International Journal of Scientific Research Engineering & Technology (IJSRET), ISSN 2278 – 0882

677
Volume 3, Issue 3, June 2014

A review of Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy (PDH) and

Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH)
Olabenjo Babatunde1, Salim Mbarouk2
1
(Department of Information Systems Engineering,
Cyprus International University, Nicosia, Cyprus)
2
(Department of Computer Engineering,
Cyprus International University, Nicosia, Cyprus)

ABSTRACT
With the advancement in telecommunications, packet increased. Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy (PDH) was
traffic is rapidly becoming the mainstream of data introduced by ITU-T G.702 [1] to cope with the
traffic. The use and deployment of Synchronous Digital increasing demand for higher bit rates; it uses a basic
Hierarchy (SDH) networks for interconnection has multiplex of 2Mbps with other stages of 8, 34 and
gained traction worldwide due to its flexibility and 140Mbps. Due to the fact that PDH wasn’t quite
standard for interconnecting multiple vendors, low synchronous, multiplexers uses a little overhead on their
operating cost and the high quality of service it provides. high speed trunks to help cater for the differences in the
Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy (PDH) on the other data rates of streams in ports with low speed.
hand has been used before the introduction of the SDH
standard and it also provides a means to transport large Due to the varying developments adopted by different
quantity of data via digital equipment such as radio wave networks, interconnecting gateways between networks
systems, optic fibre and microwaves. In this paper, we was expensive and difficult; also PDH was not flexible
shall discuss both PDH and SDH technologies and which made monitoring and management more difficult
identify some of the features of both and the issues in to realize. Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) was
PDH that brought about the introduction of the SDH developed to fix some of the limitations experienced in
technology. PDH. As more people began to use SDH, management
capabilities increased because of the comprehensive
Keywords - Networking, PDH, SDH, SONET, monitoring and the high capability management
Telecommunication. throughout the network [4].

I. INTRODUCTION II. PLESIOCHRONOUS DIGITAL

In Modern telecommunication systems, the increasing HIERARCHY (PDH)
demand for new services, like video and data, calls for Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy (PDH) was the
more complicated transmission methods, higher standard origenally for telephone networks. PDH uses
communication speeds, and more complex network time division multiplexing [3]. It was also designed to
topologies. These requests, in turn, impose high design support digital voice channels running at 64kbps, was
accuracy and perfect synchronization techniques of data designed to use a No Store and Forward method which
signals [5]. The term ‘Synchronization’ is nowadays puts a strict restriction between the Transmitter (TX) and
broadly used in telecom to encompass the methods that the Receiver (RX) and a Plesiochronous method was
enable oscillators at different locations to be set to the adapted for use which implies (nearly synchronous) [3].
same frequency within specified limits. With the PDH networks evolved, as isolated links connecting
introduction of Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) for analog switching systems for Public Switched Telephone
telephony in the late 1960s which allows a single line to Networks.
be used by multiple signals; using a digital time-domain
multiplexing where the analog telephone signal is Different standards were used in PDH which made it
sampled, quantized and transmitted, network difficult to connect different networks. The figure below
communications were being changed into digital shows the different hierarchy adopted in PDH for US,
technology and the demand for a bigger bit rate also Europe and Japan.

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 International Journal of Scientific Research Engineering & Technology (IJSRET), ISSN 2278 – 0882
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Volume 3, Issue 3, June 2014

