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Synchronous Optical Network/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SONET/SDH) Circuit Emulation Service over MPLS (CEM) Encapsulation
draft-malis-sonet-ces-mpls-09

The information below is for an old version of the document that is already published as an RFC.
Document Type
This is an older version of an Internet-Draft that was ultimately published as RFC 5143.
Authors Luca Martini , Jeremy Brayley , John Shirron, Stephen Vogelsang , Andrew G. Malis
Last updated 2015-10-14 (Latest revision 2007-08-17)
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draft-malis-sonet-ces-mpls-09
Network Working Group                                 Andrew G. Malis  
INTERNET-DRAFT                                 Verizon Communications  
Expiration Date: February 16, 2008                                                                     
Category: Historic                                     Jeremy Brayley  
                                                         John Shirron  
                                                     ECI Telecom Inc.  
                                                                       
                                                         Luca Martini  
                                                        Cisco Systems 
 
                                                      Steve Vogelsang 
                                                       Alcatel-Lucent  
                                                                        
                                                      August 16, 2007  
  
  
   SONET/SDH Circuit Emulation Service over MPLS (CEM) Encapsulation  
                     draft-malis-sonet-ces-mpls-09.txt  
  
  
Status of this Memo 
 
   By submitting this Internet-Draft, each author represents that any 
   applicable patent or other IPR claims of which he or she is aware 
   have been or will be disclosed, and any of which he or she becomes 
   aware will be disclosed, in accordance with Section 6 of BCP 79. 
 
   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering 
   Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups.  Note that 
   other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet- 
   Drafts. 
 
   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months 
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any 
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference 
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." 
 
   The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at 
   http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt. 
 
   The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at 
   http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html. 
 
   This Internet-Draft will expire on December 6, 2007. 
 
Copyright Notice 
 
   Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2007). 
     
 

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              SONET/SDH Circuit Emulation over MPLS  August 16, 2007 

Abstract  
  
  This document describes a historical method for encapsulating 
  SONET/SDH Path signals for transport across packet-switched networks 
  (PSNs).  The PSNs explicitly supported by this document include MPLS 
  and IP. Note that [RFC4842] describes the standards-track protocol  
  for this functionality, and new implementations must use [RFC4842] 
  rather than this document except when interoperability with older  
  implementations is desired. 
 
1. 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 [RFC2119].  
 
2. Introduction  
     
   This document describes a historical method for encapsulating 
   SONET/SDH Path signals for transport across packet-switched networks 
  (PSNs).    
     
   The transmission system for circuit-oriented TDM signals is the  
   Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) [T1.105], [GR-253]/Synchronous 
   Digital Hierarchy (SDH) [G.707]. To support TDM traffic (which  
   includes voice, data, and private leased line services) PSNs 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) 
   function. The MPLS encapsulation may be further encapsulated in IP 
   for carriage across IP PSNs [RFC4023].  
     
   This document also describes an optional extension to CEM called  
   Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation (DBA).  This is a method for  
   dynamically reducing the bandwidth utilized by emulated SONET/SDH  
   circuits in the packet network.  This bandwidth reduction is  
   accomplished by not sending the SONET/SDH payload through the packet  
   network under certain conditions such as AIS-P or STS SPE  
   Unequipped.  
         
3. 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  
     
 

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   3. Unstructured SONET Emulation, where the entire SONET bit-stream  
   (including the transport overhead) is packetized and transported  
   across the PSN.  
  
   For the remainder of this document, these constructs will be  
   referred to as SONET/SDH channels.    
     
   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 and lower  
   speed non-SONET/SDH services. OC-192c SPE/VC-4-64c are also not  
   included at this point, since most PSNs 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.  
 
4. CEM Encapsulation Format  
     
   In order to transport SONET/SDH SPEs through a packet-oriented  
   network, the SPE is broken into fragments.  A 32-bit CEM Header is  
   pre-pended to each fragment.  The Basic CEM packet appears in Figure  
   1.  
 
     
             +-----------------------------------+  
             |            CEM Header             |  
             +-----------------------------------+  
             |                                   |  
             |                                   |  
             |        SONET/SDH SPE Fragment     |  
             |                                   |  
             |                                   |  
             +-----------------------------------+  
     
             Figure 1. Basic CEM Packet  
     
     
   The 32-bit CEM 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  
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  
      |D|R|Rvd|   Sequence Num    | Structure Pointer |N|P|   ECC-6   |  
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  
  
                        Figure 2. CEM Header Format  
     
     
    
 

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The above fields are defined as follows:  
     
   D bit: Signals DBA Mode.  MUST be set to zero for Normal Operation.   
   MUST be set to one if CEM is currently in DBA mode.  DBA is an  
   optional mode during which trivial SPEs are not transmitted into the  
   packet network.  See Table 1 and sections 7 and 8 for further  
   details.  Note: for unstructured CEM, the D-bit MUST be set to zero.  
     
