of 1/3 SPE and MAY support payload lengths of 4/9, 5/9, 6/9,
   7/9, 8/9, and full SPE.  The actual payload size of fractional VC-4
   encapsulation depends on the number of VCs carried within the
   payload.

11.2.3.1.  Fractional VC-4 Mapping

   [G.707] defines the mapping of TUG-3 to a VC-4 in Section 7.2.1.
   Each TUG-3 includes 86 columns.  TUG-3#1, TUG-3#2, and TUG-3#3 are
   byte multiplexed, starting from column 4.  Column 1 is the VC-4 POH,
   while columns 2 and 3 are fixed and therefore removed in the
   fractional VC-4 encapsulation.

   The mapping of TU-3 into TUG-3 is defined in Section 7.2.2 of
   [G.707].  The TU-3 consists of the VC-3 with a 9-byte VC-3 POH and
   the TU-3 pointer.  The first column of the 9-row-by-86-column TUG-3
   is allocated to the TU-3 pointer (bytes H1, H2, H3) and fixed stuff.
   The phase of the VC-3 with respect to the TUG-3 is indicated by the
   TU-3 pointer.

   The mapping of TUG-2 into TUG-3 is defined in Section 7.2.3 of
   [G.707].  The first two columns of the TUG-3 are fixed and therefore
   removed in the fractional VC-4 encapsulation.  The 7 TUG-2s, each 12
   columns wide, are byte multiplexed starting from column 3 of the
   TUG-3.  This is the equivalent of multiplexing 7 VTGs within STS-1
   container in SONET terminology, except for the location of the fixed
   columns.

   The static fractional VC-4 mapping assumes that both the ingress and
   egress nodes are preconfigured with the set of equipped VCs carried
   within the fractional VC-4 encapsulation.  The ingress emulation edge
   removes the fixed columns as well as columns of the VCs agreed upon
   by the two edges, and updates the B3 VC-4 byte.  The egress side adds
   the fixed columns and the unequipped VCs and updates B3.



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11.2.3.2.  Fractional VC-4 CEP Header

   The fractional VC-4 CEP header uses the VC-4 CEP header defined in
   this document.  Optionally, an additional 12-byte header extension
   word is added.

   The extended 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
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |0|0|0|0|L|R|N|P|FRG|Length[0:5]|    Sequence Number[0:15]      |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |               Reserved                |Structure Pointer[0:11]|
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |0|0|         Equipped Bit Mask #1 (EBM) [0:29] TUG-3#1         |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |0|0|         Equipped Bit Mask #2 (EBM) [0:29] TUG-3#2         |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |0|0|         Equipped Bit Mask #3 (EBM) [0:29] TUG-3#3         |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

                 Figure 9: Extended Fractional VC-4 Header

   The L, R, N, P, FRG, Length, Sequence Number, and Structured Pointer
   fields are used as defined in this document for STS-1 encapsulation.

   Each bit within the Equipped Bit Mask (EBM) field refers to a
   different tributary within the VC-4 container.  A bit set to 1
   indicates that the corresponding tributary is equipped, hence carried
   within the fractional VC-4 payload.

   Three EBM fields are used.  Each EBM field corresponds to a different
   TUG-3 within the VC-4.  The EBM includes 7 groups of 4 bits per
   TUG-2.  A bit set to 1 indicates that the corresponding VC is
   equipped, hence carried within the fractional VC-4 payload.  An
   additional 2 bits within the EBM indicate whether VC-3 carried within
   the TUG-3 is equipped and whether it is in AIS mode.













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   The VC-4 EBM has the following format:

           0                   1                   2
           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
          +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
          |A|T|TUG2#7 |TUG2#6 |TUG2#5 |TUG2#4 |TUG2#3 |TUG2#2 |TUG2#1 |
          +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

          Figure 10: Equipped Bit Mask (EBM) for Fractional VC-4

   The 30 bits of the EBM are divided into 2 bits that control the VC-3
   within the TUG-3 and 7 groups of 4 bits, each corresponding to a
   different TUG-2 within the TUG-3 container.