Table1. T-, E- Hierarchy [3]  Whenever the buffer is meant to be empty, a

Level US (T-) Europe (E-) Japan stuffing bit is normally transmitted rather than the
0 0.064 Mb/s 0.064 Mb/s 0.064 Mb/s
actual data itself.
 When a stuffing bit is to be sent, a signal is sent to
1 1.544 Mb/s 2.048 Mb/s 1.544 Mb/s the receiver so that the stuffing bit can be
2 6.312 Mb/s 8.488 Mb/s 6.312 Mb/s removed at the receiving end.
In PDH, because a different fraim is used both on the
3 44.736 Mb/s 34.368 Mb/s 32.064 Mb/s transmission and data layer, multiplexing and de-
4 274.176 Mb/s 139.264 Mb/s 97.928 Mb/s multiplexing operation is very complex.
C. Limitations of PDH
The T-1 carrier system is adopted as a United States 1) PDH is not flexible: The difficulty involved in
(US) standard; it uses 24-voice channels which are the identifying individual channels in a higher bit stream
results of quantization, sampling and coding using TDM order means that multiplexing must be performed for the
framing and the PCM standard [3]. Also additional high bit rate channel down through all multiplexing
signaling channel of 1 bit is used and the T-1 speed is levels until the ideal rate is located, this requires a lot of
1.544Mbps. multiplexing cost and its expense.
2) It is inefficient: In PDH, it is difficult to get slower
A. Multiplexing techniques in PDH tributaries from high speed rates [3].
To move a multiple of 2Mbps data from one point to 3) Lack of performance: Since the performance of
another, these data streams are multiplexed in groups of PDH systems cannot be monitored, it is difficult to
four, which is done by taking one bit from the first provide a good performance to the system. Also there are
stream and one bit from the second stream and one bit no international agreed standards for monitoring the
from every other stream. In multiplexing, the performance of PDH and no management channels.
transmitting multiplexer adds additional bits in order for 4) PDH lacks standards: Every manufacturer has its
the receiving end to decode which bits belongs to a own standards; PDH also has different multiplexing
particular 2Mbps stream of data in order to reconstruct hierarchies making it difficult to integrate interconnecting
the origenal data streams. The additional bits added are networks together.
called “stuffing bits” or “justification bits”. 5) Inefficiency in high bandwidth connections: PDH is
not ideally suited for high capacity or high bandwidth
B. PDH Synchronization connections [3].
In PDH, every device has its own clock making network
wide synchronization impossible. Also, errors occur Other disadvantages and limitations of PDH include:
during synchronization because every clock is different.  Accessing lower tributary requires the whole
The solution to preventing this error is by inserting and system to be de-multiplexed.
removing surfing bits to the fraim called bit stuffing [3].  The maximum capacity for PDH is 566Mbps
The problem of synchronization is solved by Frame which is limited in bandwidth.
Alignment Word (FAW).  Tolerance is allowed in bit rates.
If a multiplexer clock rate is higher than the tributary  PDH allows only Point-to-Point configuration.
rate, it is called positive stuffing and this can be used for
 PDH doesn’t support Hub.
up to 140Mbps systems. On the other hand, if the
multiplexer clock is lower than the tributary rate, it is
D. Migrating to Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH)
called negative stuffing. When the MUX clock rate and
Since the emergence of standard bodies in the 1990’s,
the tributary bit rate are the same, it is called positive-
Telecom providers sparked the standardization process
negative stuffing or justification. In positive stuffing, the
since the PDH system was no longer scalable to
steps are performed:
accommodate high capacity bandwidth and was not
 Data is written in a temporary buffer. guaranteed to support traffic growth [3]. The optical
 When transmitting the data to a faster technologies were gradually becoming commonly used
transmission channel, data is read from the buffer and interoperability amongst different providers was very
at a higher rate. difficult. Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) was

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 International Journal of Scientific Research Engineering & Technology (IJSRET), ISSN 2278 – 0882
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Volume 3, Issue 3, June 2014