   R bit: CEM-RDI.  This bit is set to one to signal to the remote CEM  
   function that a loss of packet synchronization has occurred.    
     
   Rvd: These bits are reserved for future use, and MUST be set to  
   zero.  
     
   Sequence Number:  This is a packet sequence number, which MUST  
   continuously cycle from 0 to 1023.  It SHOULD begin at zero when a  
   CEM LSP is created.  
     
   Structure Pointer: The Structure Pointer MUST contain the offset of  
   the J1 byte within the CEM payload. The value is from 0 to 1,022,  
   where 0 means the first byte after the CEM header. The Structure  
   Pointer MUST be set to 0x3FF (1,023) if a packet does not carry the  
   J1 byte.  See [T1.105], [G.707], and [GR-253] for more information 
   On the J1 byte and the SONET/SDH payload pointer.  Note: for 
   unstructured CEM, the Structure Pointer field MUST be set to 0x3FF.  
     
   The N and P bits: Indicate negative and positive pointer adjustment  
   events.  They are also used to relay SONET/SDH maintenance signals  
   such as AIS-P.  See Table 1 and sections 7 and 8 for more details.   
   Note: for unstructured CEM, the N and P bits MUST both be set to 0.   
                         
        +---+---+---+----------------------------------------------+  
        | D | N | P |         Interpretation                       |  
        +---+---+---+-------------+--------------------------------+  
        | 0 | 0 | 0 | Normal Mode | No Ptr Adjustment              |  
        | 0 | 0 | 1 | Normal Mode | Positive Ptr Adjustment        |  
        | 0 | 1 | 0 | Normal Mode | Negative Ptr Adjustment        |  
        | 0 | 1 | 1 | Normal Mode | AIS-P                          |  
        |   |   |   |             |                                |  
        | 1 | 0 | 0 | DBA Mode    | STS SPE Unequipped             |  
        | 1 | 0 | 1 | DBA Mode    | STS SPE Unequipped Pos Ptr Adj |  
        | 1 | 1 | 0 | DBA Mode    | STS SPE Unequipped Neg Ptr Adj |  
        | 1 | 1 | 1 | DBA Mode    | AIS-P                          |  
        +---+---+---+-------------+--------------------------------+  
     
         Table 1. Interpretation of D, N, and P bits  
     
   ECC-6: An Error Correction Code to protect the CEM header.  This  
   offers the ability to correct single bit errors and detect up to two  
   bit errors.  The ECC algorithm is described in Appendix B.  The ECC- 

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   6 can be optionally disabled at provisioning time.  If the ECC-6 is  
   not utilized it MUST be set to zero.  
     
   Note: Normal CEM packets are fixed in length for all of the packets  
   of a particular emulated TDM stream.  This length is signaled using  
   the CEM Payload Bytes parameter defined in [RFC4447], or is 
   statically provisioned for each TDM stream.  Therefore, the length 
   of each CEM packet does not need to be carried in the CEM header. 
 
   Note: Setting the D bit to 0 and the R bit to 1 violates the Best  
   Current Practice defined in [RFC4928] when operating on MPLS networks. 
   In this situation, MPLS networks could mistake a CEM payload as the 
   first nibble of an IPv4 packet, potentially causing misordering of 
   packets on the pseudowire in the presence of IP ECMP in the MPLS  
   network. The use of this CEM header preceded the use of MPLS ECMP. 
   As stated earlier, [RFC4842] describes the standards-track protocol  
   for this functionality, and it does not share this violation. 
     
4.1 Transport Encapsulation  
     
   In principle, CEM packets can be transported over any packet- 
   oriented network.  The following sections describe specifically how  
   CEM packets MUST be encapsulated for transport over MPLS or IP  
   networks.  
     
4.1.1 MPLS Transport  
     
   To transport a CEM packet over an MPLS network, an MPLS label-stack  
   MUST be pushed on top of the CEM packet.  
     
   The last two labels prior to the CEM header are referred to as the  
   Tunnel and Virtual Circuit (VC) labels.    
     
   The VC label is required, and is the last label prior to the CEM  
   Header.  The VC label MUST be used to identify the CEM connection  
   within the MPLS tunnel.    
     
   The optional tunnel label is immediately above the VC label on the  
   label stack.  If present, the tunnel label MUST be used to identify  
   the MPLS LSP used to tunnel the TDM packets through the MPLS network  
   (the tunnel LSP).    
     
   This is similar to the label stack usage defined in [RFC4447].     
     