   For a TUG-3 containing TUG-2, the first two A and T bits MUST be set
   to 0.  The TUG-2 bits indicate whether the VCs within the TUG-2 are
   equipped.  All 4 bits are used to indicate whether VC-11 (T1)
   tributaries are carried within a TUG-2.  The first 3 bits read right
   to left are used to indicate whether VC-12 (E1) tributaries are
   carried within a TUG-2.  The first bit is used to indicate that a
   VC-2 is carried within a TUG-2.  The VCs within the TUG-2 are
   numbered from right to left, starting from the first VC as the first
   bit on the right.  For example, 28 bits of the EBM of a fully
   occupied TUG-3 with VC-11 tributaries are all ones, while that of a
   TUG-3 fully occupied with VC-12 tributaries has the binary value
   000111011101110111011101110111.

   For a TUG-3 containing VC-3, all TUG-2 bits MUST be set to 0.  The A
   and T bits are defined as follows:

   T: TUG-3 carried bit.  If set to 1, the VC-3 payload is carried
   within the TUG-3 container.  If set to 0, all the TUG-3 columns are
   not carried within the fractional VC-4 encapsulation.  The TUG-3
   columns are removed either because the VC-3 is unequipped or in AIS
   mode.

   A: VC-3 AIS bit.  The A bit MUST be set to 0 when the T bit is 1
   (i.e., when the TUG-3 columns are carried within the fractional VC-4
   encapsulation).  The A bit indicate the reason for removal of the
   entire TUG-3 columns.  If set to 0, the TUG-3 columns were removed
   because the VC-3 is unequipped.  If set to 1, the TUG-3 columns were
   removed because the VC-3 is in AIS mode.

11.2.3.3.  B3 Compensation

   Fractional VC-4 encapsulation can be implemented in Line Terminating
   Equipment (LTE) or in Path Terminating Equipment (PTE).  PTE
   implementations terminate the path layer at the ingress PE and



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   generate a new path layer at the egress PE.  LTE implementations do
   not terminate the path layer, and therefore need to keep the content
   and integrity of the POH bytes across the PSN.  In LTE
   implementations, special care must be taken to maintain the B3 bit-
   wise parity POH byte.  The same procedures for B3 compensation as
   described in Section 11.2.1.2 for fractional STS-1 encapsulation are
   used.

11.2.3.4.  Actual Payload Sizes

   The actual CEP payload size depends on the number of virtual
   tributaries carried within the fractional SPE.  The contributions of
   each tributary to the fractional VC-4 payload length as well as the
   path overhead contribution are described below.

      Each VC-11 contributes 27 bytes

      Each VC-12 contributes 36 bytes

      Each VC-2 contributes 108 bytes

      Each VC-3(T3) contributes 738 bytes

      Each VC-3(E3) contributes 576 bytes

      Each VC-3(uncompressed) contributes 774 bytes

      VC-4 POH contributes 9 bytes

   The VC-3 contribution includes the AU-3 pointer.  For example, the
   payload size of a fractional VC-4 configured to third-SPE
   encapsulation that carries a single compressed T3 VC-3 and 6 VC-12s
   would be: 321=(9 + 6*36 + 738) / 3 bytes payload per each packet.

12.  Signaling of CEP Pseudowires

   [PWE3-CONTROL] specifies the use of the MPLS Label Distribution
   Protocol, LDP, as a protocol for setting up and maintaining
   pseudowires.  In particular, it provides a way to bind a de-
   multiplexer field value to a pseudo-wire, specifying procedures for
   reporting pseudowire status changes and for releasing the bindings.
   [PWE3-CONTROL] assumes that the pseudowire de-multiplexer field is an
   MPLS label; however, the PSN tunnel itself can be either an IP or
   MPLS PSN.

   The use of LDP for setting up and maintaining CEP pseudowires is
   OPTIONAL.  This section describes the use of the CEP-specific fields
   and error codes.



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   The PW Type field in PWid Forwarding Equivalence Class (FEC) and PW
   generalized ID FEC elements MUST be set to SONET/SDH Circuit
   Emulation over Packet (CEP) [PWE3-IANA].