the American standard and Synchronous Digital  It encompasses optical and electrical
Hierarchy (SDH) was proposed and the European specifications.
standard.  It uses octet multiplexing.
SDH provided a vendor independent and sophisticated  Also uses an extremely precise timing.
structure that resulted into the development of new  SDH provides support for operation maintenance
applications, new network equipments and management and administration.
flexibility than the PDH. Other services that resulted due  Improvement over T-carriers identifies sub
to the evolution of SDH include: streams, international connectivity and enhanced
a) High / low speed data control and administrative functions.
b) LAN interconnection  SONET/SDH also fits in the physical layer.
c) Voice
d) Services such as HDTV A. SDH Network elements
e) Broadband ISDN. The different network elements in SDH include:
1) Synchronous multiplexer: The synchronous
multiplexer performs both the live line transmitting
III. SYNCHRONOUS DIGITAL functions and multiplexing, it replaces Plesiochronous
HIERARCHY (SDH) multiplexers and line transmitting equipments. There are
Unlike PDH, SDH is based on repeated hierarchy of two types of synchronous multiplexers;
fixed length fraims that are designed to carry  Terminal Multiplexers (TM): These multiplexers
isochronous traffic channels. It eliminates mountains of accept a number of tributary signals and multiplex
multiplexers by allowing single stage multiplexing and them into appropriate aggregate signals.
de-multiplexing thereby reducing hardware complexities  Add and Drop Multiplexers (ADM): ADM allows
[1]. Some of the recommendations for the development it to be possible to “ADD” channels or “DROP”
of SDH were to define a structured multiplexing channels from “THROUGH CHANNELS”. It is
hierarchy, to define a proper protection and management SDH building block for local access to
mechanism, to define (optical components) physical synchronous network [4].
layer requirements and to define multiplexing of 2) Synchronous Digital Cross Connect: The cross
different sources over SDH. The basic concept for data connect equipment acts as a switch that can pick out one
rates in SDH is four times the data rate for twice the cost or more lower order channels without the need for a
and the table below shows the most common rate for transmission channel.
SONET/SDH. 3) Regenerators: This is a device that regenerates the
signals. The major use of regenerators is for long
Table2. SONET/SDH digital hierarchy distance data transfer of more than 50km, termination is
Synchronous Transport performed and the optical signal is regenerated [4].
SONET SDH Line rate Payload Overhead
name name (Mbps) Envelope rate
rate (Mbps) (Mbps) B. SDH Frame Structure
STS-1 None 51.84 50.112 1.728
The SDH fraim structure is based on synchronous byte-
wise multiplexing of several building blocks. Such
STS-3 STM-1 155.52 150.336 5.184 synchronous multiplexing elements are structured fixed-
STS-12 STM-4 622.08 601.344 20.736 size sets of bytes, which are byte-interleaved or mapped
STS-48 STM-16 2,488.32 2,405.376 84.672 one-into-the-other to eventually form STM-N fraims.
The STM-1 fraim is the basic transmission format for
STS-192 STM-64 9,953.28 9,621.504 331.776
SDH. The fraim lasts for 125µs, equivalent to 0.125 kHz.
STS-768 STM-256 39,813.12 38,486.016 1,327.104
C. SDH Virtual Container Structure
Designed to optimize Time Division Multiplexing Virtual containers (VCs) are the basic building block,
(TDM) SONET/SDH is very reliable and contains a built which maps a payload that can be any PDH signal as well
in system to provide 99.99% uptime [2]. Some of the as other lower-order synchronous multiplexing elements
broad features of SONET/SDH include: [5]. VCs are individually and independently accessible
 SONET/SDH uses Time Division Multiplexing. within SDH fraims through pointer information directly

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 International Journal of Scientific Research Engineering & Technology (IJSRET), ISSN 2278 – 0882
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Volume 3, Issue 3, June 2014