  
 
 
 
 
 

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                 +-----------------------------------+  
                 | Additional MPLS Labels (Optional) |  
                 +-----------------------------------+  
                 |       Tunnel Label (Optional)     |  
                 +-----------------------------------+  
                 |             VC Label              |  
                 +-----------------------------------+  
                 |            CEM Header             |  
                 +-----------------------------------+  
                 |                                   |  
                 |                                   |  
                 |       SONET/SDH SPE Fragment      |  
                 |                                   |  
                 |                                   |  
                 +-----------------------------------+  
     
              Figure 3. Typical MPLS Transport Encapsulation     
 
4.1.2 IP Transport  
     
   It is highly desirable to define a single encapsulation format that  
   will work for both IP and MPLS.  Furthermore, it is desirable that  
   the encapsulation mechanism be as efficient as possible.    
     
   One way to achieve these goals is to map CEM directly onto IP by  
   mapping the previously described MPLS packets onto IP.  
     
   A mechanism for carrying MPLS over IP is described in [RFC4023].  
     
   Using this encapsulation scheme would result in the packet format  
   illustrated in figure 4.  
         
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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                 +-----------------------------------+  
                 |                                   |  
                 |    IPv6/v4 Header [RFC4023]       |  
                 |                                   |  
                 +-----------------------------------+  
                 |      Tunnel Label (Optional)      |  
                 +-----------------------------------+  
                 |             VC Label              |  
                 +-----------------------------------+  
                 |            CEM Header             |  
                 +-----------------------------------+  
                 |                                   |  
                 |                                   |  
                 |       SONET/SDH SPE Fragment      |  
                 |                                   |  
                 |                                   |  
                 +-----------------------------------+  
     
               Figure 4. MPLS Transport Encapsulation  
     
5. CEM Operation  
     
   The following sections describe CEM operation.    
     
5.1 Introduction and Terminology  
  
   There are two types of CEM: structured and unstructured.    
     
   Unstructured CEM packetizes the entire SONET/SDH bit-stream  
   (including transport overhead).    
     
   Structured CEM terminates the transport overhead and packetizes  
   individual channels (STS-1/Nc) within the SONET/SDH frame.  Because  
   structured CEM terminates the transport overhead, structured CEM  
   implementations SHOULD meet the generic requirements for SONET/SDH  
   Line Terminating Equipment as defined in [T1.105], [G.707], and 
   [GR-253].  
     
   Implementations MUST support structured CEM and MAY support  
   unstructured CEM.  
     
   Structured CEM MUST support a normal mode of operation and MAY  
   support an optional extension called Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation  
   (DBA).  During normal operation, SONET/SDH payloads are fragmented,  
   pre-pended with the CEM Header, the VC label, and the PSN header,  
   and then transmitted into the packet network.  During DBA mode, only  
   the CEM header, the VC label, and PSN header are transmitted.  This  
   is done to conserve bandwidth when meaningful user data is not  
   present in the SPE, such as during AIS-P or STS SPE Unequipped.    
     

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5.1.1 CEM Packetizer and De-Packetizer  
  
   As with all adaptation functions, CEM has two distinct components:  
   adapting TDM SONET/SDH into a CEM packet stream, and converting the  
   CEM packet stream back into a TDM SONET/SDH.  The first function  
   will be referred to as CEM Packetizer and the second as CEM De- 
   Packetizer.  This terminology is illustrated in figure 5.  
     
     
             +------------+              +---------------+                          
             |            |              |               |  
   SONET --> |    CEM     | --> PSN  --> |      CEM      | --> SONET   
    SDH      | Packetizer |              | De-Packetizer |      SDH  
             |            |              |               |         
             +------------+              +---------------+  
     
   Figure 5. CEM Terminology  
     
   Note: the CEM de-packetizer requires a buffering mechanism to  
   account for delay variation in the CEM packet stream.  This  
   buffering mechanism will be generically referred to as the CEM   
   jitter buffer.  
 
5.1.2 CEM DBA  
     
   DBA is an optional mode of operation for structured CEM that only  
   transmits the CEM Header, the VC label, and PSN Header into the  
   packet network under certain circumstances such as AIS-P or STS  
   Unequipped.    
     
   If DBA is supported by a CEM implementation, the user SHOULD be able  
   to configure if DBA will be triggered by AIS-P, STS Unequipped,  
   both, or neither on a per channel basis.    
     
   If DBA is supported, the determination of AIS-P and STS Unequipped  
   MUST be based on the state of SONET/SDH Section, Line, and Path  
   Overhead bytes.  DBA based on pattern detection within the SPE (i.e.  
   all zeros, 7Es, or ATM idle cells) is for further study.  
     
   During AIS-P, there is no valid payload pointer, so pointer  
   adjustments cannot occur.  During STS Unequipped, the SONET/SDH  
   payload pointer is valid, and therefore pointer adjustments MUST be  
   supported even during DBA.  See Table 1 for details.  
     
5.2 Description of Normal CEM Operation  
     
   During normal operation, the CEM packetizer will receive a fixed  
   rate byte stream from a SONET/SDH interface.  When a packet's worth  
   of data has been received from a SONET/SDH channel, the CEM Header,  
   the VC Label, and PSN Header are pre-pended to the SPE fragment and  

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   the resulting CEM packet is transmitted into the packet network.   
   Because all normal CEM packets associated with a specific SONET/SDH  
   channel will have the same length, the transmission of CEM packets  
   for that channel SHOULD occur at regular intervals.    
     