   The control word is REQUIRED for CEP pseudowires.  Therefore, the C
   bit in PWid FEC and PW generalized ID FEC elements MUST be set.  If
   the C bit is not set, the pseudowire MUST not be established and a
   Label Release MUST be sent with an Illegal C bit status code
   [PWE3-IANA].

   The PWid FEC and PW generalized ID FEC elements can include one or
   more Interface Parameters fields.  The Interface Parameters fields
   are used to validate that the two ends of the pseudowire have the
   necessary capabilities to interoperate with each other.  The CEP-
   specific Interface Parameters fields are the CEP/TDM Payload Bytes,
   the CEP/TDM Bit Rate, and the CEP Options parameters.

12.1.  CEP/TDM Payload Bytes

   This parameter MUST contain the expected CEP payload size in bytes.
   The payload size does not include network headers, CEP header or
   padding.  If payload compression is used, the CEP/TDM Payload Bytes
   parameter MUST be set to the uncompressed payload size as if payload
   compression was disabled.  In particular, when Fractional SPE (STS-1/
   VC-3 or VC-4) payload compression is used, the Payload Bytes
   parameter MUST be set to the payload size before removal of the
   unequipped VT containers and fixed value columns.  Therefore, when
   fractional SPE mode is used, the actual (i.e., on the wire) packet
   length would normally be less than advertised, and in dynamic
   fractional SPE, even change while the connection is active.
   Similarly, when DBA payload compression is used, the CEP/TDM Payload
   Bytes parameter MUST be set to the payload size prior to compression.

   The CEP/TDM Payload Bytes parameter is OPTIONAL.  Default payload
   sizes are assumed if this parameter is not included as part of the
   Interface Parameters fields.  The default payload size for VT is a
   single super frame.  The default payload size for SPE is 783 bytes.

   A PE that receives a label-mapping request with request for a CEP/TDM
   Payload Bytes value that is not locally supported MUST return CEP/TDM
   misconfiguration status error code [PWE3-IANA], and the pseudowire
   MUST not be established.

12.2.  CEP/TDM Bit Rate

   The CEP/TDM Bit Rate parameter MUST be set to the data rate in 64-
   Kbps units of the CEP payload.  If payload compression is used, the
   CEP/TDM Bit Rate parameter MUST be set to the uncompressed payload



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   data rate as if payload compression was disabled.  Table 3 specifies
   the CEP/TDM Bit Rate parameters that MUST be set for each of the
   pseudowire circuits.

                  +-------------+-----------------------+
                  | Circuit     |   Bit Rate Parameter  |
                  +-------------+-----------------------+
                  | VT1.5/VC-11 |           26          |
                  | VT2/VC-12   |           35          |
                  | VT3         |           53          |
                  | VT6/VC-2    |          107          |
                  | STS-Nc      | 783*N N=1,3,12,48,192 |
                  +-------------+-----------------------+

                        Table 3: CEP/TDM Bit Rates

   The CEP/TDM Bit Rate parameter is REQUIRED.  Attempts to establish a
   pseudowire between two peers with different bit rates MUST be
   rejected with incompatible bit rate status error code [PWE3-IANA],
   and the pseudowire MUST not be established.

12.3.  CEP Options

   The CEP Options parameter is REQUIRED.  The format of the CEP Options
   parameter is described below:

        0                                       1
        0   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   0   1   2   3   4   5
      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
      |AIS|UNE|RTP|EBM|      Reserved [0:6]       | CEP Type  | Async |
      |   |   |   |   |                           |    [0:2]  |T3 |E3 |
      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+

                          Figure 11: CEP Options

   AIS:  When set, indicates that the PE sending the label-mapping
      request is configured to send DBA packets when AIS indication is
      detected.

   UNE:  When set, indicates that the PE sending the label-mapping
      request is configured to send DBA packets when unequipped circuit
      indication is detected.

   RTP:  When set, indicates that the PE sending the label-mapping
      request is configured to send packets with RTP header.