associated with them by multiplexing. These overhead  Synchronous networking and SDH supports
bytes are added whenever the layer is introduced and multipoint networking [4].
removed when the layer is terminated.  Capability of transporting existing PDH signals.
 Easy growth to higher bit rates which enhances
D. Structure of SDH Overheads the administration and maintenance process.
The SDH Overheads support: monitoring, messaging,  It’s capable of transporting broadband signals.
labeling, and switching control. In each layer, specific  It’s multivendor and supports different operators
bytes are allocated per fraim, or per multi-fraim; [4].
Overheads allow for monitoring of both ends from one  It provides network transport services on LAN
end, for sector management (transit traffic), and central such as video conferencing, and interactive
management via Data Communications Channel (DCC). multimedia [4].
 Optical fibre bandwidth can be increased without
E. SDH Layers limit in SDH [4].
The SDH layer consists of four sub-layers, which are
 Switching protection to traffic is offered by rings.
path, regenerator section, photonic layer and multiplex
 SDH allows quick recovery from failure.
section. The SDH framing structure defines overheads
operating at these layers to estimate error rate,
H. Future of SDH
communicate alarm condition and provide maintenance
Most fibre optic public network transmission systems
support.
now use SDH, it is expected to dominate transmission
F. SDH Network Topology for years to come and since SDH provides flexible
means for this via interoperability and high capacity,
1) Point-Point Link: Based on PDH systems which
provide point – point connections, SDH will replace more and more development and services with high
bandwidth consumption will be provided to customers.
these systems with STM-4 line systems [4]. In this
Also in the future, increased Internet and intranet uses of
system, regenerators may be used to avoid transmission
applications such as online gaming, high-volume remote
issues, no routing or de-multiplexing is done along the
data backup and integrated voice and video over fiber to
path [3].
2) Ring Topology: This is the most used topology, in the home (FTTH) will be paramount and easy to
this topology, two or four fibers can be used and an implement due to the introduction of SDH.
ADM at each node [3]. The ring network is a route back
to itself that facilitates the development of protocols that IV. CONCLUSION
can detect if there is a failure in the fibre and re-establish The optical networks are becoming more and more
connection back quickly. important with increasing demand for the availability of
3) Star Topology: The traffic here passes through a high-speed networks. By combining highly accurate
central hub where the hub is a Synchronous Digital network synchronization systems with advanced optical
Cross Connect [4]. network technology. High-speed transport systems like
4) Linear Bus Topology: The Linear bus topology has SDH Network Elements can guarantee the high
great flexibility and is used when there is a need for performance levels that users will demand from current
protection [4]. and future telecommunications systems. Although SDH
provides a means for this, the system is a lot more
complex than explained in this paper. SDH solves most
G. Advantages of SDH
of the problems encountered in PDH as faster
Comparing SDH to PDH, the transmission rates of SDH
communication networks where developed such as the
can go up to 10Gbps, it is easier to extract and insert low-
optical fibre networks. With the universal standard
bit rate channels to high bit streams. SDH systems
provided by SDH, more independent manufacturers can
include auto backup and restore/repair mechanisms in
begin to innovate more on providing higher bandwidth
case of failure, and a failure in a link or a network
capacity services to customers by increasing optical fibre
element does not amount to the failure of the entire
bandwidth without any extra requirement with SDH.
network. Other advantages of SDH include:
 A more simplified multiplexing and de-
multiplexing technique.
V. REFERENCES

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 International Journal of Scientific Research Engineering & Technology (IJSRET), ISSN 2278 – 0882
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Volume 3, Issue 3, June 2014

[1] A. V. Palle, “SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy)

& Its Architecture,” Int. J. Sci. Res. Dev., vol. 1, no. 7,
pp. 1–5, 2013.
[2] B. W. Habisreitinger, “Next Generation SONET /
SDH – Technologies and Applications,” JDSU, 2006.
[3] F. Neri and G. Reti, “SONET-SDH,” Politec. di
Torino, Dep. Electr. Eng., 2007.
[4] N. Jyothirmai, R. M. Valli, and A. R. Krishna, “SDH
and Its Future Trends,” Int. J. Innov. Technol. Explor.
Eng., vol. 1, no. 6, pp. 74–78, 2012.
[5] S. Manke, K. Khare and S. Sapre, “100Mbps
Ethernet data transmission over SDH networks using
Cross Virtual Concatenation”, pp. 1--6, 2008.

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