   At the far end of the packet network, the CEM de-packetizer will  
   receive packets into a jitter buffer and then play 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.  The receive packet rate  
   from the packet network should be exactly balanced by the  
   transmission rate onto the SONET/SDH channel, on average.  The time  
   over which this average is taken corresponds to the depth of the  
   jitter buffer for a specific CEM channel.  
     
   The CEM sequence numbers provide a mechanism to detect lost and/or  
   mis-ordered packets.  The CEM de-packetizer MUST detect lost or mis- 
   ordered packets.  The CEM de-packetizer MUST play out a programmable  
   byte pattern in place of any dropped packets.  The CEM de-packetizer  
   MAY re-order packets received out of order.  If the CEM de- 
   packetizer does not support re-ordering, it MUST drop mis-ordered  
   packets.  
     
5.3 Description of CEM Operation during DBA  
     
   (Note: DBA is only applicable to structured CEM.)  
     
   There are several issues that should be addressed by a workable CEM  
   DBA mechanism.  First, when DBA is invoked, there should be a  
   substantial savings in bandwidth utilization in the packet network.   
   The second issue is that the transition in and out of DBA should be  
   tightly coordinated between the local CEM packetizer and CEM de- 
   packetizer at the far side of the packet network.  A third is that  
   the transition in and out of DBA should be accomplished with minimal  
   disruption to the adapted data stream.  
     
   Another goal is that the reduction of CEM traffic due to DBA should  
   not be mistaken for a fault in the packet network or vice-versa.   
   Finally, the implementation of DBA should require minimal  
   modifications beyond what is necessary for the nominal CEM case.   
   The mechanism described below is a reasonable balance of these  
   goals.  
     
   During DBA, packets MUST be emitted at exactly the same rate as they  
   would be during normal operation.  This SHOULD be accomplished by  
   transmitting each DBA packet after a complete packet of data has  
   been received from the SONET/SDH channel.  The only change from  
   normal operation is that the CEM packets during DBA MUST only carry  
   the CEM header, the VC Label, and the PSN Header.    
     

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   Because some links have a minimum supported packet size, the CEM  
   packetizer MAY append a configurable number of bytes immediately  
   after the CEM-header to pad out the CEM packet to reach the minimum  
   supported packet size.  The value of the padding bytes is  
   implementation specific.  The D-bit MUST be set to one, to indicate  
   that DBA is active.    
     
   The CEM de-packetizer MUST assume that each packet received with the  
   D-bit set represents a normal-sized packet containing an AIS-P or  
   SPE Unequipped payload as noted by N and P.  See Table 1.  The CEM  
   de-packetizer MUST accept DBA packets with or without padding.  
     
   This allows the CEM packetization and de-packetization logic during  
   DBA to be similar to the nominal case.  It insures that the correct  
   SONET/SDH indication is reliably transmitted between CEM adaptation  
   points.  It minimizes the risk of under or over running the jitter  
   buffer during the transition in and out of DBA.  And, it guarantees  
   that faults in the packet network are recognized as distinctly  
   different from line conditioning on the SONET/SDH interfaces.  
     
5.4 Packet Synchronization  
     
   A key component in declaring the state of a CEM service is whether  
   or not the CEM de-packetizer is in or out of packet synchronization.   
   The following paragraphs describe how that determination is made.  
     
5.4.1 Acquisition of Packet Synchronization  
     
   At startup, a CEM de-packetizer will be out of packet  
   synchronization by default.  To declare packet synchronization at  
   startup or after a loss of packet synchronization, the CEM de- 
   packetizer must receive a configurable number of CEM packets with  
   sequential sequence numbers.    
 
5.4.2 Loss of Packet Synchronization  
     
   Once a CEM de-packetizer is in packet sync, it may encounter a set  
   of events that will cause it to lose packet synchronization.    
     
   As discussed in section 6.2, a CEM de-packetizer MAY or MAY NOT  
   support re-ordering of mis-ordered packets.    
     
   If a CEM de-packetizer supports re-ordering, then the determination  
   that packet synchronization has been lost cannot be made at the time  
   the packets are received from the PSN.  Instead, the determination  
   MUST be made as the packets are being played out onto the SONET/SDH  
   interface.  This is because it is only at play-out time that the  
   determination can be made as to whether the entire emulated  
   SONET/SDH stream was received from the PSN.    
     

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   If a CEM de-packetizer does not support re-ordering, a number of  
   approaches may be used to minimize the impact of mis-ordered or lost  
   packets on the final re-assembled SONET/SDH stream.  For example,  
   AAL1 [I.363.1] uses a simple state-machine to re-order packets in a  
   subset of possible cases.  The algorithm for these state-machines is  
   outside of the scope of CEM.  However, the final determination as to  
   whether or not to declare loss of packet synchronization MUST be  
   based on the same criteria as for implementations that do support  
   re-ordering.  
     