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   EBM:  When set, indicates that the PE sending the label-mapping
      request is configured to send packets with EBM extension header.

   CEP Type:  indicates the CEP connection type:

         0x0 SPE mode (STS-1/STS-Mc)

         0x1 VT mode (VT1.5/VT2/VT3/VT6)

         0x2 Fractional SPE (STS-1/VC-3/VC-4)

   Async Type:  indicates the Async E3/T3 bandwidth reduction
      configuration.  Relevant only when CEP type is set to fractional
      SPE, and fractional SPE is expected to carry Asynchronous T3/E3
      payload:

         T3: When set, indicates that the PE sending the label-mapping
         request is configured to send Fractional SPE packets with T3
         bandwidth reduction.

         E3: When set, indicates that the PE sending the label-mapping
         request is configured to send Fractional SPE packets with E3
         bandwidth reduction.

   Reserved field:  MUST be set to 0 by the PE sending the label-mapping
      request and ignored by the receiver.

   A PE that does not support one of the CEP options set in the label-
   mapping request MUST send a label-release message with status code of
   CEP/TDM misconfiguration [PWE3-IANA], report to the operator, and
   wait for a new consistent label-mapping.  A PE MUST send a new label-
   mapping request once it is reconfigured or when it receives a label-
   mapping request from its peer with consistent configuration.

   A pseudowire can be configured asymmetrically.  One PE can be
   configured to use bandwidth reduction modes, while the other PE can
   be configured to send the entire circuit unmodified.  A PE can
   compare the CEP Options settings received in the label-mapping
   request with its own configuration and detect an asymmetric
   pseudowire configuration.  A PE that identifies an asymmetric
   configuration MAY report it to the operator.










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13.  Congestion Control

   The PSN carrying the CEP PW may be subject to congestion.  Congestion
   considerations for PWs are described in Section 6.5 of [PWE3-ARCH].
   CEP PWs represent inelastic constant bit rate (CBR) flows and cannot
   respond to congestion in a TCP-friendly manner prescribed by [CONG].
   CEP PWs SHOULD be carried across traffic-engineered PSNs that provide
   either bandwidth reservation and admission control or forwarding
   prioritization and boundary traffic conditioning mechanisms.
   Intserv-enabled domains [INTSERV] supporting Guaranteed Service [GS]
   and Diffserv-enabled domains [DIFFSERV] supporting Expedited
   Forwarding [EF] provide examples of such PSNs.  It is expected that
   PWs emulating high-rate SONET STS-Nc or SDH virtual circuits will be
   tunneled over traffic-engineered MPLS PSN.

   CEP PWs SHOULD monitor packet loss in order to detect "severe
   congestion".  If such a condition is detected, a CEP PW SHOULD shut
   down bi-directionally.  This specification does not define the exact
   criteria for detecting "severe congestion" using the CEP packet loss
   rate and the consequent restart criteria after a suitable delay.
   This is left for further study.

   If the CEP PW has been set up using the PWE3 control protocol
   [PWE3-CONTROL], the regular PW teardown procedures SHOULD be used
   upon detection of "severe congestion".

   The SONET/SDH services emulated by CEP PWs have high availability
   objectives that MUST be taken into account when deciding on temporary
   shutdown of CEP PWs.  CEP performance monitoring provides entry and
   exit criteria for the CEP PW unavailable state (UAS-CEP).  Detection
   of "severe congestion" MAY be based on unavailability criteria of the
   CEP PW.

14.  Security Considerations

   The CEP encapsulation is subject to all of the general security
   considerations discussed in [PWE3-ARCH].  In addition, this document
   specifies only encapsulations, and not the protocols used to carry
   the encapsulated packets across the PSN.  Each such protocol may have
   its own set of security issues, but those issues are not affected by
   the encapsulations specified herein.  Note that the security of the
   transported CEP service will only be as good as the security of the
   PSN.  This level of security may be less rigorous than that available
   from a native TDM service due to the inherent differences between
   circuit-switched and packet-switched public networks.






