The PDH hierarchy

© ICT electronics
 The telecommunication networks

Information
only meaningful for the end user

Signals
modification of a physical characteristic: electricity, light,
magnetism...relative to time

Transmission media
allow the movement of a signal from a source to a target

Nodes
relay the signals maintaining their characterictics.
There are three basic types:
regenerator, switches/routers and multiplexers

Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy

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 Signals & Information

Information
Analog Digital

Analog Modulation Digital Modulation

signals
Digital Digitalization Codification

Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy

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 Transmission media

Transmission types Transmission obstruction

Twisted pair - Attenuation

· proportional to the distance
- Conductors · the signal loses power
Coaxial · must have a good relation with noise

- Noise
· thermic
Optical Fiber
- Dielectrics · intermodulation (sum total of frequencies)
· noise point
Space
- Distortion
· different propagation speeds

Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy

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 Telecommunication in evolution

Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy

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 The arrival of digital technology

analog

LE
analog
LE
analog : 1900

digital
digital Modem
Modem

analog LE
digital
LE analog : 1960

LE
digital
LE digital
: 1990
digital

Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy

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 The digitalization of signals

SAMPL ING

t
t0 t0 +T ···
QUA NTISATIO N
011
010
001
000
100 t
101
110
111
E NCODING

001 011 001 101 100

t
t0 t0 +T ···

Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy

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 Nyquist Sampling theorem

“In order to convert an analog signal to digital it is necessary to use a sampling

frequency (fs) at least two times the highest frequency”

• fs ≥ 2BW (in Hertzs)

i.e. to digitalize a phone channel BWc = 4000 Hz in 8 bits each sample it
would be necessary:
• fs =2*4000=8000 Hz
T= 125µs: this is the base period for all digital networks
codifying:
• 8000 samples/seg* 8bits/sample = 64.000 bits/seg
this is the basic speed for digital channels

Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy

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 Capacity of a channel: the Shannon Law

The capacity of a noisy channel is :

• C= Bw log2 (1 + P/N)
C: capacity of a channel in bit/s
Bw: Band width in Hz.
P: Signal power
N: media noise

Show a max capacity for a noisy channel for transmitting digital information

Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy

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 Types of digital modulation

7V

3V 3V

PAM t0 t0+T ··· - V

t
- 3V
7V (3) 011
5V (2) 010 1 3 1 5 4 ANALOG
3V (1) 001 PULSE
V (0) 000 t 0+3T t 0+4T PDM t MODULATION
t0 t0 +T t0 +2T
t t0 t0+T ···
- V (4) 100
-3 V (5) 101
1 3 1 5 4
-5 V (6) 110
-7 V (7) 111
PPM t
t0 t0+T ···

001 011 001 101 100

PCM t
t0 t0+T ··· DIGITAL
PULSE
MODULATION
t7 t8 t9 Delta
t t 4 t5 t 6 t 7
t0 t1 t 2 t 3 t4 t5 t6 Modul. t 0 t 1 t2 t3 t8 t9
t

Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy

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 Line Codification

1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0

+V
NRZ 0

-V

+V
AMI 0

-V

+V
HDB3 0
B 0 0 V
0 0 0 V B 0 0 V
-V

+V
CMI 0

-V

1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0

Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy

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 Multiplexing

BWs1
DTE-A
BW
s2 BWC
DTE-B
MULTIPLEXER
.
. Transmission channel
. BWs1
DTE-F

FDMA TDMA CDMA

F 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 1
A B A F E D CB A
E
B
f
D
C 001011101110111001
frame
Bit Bit
t

Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy

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 Digital switching

a) Analog switching
Demodulator Modulator
demultiplexer multiplexer
A(f1)
A(f1) A(f1), B(f2)

B(f2) B(f2)
A(f1), B(f2), C(f3), D(f4) Analog
switch
C(f3) C(f3)

D(f4) D(f4) C(f3), D(f4)

4 channels at the
same frequency

b) Digital switching Digital switch

ABABABABAB
ABCDABCDABCDABCD

CDCDCDCDCD

Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy

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 Advantages of digital technology
• Reduces hardware cost
• Simplifies swtiching
• Improves reliability, maintenance and quality
• Allows you to offer Quality of Service (QoS)
• Optimizes the use of resources
• Supports audio, data, video under a unified media
• Makes it easier to build computer networks