   Whether or not a CEM implementation supports re-ordering, the  
   declaration of loss of packet synchronization MUST be based on the  
   following criteria.    
     
   As packets are played out towards the SONET/SDH interface, the CEM  
   de-packetizer will encounter empty packets in the place of packets  
   that were dropped by the PSN, or effectively dropped due to  
   limitations of the CEM implementation.  If the CEM de-packetizer  
   encounters more than a configurable number of sequential dropped  
   packets, the CEM de-packetizer MUST declare loss of packet  
   synchronization.    
     
6. SONET/SDH Maintenance Signals  
     
   There are several issues that must be considered in the mapping of  
   maintenance signals between SONET/SDH and a PSN.  A description of  
   how these signals and conditions are mapped between the two domains  
   is described below.  
     
   For clarity, the mappings are split into two groups: SONET/SDH to  
   PSN, and PSN to SONET/SDH.   
   
6.1 SONET/SDH to PSN  
 
   The following sections describe how SONET/SDH Maintenance Signals  
   and Alarm conditions are mapped into a Packet Switched Network.    
     
6.1.1 AIS-P Indication  
     
   In a SONET/SDH network, SONET/SDH Path outages are signaled using  
   maintenance alarms such as Path AIS (AIS-P).  In particular, AIS-P  
   indicates that the SONET/SDH Path is not currently transmitting  
   valid end-user data, and the SPE contains all ones.    
     
   It should be noted that for structured CEM nearly every type of  
   service-effecting section or line defect will result in an AIS-P  
   condition.     
    
  The SONET/SDH hierarchy is illustrated below.  
  

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                               +----------+  
                               |   PATH   |  
                               +----------+  
                                    ^  
                                    |  
                                  AIS-P  
                                    |  
                                    |  
                               +----------+  
                               |   LINE   |  
                               + ---------+  
                                  ^     ^  
                                  |     |  
                                AIS-L   +------ LOP  
                                  |  
                                  |  
                               +----------+  
                               | SECTION  |  
                               +----------+  
                                  ^    ^  
                                  |    |  
                                  |    |  
                                 LOS  LOF  
     
     
                       Figure 6.  SONET/SDH Fault Hierarchy.  
     
   Should the Section Layer detect a Loss of Signal (LOS) or Loss of  
   Frame (LOF) condition, it sends AIS-L up to the Line Layer.  If the  
   Line Layer detects AIS-L or Loss of Path (LOP), it sends AIS-P to  
   the Path Layer.    
     
   In normal mode during AIS-P, structured CEM packets are generated as  
   usual.  The N and P bits MUST be set to 11 binary to signal AIS-P  
   explicitly through the packet network.  The D-bit MUST be set to  
   zero to indicate that the SPE is being carried through the packet  
   network.  Normal CEM packets with the SPE fragment, CEM Header, the  
   VC Label, and PSN Header MUST be transmitted into the packet  
   network.  
   
   However, to conserve network bandwidth during AIS-P, DBA MAY be  
   employed.  If DBA has been enabled for AIS-P and AIS-P is currently  
   occurring, the N and P bits MUST be set to 11 binary to signal AIS,  
   and the D-bit MUST be set to one to indicate that the SPE is not  
   being carried through the packet network.  Only the CEM header, the  
   VC Label, and the PSN Header MUST be transmitted into the packet  
   network.  
     
   Also note that this differs from the outage mechanism in [RFC4447], 

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   which withdraws the VC label as a result of an endpoint outage.  TDM  
   circuit emulation requires the ability to distinguish between the  
   de-provisioning of a circuit (which causes the VC label to be  
   withdrawn), and temporary outages (which are signaled using AIS-P).    
      
6.1.2 STS SPE Unequipped Indication  
     
   The STS SPE Unequipped Indication is a slightly different case than  
   AIS-P.  When byte C2 of the Path Overhead (STS path signal label) is  
   00h and Byte B3 (STS Path BIP-8) is valid, it indicates that the SPE  
   is unequipped.  Note: this is typically signaled by setting the  
   entire SPE to zeros.  
     
   For normal structured CEM operation during SPE Unequipped, the N and  
   P bits MUST be interpreted as usual.  The SPE MUST be transmitted  
   into the packet network along with the CEM Header, the VC Label, and  
   PSN Header, and the D-Bit MUST be set to zero.   
     
   If DBA has been enabled for STS SPE Unequipped and the Unequipped  
   condition is occurring on the SONET/SDH channel, the D-bit MUST be  
   set to one to indicate DBA is active.  Only the CEM Header, the VC  
   Label, and PSN Header MUST be transmitted into the packet network.   
   The N and P bits MUST be used to signal pointer adjustments as  
   normal.  See Table 1 and section 8 for details.  
  