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   Although CEP MAY employ an RTP header when explicit transfer of
   timing information is required, SRTP [RFC3711] mechanisms are not a
   substitute for securing the PW and underlying MPLS network.

15.  IANA Considerations

   IANA considerations for pseudowires are covered in [PWE3-IANA].  CEP
   does not introduce additional requirements from IANA.

16.  Acknowledgments

   The authors would like to thank the members of the PWE3 Working Group
   for their assistance on this document.  We thank Sasha Vainshtein,
   Deborah Brungard, Juergen Heiles, and Nick Weeds for their review and
   valuable feedback.

17.  Co-Authors

   The individuals listed below are co-authors of this document.  Tom
   Johnson from Litchfield Communications was the editor of this
   document from the pre-WG versions of the SONET SPE work through
   version 01 of this document.

           Craig White          Level3 Communications
           Ed Hallman           Litchfield Communications
           Jeremy Brayley       Laurel Networks
           Jim Boyle            Juniper Networks
           John Shirron         Laurel Networks
           Luca Martini         Cisco Systems
           Marlene Drost        Litchfield Communications
           Steve Vogelsang      Laurel Networks
           Tom Johnson          Litchfield Communications
           Ken Hsu              Tellabs


















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Appendix A.  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 4 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        | 51.840 | 155.520 |  622.080 | 2,488.320 | 9,953.280 |
   | Rate(Mb/s)  |        |         |          |           |           |
   +-------------+--------+---------+----------+-----------+-----------+

                    Table 4: Standard SONET Line Rates

   Each SONET frame is 125us 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.

   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 9 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)-(N/3) columns per frame.
   Thus, the payload capacity of an STS-3c is (3*87 - 1)*9 = 2,340 bytes
   per frame.  As another example, the payload capacity of an STS-192c
   is 149,760 bytes, which is 64 times the capacity of an 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





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   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 5 lists the
   SPE and payload rates supported.

   +-------------+--------+---------+----------+-----------+-----------+
   | SONET STS   |  STS-1 |  STS-3c |   OC-12c |    OC-48c |   OC-192c |
   | Level       |        |         |          |           |           |
   +-------------+--------+---------+----------+-----------+-----------+
   | SDH VC      |   VC-3 |    VC-4 |  VC-4-4c |  VC-4-16c |  VC-4-64c |
   | Level       |        |         |          |           |           |
   | Payload     |    774 |   2,340 |    9,360 |    37,440 |   149,760 |
   | Size(Bytes) |        |         |          |           |           |
   | Payload     | 49.536 | 149.760 |  599.040 | 2,396.160 | 9,584.640 |
   | Rate(Mb/s)  |        |         |          |           |           |
   | SPE         |    783 |   2,349 |    9,396 |    37,584 |   150,336 |
   | Size(Bytes) |        |         |          |           |           |
   | SPE         | 50.112 | 150.336 |  601.344 | 2,405.376 | 9,621.504 |
   | Rate(Mb/s)  |        |         |          |           |           |
   +-------------+--------+---------+----------+-----------+-----------+

                      Table 5: 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 Section 5, for carriage across packet-switched networks.

   VTs are organized in SONET super-frames, where a SONET super-frame is
   a sequence of four SONET SPEs.  The SPE path overhead byte H4
   indicates the SPE number within the super-frame.  The VT data can
   float relative to the SPE position.  The overhead bytes V1, V2, and
   V3 are used as pointer and stuffing byte similar to the use of the
   H1, H2, and H3 TOH bytes.

Appendix B.  Example Network Diagrams

   Figure 12 below illustrates a SONET interconnect example.  Site A and
   Site B are connected back to a Hub Site, Site C by means of a SONET
   infrastructure.  The OC-12 from Site A and the OC-12 from Site B are
   partially equipped.  Each of them is transported through a SONET
   network back to a hub site C.  Equipped SPEs (or VTs) are then
   groomed onto the OC-12 towards site C.