...but
• Requires more Band Width
• Needs synchronization

Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy

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 Digital milestones

• Telex (Germany 1935) first digital network

• Digitalization (France 1942)
• Fax (Japan 1950)
• Integration (USA 50´s) of transmission and switching
• AT&T (USA 1962) first PTT with digital switching
• Western Electric (USA 1965) first digital transmission PCM 24 channels
• Telefonica (Spain 1968) first packet network
• IDN (USA 70s) first full digital network
• ISDN (Europe 1984) standarized voice and data metwork
• SONET (USA 1988) first installations
• B-ISDN (1989) broadband networks
• ATM (1994) first public ATM net

Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy

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 Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchies

Europe (CEPT) USA Japan

5th level 564992 Kbit/s 397200 Kbit/s

x4 x4

4th level 139264 Kbit/s 274176 Kbit/s 97728 Kbit/s

x3
x4 x6 x3

3rd level 34368 Kbit/s 44736 Kbit/s 32064 Kbit/s

x4 x7 x5

2nd level 8448 Kbit/s 6312 Kbit/s

x4 x3 x4

1st level 2048 Kbit/s 1544 Kbit/s

x 30 x 24

single channel 64 Kbit/s

Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy

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 PDH is a hierarchy

MUX
2 Mbit/s
2
8 Mbit/s

8 MUX
8
34 Mbit/s

34
2 TRANSMISSION MEDIA
MUX 140 Mbit/s COAXIAL CABLE
8 SATELLITE
34
RADIO LINK
140 OPTICAL FIBRE
2
LTE

8
8

34
2

Four standarized mux levels 2, 8, 34 and 140 Mbit/s

Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy

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 PDH is plesiochronous
PDH
PDH
PDH
PDH
PDH islands with their own clock
PDH
PDH

clock

alignment
SWITCH

Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy

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 The PDH hierarchy

Remote Alarms Indicator (FAS and MFAS)

A
Spare bits (national use)
S
i - Tributary bits
T1
Justification control bits
J11
Justification bits
R1
i - Channel CAS bits
ai bi ci di

CRC-4 Error signaling bits

E
CAS multiframe alignment
1
Frame alignment bits

CRC-4 Multiframe alignment

Frame alignment supervision bits

0
Cyclic Redundancy Checksum bits
C1 C2 C3 C4

Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy

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 The 2048Mbit/s basic frame

CAS: 30 channels/frame
CCS: 31 channels/frame

ch 1 ch 2 ch 15 ch 16 ch 17 ch 30

ch 1 ch 2 ch 15 ch 16 ch 17 ch 18 ch 31

Frame 0 FAS MFAS S A S

Frame 1 NFAS s1 s16
FAS s2 s17
NFAS s3 s18

FAS s14 s29

Frame 15 NFAS s15 s30

BITS PER SAMPLE: 8 bits

SAMPLING RATE (of every channel): 8000 samples/s
Frame duration: 125 µ s
CHANNEL BW: 0-3400 Hz
COMPRESSION LAW: A
INVERSION OF EVENT BITS

Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy

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 Frame alignment

FAS FAS

tributaries bits

Allows targetting of synchronization to find the beginning of the frame

Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy

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 FAS
TS0 TTS1
S2 TS15 TS16 TS17 TS18 TS31

Frame 0 C10 0 1 1 0 1 1 00 0 0SA S

Frame 1 0 1 A S s1 s16
Frame 2 C20 0 1 1 0 1 1 s2 s17
Frame 3 0 1 A S s3 s18

Frame 14 C40 0 1 1 0 1 1 s14 s29

Frame 15 E 1 A S s15 s30

Also called NFAS

FAS

F r a m e A l i g n m e n t S u p e r v ision bit

FAS is only transmitted on odd frames

NFAS uses a bit equal to “1” to avoid coincidences

Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy

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 Cyclic Redundancy Checksum CRC-4