6.1.3 CEM-RDI  
  
   The CEM function MUST send CEM-RDI towards the packet network during  
   loss of packet synchronization.  This MUST be accomplished by  
   setting the R bit to one in the CEM header.  This applies for both  
   structured and unstructured CEM.  
     
6.2 PSN to SONET/SDH  
  
   The following sections discuss how the various conditions on the  
   packet network are converted into SONET/SDH indications.  
     
6.2.1 AIS-P Indication  
  
   There are several conditions in the packet network that will cause  
   the structured CEM de-packetization function to send an AIS-P  
   indication onto a SONET/SDH channel.    
   
   The first of these is the receipt of structured CEM packets with the  
   N and P bits set to one, and the D-bit set to zero.  This is an  
   explicit indication of AIS-P being received at the far-end of the  
   packet network, with DBA disabled for AIS-P.  The CEM de-packetizer  
   MUST play out the received SPE fragment (which will incidentally be  
   carrying all ones), and MUST configure the SONET/SDH Overhead to  
   signal AIS-P as defined in [T1.105], [G.707], and [GR-253].  

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   The second case is the receipt of structured CEM packets with the N  
   and P bits set to one, and the D-bit set to one.  This is an  
   explicit indication of AIS-P being received at the far-end of the  
   packet network, with DBA enabled for AIS-P.  The CEM de-packetizer  
   MUST play out one packet's worth of all ones for each packet  
   received, and MUST configure the SONET/SDH Overhead to signal AIS-P  
   as defined in [T1.105], [G.707], and [GR-253].  
     
   A third case that will cause a structured CEM de-packetization  
   function to send an AIS-P indication onto a SONET/SDH channel is  
   loss of packet synchronization.    
        
6.2.2 STS SPE Unequipped Indication  
  
   There are three conditions in the packet network that will cause the  
   CEM function to transmit STS SPE Unequipped indications onto the  
   SONET/SDH channel.   
     
   The first, which is transparent to CEM, is the receipt of regular  
   CEM packets that happen to be carrying an SPE that contains the  
   appropriate Path overhead to signal STS SPE unequipped.  This case  
   does not require any special processing on the part of the CEM de- 
   packetizer.  
     
   The second case is the receipt of structured CEM packets that have  
   the D-bit set to one to indicate DBA active and the N and P bits set  
   to 00 binary, 01 binary, or 10 binary to indicate SPE Unequipped  
   with or without pointer adjustments.  The CEM de-packetizer MUST use  
   this information to transmit a packet of all zeros onto the  
   SONET/SDH interface, and adjust the payload pointer as necessary.  
     
   The third case when a structured CEM de-packetizer MUST send an STS  
   SPE Unequipped Indication towards the SONET/SDH interface is when  
   the VC-label has been withdrawn due to de-provisioning of the  
   circuit.    
     
7. Clocking Modes  
     
   It is necessary to be able to regenerate the input service clock at  
   the output interface.  Two clocking modes are supported: synchronous  
   and asynchronous.  Selection of the clocking mode is made as part of  
   service provisioning.  Both ends of the emulated circuit must be  
   configured with the same clocking mode.    
   
7.1 Synchronous  
     
   When synchronous SONET/SDH timing is available at both ends of the  
   circuit, the issue of clock recovery becomes much simpler.  
     

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7.1.1 Synchronous Unstructured CEM  
     
   For unstructured CEM, the external clock is used to clock each bit  
   onto the optical carrier.    
     
7.1.2 Synchronous Structured CEM  
     
   For structured CEM, the external clock is used to clock the  
   SONET/SDH carrier.  The N and P bits are used to signal negative or  
   positive pointer justification events between structured CEM end- 
   points.   
     
   If there is a frequency offset between the frame rate of the  
   transport overhead and that of the SONET/SDH SPE, then the alignment  
   of the SPE shall periodically slip back or advance in time through  
   positive or negative stuffing. The N and P bits are used to replay  
   the pointer adjustment events and eliminate transport jitter.  
     
   During a negative pointer adjustment event, the H3 byte from the  
   SONET/SDH stream is incorporated into the CEM packet payload in  
   order with the rest of the SPE.  During a positive pointer  
   adjustment event, the stuff byte is not included in the CEM packet  
   payload.    
     
   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 the first packet of the three  
   with N/P bit set is received.    
     
   The CEM de-packetizer MUST utilize the CEM sequence numbers to  
   insure that SONET/SDH pointer adjustment events are not played any  
   more frequently than once per every three CEM packets transmitted by  
   the remote CEM packetizer.    
     
   References [T1.105], [G.707],and [GR-253] specify that pointer 
   adjustment events MUST be separated by three SONET/SDH frames  
   without a pointer adjustment event.  In order to relay all legal 
   pointer adjustment events, the packet size for a specific circuit  
   MUST be no larger than (783 * 4 * N)/3, where N is the STS-Nc 
   multiplier.  
     