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                                 SONET Network
                            ____     ___       ____
                           /    \___/   \    _/    \__
     +------+ Physical    /              \__/         \
     |Site A|    OC-12   /    +---+     OC-12           \       Hub Site
     |      |=================|\S/|-------------+-----+  \      +------+
     |      |           \     |/ \|=============|\   /|   \     |      |
     +------+           /\    +---+-------------| \ / |  / OC-12|      |
                       /                        |  S  |=========|Site C|
     +------+ Physical/       +---+-------------| / \ |  \      |      |
     |Site B|   OC-12 \       |\S/|=============|/   \|   \     |      |
     |      |=================|/ \|-------------+-----+   /     +------+
     |      |          \      +---+     OC-12     __     /
     +------+           \                      __/  \   /
                         \   ___      ___     /      \_/
                          \_/   \____/   \___/

               Figure 12: SONET Interconnect Example Diagram

   Figure 13 below illustrates the same pair of OC-12s being emulated
   over a PSN.  This configuration frees up bandwidth in the grooming
   network, since only equipped SPEs (or VTs) are sent through the PSN.
   Additional bandwidth savings can be realized by taking advantage of
   the various payload compression options described in Section 11.


                            SONET/TDM/Packet Network
                           ____     ___       ____
                          /    \___/   \     /    \__
     +------+ Physical   /+-+            \__/         \_
     |Site A|   OC-12   / | | +---+                     \       Hub Site
     |      |=============|P|=| R |   +---+ +-+ +-----+  \      +------+
     |      |           \ |E| |   |===|   | | |=|\   /|   \     |      |
     +------+           /\+-+ +---+   |   | | | | \ / |  / OC-12|      |
                       /              | R |=|P| |  S  |=========|Site C|
     +------+ Physical/   +-+ +---+   |   | |E| | / \ |  \      |      |
     |Site B|   OC-12 \   |P| | R |===|   | | |=|/   \|   \     |      |
     |      |=============|E|=|   |   +---+ +-+ +-----+   /     +------+
     |      |          \  | | +---+               __     /
     +------+           \ +-+                  __/  \   /
                         \   ___      ___     /      \_/
                          \_/   \____/   \___/

          Figure 13: SONET Interconnect Emulation Example Diagram







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   Figure 14 below shows an example of T1 grooming into OC-12 in access
   networks.  The VT encapsulation is used to transport the T1s from the
   Hub site to customer sites, maintaining SONET/SDH Operations and
   Management (OAM).


                          SONET/TDM/Packet Network
                           ____     ___       ____
                          /    \___/   \     /    \__
     +------+ Physical   /+-+            \__/         \_
     |Site A|    T1     / | | +---+                     \       Hub Site
     |      |=============|P|=| R |   +---+ +-+ +-----+  \      +------+
     |      |           \ |E| |   |===|   | | |=|\   /|   \     |      |
     +------+           /\+-+ +---+   |   | | | | \ / |  / OC-12|      |
                       /              | R |=|P| |  S  |=========|Site C|
     +------+ Physical/   +-+ +---+   |   | |E| | / \ |  \      |      |
     |Site B|    T1   \   |P| | R |===|   | | |=|/   \|   \     |      |
     |      |=============|E|=|   |   +---+ +-+ +-----+   /     +------+
     |      |          \  | | +---+               __     /
     +------+           \ +-+                  __/  \   /
                         \   ___      ___     /      \_/
                          \_/   \____/   \___/

         Figure 14: T1 to OC-12 Grooming Emulation Example Diagram



























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18.  References

18.1.  Normative References

   [G.707]         "Network Node Interface For The Synchronous Digital
                   Hierarchy", ITU-T Recommendation G.707,
                   December 2003.

   [G.783]         "Characteristics of synchronous digital hierarchy
                   (SDH) equipment functional blocks", ITU-T
                   Recommendation G.783, February 2004.

   [G.784]         "Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) management",
                   ITU-T Recommendation G.784, July 1999.

   [G.806]         "Characteristics of transport equipment-Description
                   methodology and generic functionality", ITU-T
                   Recommendation G.806, February 2004.

   [G.825]         "The control of jitter and wander within digital
                   networks which are based on the synchronous digital
                   hierarchy (SDH)", ITU-T Recommendation G.825,
                   March 2000.