TS0 TS1 TS2 TS15 TS16 TS17 TS18 TS31

Frame 0 C1 FAS MFAS S A S

0 NFAS s1 s16
Sub-Multiframe C2 FAS s2 s17
I
0 NFAS s3 s18

Frame 8 C1 FAS s8 s23

Sub-Multiframe
II s14 s29
C4 FAS
Frame 15 E NFAS s15 s30

C1 0 C 2 0 C 31 C 4 0 C 11 C 21 C 3 E C 4 E

C1C2C 3C4: CRC-4 check bits for the previous sub-multiframe

001011: CRC alignment signal
EE: CRC distant error indicating bits

Allows the detection of errors

Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy

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 NFAS: No FAS
DISTANT
8 Mbit/s ALARM

LTE LTE
FRAME
8 Mbit/s LOSS

TS0 TS1 TS2 TS31

Frame 0 FAS
Frame 1 NFAS
Frame 2 FAS
Frame 3 NFAS

Frame 14 FAS
Frame 15 NFAS

Used to manage alarms and errors

Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy

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 bit A: Remote Alarms Indication

TS0 TS1 TS15 TS16 TS17 TS31

Frame 0 C1 FAS MFAS SA S

Frame 1 0 1 A S s1 s16
Frame 2 C2 FAS s2 s17
Frame 3 0 1 A S s3 s18

Frame 14 C4 FAS s14 s29

Frame 15 E1 A S s15 s30

Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy

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 bits S for PTT use

TS0 TS1 TS15 TS16 TS17 TS31

Frame 0 C1 FAS MFAS SASS

Frame 1 0 1 ASSSSS s1 s16
Frame 2 C2 FAS s2 s17
Frame 3 0 1 ASSSSS s3 s18

Frame 14 C4 FAS s14 s29

Frame 15 E1 ASSSSS s15 s30

can be used for application, maintenance or monitoring of performance

Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy

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 CAS Multiframe
TS0 TS1 TS2 TS15 TS16 TS17 TS18 TS31

Frame 0 FAS 0MFAS

0 0 0 SA S
Frame 1 NFAS a1 b1 c1 d1 a16b16c16d16
Frame 2 FAS a2 b2 c2 d2a17b17c17d17
Frame 3 NFAS a3 b3 c3 d3a18b18c18d18

Frame 14 FAS a14b14c14d14a29b29c29d29

Frame 15 NFAS a15b15c15d15a30b30c30d30

ai bi ci di : i-channel
signalling bits (CAS)

MFAS for CAS

Each of the 30 channels have associated 2 kbit/s, bits ai,bi,ci, di in TS16

Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy

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 Multiframe Alignment Signal (MFAS)

TS16
0MFAS
0 0 0 SA S No MFAS
(NMFAS)
a1 b1 c1 d1 a16 b16 c16 d16
a2 b2 c2 d2a17 b17 c17 d17
a3 b3 c3 d3 a18 b18 c18 d18

Used to synchronize the CAS

Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy

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 bit A in NMFAS (TS16)
TS0 TS1 TS15 TS16 TS17 TS31

Frame 0 C1 FAS MFAS SA S

Frame 1 0 1 A S s1 s16

Alarm bit used to indicate a power fault, loss of incoming signal, or loss of
multiframe alignment
then A=‘1’ the response from the remote side is to set CAS bits to ‘1’

A=1

CAS=1

Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy

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 2 Mbit/s channel structure
ch 1 ch 2 ch 15 ch 16 ch 17 ch 18 ch 31

Frame 0 FAS MFAS SA S

Frame 1 NFAS s1 s16
FAS s2 s17
NFAS s3 s18

FAS s14 s29

Frame 15 NFAS s15 s30

8 bit per sample

8000 samples per second
30 or 31 channels of information
125µs frame period
3.400 Hz bandwidth per channel

Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy

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 PDH as circuit provider
RTB
RTB
Rented 8 8
Rented

ISDN 2 2
ISDN
8 8
Frame
Relay Frame
Internet 2 2 Relay
Internet
8 8 8 8
GSM
2 34 34 2 GSM

ATM
ATM

PDH networks provide circuits to switched public networks.

They are also used to build synchronization networks

Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy

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 PDH network, some problems

• The supervision and maintenance functions are limited (just a few

bits for alarms in NFAS, NMFAS and E bit (2 Mbit/s frame)
• In order to get low speed channel (i.e. 2 Mbit/s) from a hight
hierarchy (i.e. 140 Mbit/s) a full demultiplexing is need
• Loss of compatibility between European, Japanese and North
American hierachies
• There are no standards for speeds over 140 Mbit/s
• Low management capabilities

Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy

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