   However, some SONET/SDH equipment allows pointer adjustments to  
   occur in back to back SONET/SDH frames.  In order to support this  
   possibility, the packet size for a particular circuit SHOULD be no  
   larger than (783*N)/3.  Where N is the STS-Nc multiplier.    
     
   Since the minimum value of N is one, CEM implementations SHOULD  
   support a minimum payload length of 783/3 or 261 bytes.  Smaller  
   payload lengths MAY be supported as an option.  
     

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7.2 Asynchronous  
     
   If synchronous timing is not available, other methods MAY be  
   employed to regenerate the circuit timing.    
     
   For structured CEM, the CEM packetizer SHOULD generate the N and P  
   bits as usual.  However, without external synchronization, this  
   information is not sufficient to reliably justify the SPE within the  
   SONET/SDH transport framing at the CEM de-packetizer.  The de- 
   packetizer MAY employ an adaptive algorithm to introduce pointer  
   adjustment events to map the CEM SPE to the SONET/SDH transport  
   framing.  Regardless of whether the N and P bits are used by the de- 
   packetizer as part of the adaptive clock recovery algorithm, they  
   MUST still be used in conjunction with the D-bit to signal AIS-P,  
   SPE Unequipped, and DBA.  
     
   For unstructured CEM, the CEM de-packetizer MAY use an adaptive  
   clock recovery technique to regenerate the SONET/SDH transport  
   clock.    
     
   An example adaptive clock recovery method can be found in section  
   3.4.2 of [VTOA].  
  
8. CEM LSP Signaling  
     
   For maximum network scaling in MPLS applications, CEM LSP signaling  
   may be performed using the LDP Extended Discovery mechanism as  
   augmented by the PWid FEC Element defined in [RFC4447].  MPLS traffic  
   tunnels may be dedicated to CEM, or shared with other MPLS-based  
   services.  The value 0x8008 is used for the PWE3 PW Type in the PWid 
   FEC Element in order to signify that the LSP being signaled is to 
   carry CEM.  Note that the generic control word defined in [GR-253] 
   is not used, as its functionality is included in the CEM  
   encapsulation header.  
     
   Alternatively, static label assignment may be used, or a dedicated  
   traffic engineered LSP may be used for each CEM service.  
     
   Normal CEM packets are fixed in length for all of the packets of a  
   particular emulated TDM stream.  This length is signaled using the  
   CEM Payload Bytes parameter defined in [RFC4447], or is statically  
   provisioned for each CEM service.  
     
   At this time, other aspects of the CEM service MUST be statically  
   provisioned. 
          
9. Security Considerations  
     
   The CEM encapsulation is subject to all of the general security 
   considerations discussed in [RFC3985] and [RFC4447]. In addition, 

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   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 CEM service will only be as good as 
   the security of the PSN. This level of security may be less rigorous 
   then that available from a native TDM service due to the inherent 
   differences between circuit-switched and packet-switched public 
   networks. 
 
10. IANA Considerations 
 
   IANA has already allocated the PWE3 PW Type value 0x0008 for this  
   specification. No further actions are required. 
 
11. References 
 
11.1 Normative References 
 
   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate 
        Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. 
     
   [T1.105]  American National Standards Institute, "Synchronous Optical  
        Network (SONET) - Basic Description including Multiplex  
        Structure, Rates and Formats," ANSI T1.105-1995.  
     
   [G.707]  ITU Recommendation G.707, "Network Node Interface For The  
        Synchronous Digital Hierarchy", 1996.  
     
   [RFC4447]  Martini, L. et al, "Pseudowire Setup and Maintenance using 
        the Label Distribution Protocol (LDP)", RFC 4447, April 2006. 
     
   [GR-253]  Telcordia Technologies, "Synchronous Optical Network 
        (SONET) Transport Systems: Common Generic Criteria",  
        GR-253-CORE, Issue 3, September 2000.  
     
   [RFC4023]  Worster, T. et al, "Encapsulating MPLS in IP or Generic 
        Routing Encapsulation (GRE)", RFC 4023, March 2005.  
      
   [I.363.1]  ITU-T, "Recommendation I.363.1, B-ISDN Adaptation Layer  
        Specification: Type AAL1", Appendix III, August 1996.  
     
   [VTOA]  ATM Forum, "Circuit Emulation Service Interoperability  
        Specification Version 2.0", af-vtoa-0078.000, January 1997.  
     
   [RFC4842]  Malis, A. et al, "Synchronous Optical Network/Synchronous 
        Digital Hierarchy (SONET/SDH) Circuit Emulation over Packet 
        (CEP)", RFC 4842, April 2007 
 
 

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             SONET/SDH Circuit Emulation over MPLS  August 16, 2007 

   [RFC4928]  Swallow, G. et al, "Avoiding Equal Cost Multipath Treatment 
      in MPLS Networks", RFC 4928, June 2007.  
 