   [GR253]         "Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) Transport
                   Systems: Common Generic Criteria", Telcordia GR-253-
                   CORE Issue 3, September 2000.

   [MPLS]          Rosen, E., Tappan, D., Fedorkow, G., Rekhter, Y.,
                   Farinacci, D., Li, T., and A. Conta, "MPLS Label
                   Stack Encoding", RFC 3032, January 2001.

   [PWE3-CONTROL]  Martini, L., Rosen, E., El-Aawar, N., Smith, T., and
                   G. Heron, "Pseudowire Setup and Maintenance Using the
                   Label Distribution Protocol (LDP)", RFC 4447,
                   April 2006.

   [PWE3-IANA]     Martini, L., "IANA Allocations for Pseudowire Edge to
                   Edge Emulation (PWE3)", BCP 116, RFC 4446,
                   April 2006.

   [RFC2119]       Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
                   Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [RTP]           Schulzrinne, H., Casner, S., Frederick, R., and V.
                   Jacobson, "RTP: A Transport Protocol for Real-Time
                   Applications", STD 64, RFC 3005, July 2003.




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   [SONET]         "Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) - Basic
                   Description including Multiplex Structure, Rates and
                   Formats", ANSI T1.105-2001, October 2001.

18.2.  Informative References

   [CONG]          Floyd, S., "Congestion Control Principles", RFC 2914,
                   September 2000.

   [DIFFSERV]      Blake, S., Black, D., Carlson, M., Davies, E., Wang,
                   Z., and W. Weiss, "An Architecture for Differentiated
                   Services", RFC 2475, December 1998.

   [EF]            Davie, B., Charny, A., Bennett, J., Benson, K., Le
                   Boudec, J., Courtney, W., Davari, S., Firoiu, V., and
                   D. Stiliadis, "An Expedited Forwarding PHB (Per-Hop
                   Behavior)", RFC 3246, March 2002.

   [GS]            Shenker, S., Partridge, C., and R. Guerin,
                   "Specification of Guaranteed Quality of Service",
                   RFC 2212, September 1997.

   [INTSERV]       Braden, R., Clark, D., and S. Shenker, "Integrated
                   Services in the Internet Architecture: an Overview",
                   RFC 1633, June 1994.

   [PWE3-ARCH]     Bryant, S. and P. Pate, "PWE3 Architecture",
                   RFC 3985, March 2005.

   [PWE3-MPLSCW]   Bryant, S., Swallow, G., and D. McPherson, "Control
                   Word for Use over an MPLS PSN", RFC 4385,
                   February 2006.

   [PWE3-REQ]      Xiao, X., McPherson, D., and P. Pate, "Requirements
                   for Pseudo Wire Emulation Edge-to-Edge (PWE3)",
                   RFC 3916, September 2004.

   [PWE3-TDM-REQ]  Riegel, M., "Requirements for Edge-to-Edge Emulation
                   of TDM Circuits over Packet Switching Networks
                   (PSN)", RFC 4197, October 2005.

   [RFC3711]       Baugher, M., McGrew, D., Naslund, N., Carrara, E.,
                   and K. Norrman, "The Secure Real-time Transport
                   Protocol (SRTP)", RFC 3711, March 2004.







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Authors' Addresses

   Andrew G. Malis
   Verizon Communications
   40 Sylvan Road
   Waltham, MA  02451
   USA

   EMail: andrew.g.malis@verizon.com


   Prayson Pate
   Overture Networks
   507 Airport Blvd, Suite 111
   Morrisville, NC  27560
   USA

   EMail: prayson.pate@overturenetworks.com


   Ron Cohen (editor)
   Resolute Networks
   15 Central Avenue
   Modiin,   71700
   Israel

   EMail: ronc@resolutenetworks.com


   David Zelig
   Corrigent Systems
   126 Yigal Alon st.
   Tel Aviv,
   Israel

   EMail: davidz@corrigent.com















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Full Copyright Statement

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Acknowledgement

   Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the
   Internet Society.







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