 
11.2 Informative References 
  
   [RFC3985] Bryant, S. and P. Pate, "PWE3 Architecture", RFC 3985, 
        March 2005. 
     
12. Acknowledgments  
     
   The authors would like to thank Mitri Halabi, Bob Colvin, and Ken 
   Hsu, all formerly of Vivace Networks and Tellabs, and Tom Johnson, 
   Marlene Drost, Ed Hallman, and Dave Danenberg, all formerly of 
   Litchfield Communications, for their contributions to the document. 
     
13. Authors' Addresses  
     
   Andrew G. Malis  
   Verizon Communications  
   40 Sylvan Road  
   Waltham, MA 02451  
   Email: andrew.g.malis@verizon.com  
     
   Jeremy Brayley  
   ECI Telecom Inc. 
   Omega Corporate Center 
   1300 Omega Drive 
   Pittsburgh, PA 15205 
   Email: jeremy.brayley@ecitele.com  
     
   John Shirron  
   ECI Telecom Inc. 
   Omega Corporate Center 
   1300 Omega Drive 
   Pittsburgh, PA 15205 
   Email: john.shirron@ecitele.com  
     
 
   Luca Martini 
   Cisco Systems, Inc. 
   9155 East Nichols Avenue, Suite 400 
   Englewood, CO, 80112 
   Email: lmartini@cisco.com 
 
   Steve Vogelsang  
   Alcatel-Lucent 
   600 March Road 
   Kanata, ON K2K 2T6 

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   Canada 
   Email: steve.vogelsang@alcatel-lucent.com 
 

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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 2 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 2. Standard SONET Line Rates  
     
     
   Each SONET frame is 125 us 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 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)-(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 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.  
     

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   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 section 5, for carriage across packet-switched networks.  
     
Appendix B. ECC-6 Definition  
     
   ECC-6 is an Error Correction Code to protect the CEM header.  This  
   provides single bit correction and the ability to detect up to two  
   bit errors.   
     
     
   Error Correction Code:  
  
  
   |---------------Header bits 0-25 -------------------| ECC-6 code|  
   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  
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  
   |1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 1|1 0 0 0 0 0|  
   |1 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1|0 1 0 0 0 0|  
   |1 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1|0 0 1 0 0 0|  
   |0 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1|0 0 0 1 0 0|  
   |0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 0|0 0 0 0 1 0|  
   |0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1|0 0 0 0 0 1|  
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  
     
                      Figure 7. ECC-6 Check Matrix X  
     
     
   The ECC-6 code protects the 32 bit CEM header as follows:  
     
   The encoder generates the 6 bit ECC using the matrix shown in Figure  
   7.  In brief, the encoder builds another 26 column by 6 row matrix  
   and calculates even parity over the rows.  The matrix columns  
   represent CEM header bits 0 through 25.  
     
   Denote each column of the ECC-6 check matrix by X[], and each column  
   of the intermediate encoder matrix as Y[].  CEM[] denotes the CEM  
   header and ECC[] is the error correction code that is inserted into  
   CEM header bits 26 through 31.  

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   for i = 0 to 25 {  
        if CEM[i] = 0 {  
                Y[i] = 0;  
        } else {          
                Y[i] = X[i];  
        }  
   }  
     
   In other words, for each CEM header bit (i) set to 1, set the  
   resulting matrix column Y[i] according to Figure 7.  
     
   The final ECC-6 code is calculated as even parity of each row in Y  
   (i.e. ECC[k]=CEM[25+k]=even parity of row k).  
     
   The receiver also uses matrix X to calculate an intermediate matrix  
   Y' based on all 32 bits of the CEM header.  Therefore Y' is 32  
   columns wide and includes the ECC-6 code.  
     
   for i = 0 to 31 {  
        if CEM[i] = 0 {  
                Y'[i] = 0;  
        } else {          
                Y'[i] = X[i];  
        }  
   }  
  
   The receiver then appends the incoming ECC-6 code to Y as column 32  
   (ECC[0] should align with row 0) and calculates even parity for each  
   row.  The result is a single 6 bit column Z.  If all 6 bits are 0,  
   there are no bit errors (or at least no detectable errors).   
   Otherwise, it uses Z to perform a reverse lookup on X[] from Figure  
   7.  If Z matches column X[i], then there is a single bit error.  The  
   receiver should invert bit CEM[i] to correct the header.  If Z fails  
   to match any column of X, then the CEM header contains more than one  
   bit error and the CEM packet MUST be discarded.  
     
   Note that the ECC-6 code provides single bit correction and 2-bit  
   detection of errors within the received ECC-6 code itself. 
 

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Full Copyright Statement 
 
   Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2007). 
 
   This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions 
   contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors 
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Acknowledgment 
 
   Funding for the RFC Editor function is provided by the IETF 
   Administrative Support Activity (IASA). 
 
 

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