Huawei Technologies

The TDM over The TDM over

The TDM over The TDM over The TDM over
Packet network Packet network
Packet network Packet network Packet network
58 NOV 2005

ISSUE 20
By Zhang Shifa
The TDM over The TDM over
The TDM over The TDM over The TDM over
Packet network Packet network
Packet network Packet network Packet network
Here we discuss the importance, technical architecture, timing, and QoS
issues of the TDM over Packet network. The conclusion shows that TDM
over Packet network is a specialist solution supported by Huawei that provides
the key to building a unified All-IP network while saving in the CAPEX
and OPEX areas.
Perspectives of the next generation network
ixed infrastructure providers are facing tremendous pressure to
reduce their cost base. Voice services are being substituted
by voice over IP and mobile. Even now, broadband IP
services are growing fast, but such competition means a
much lower profit margin.
The legacy network infrastructure is stovepipes style for
various services, e.g. PSTN, lease line, broadband Internet,
ATM, FR, X.25, etc. Labor cost to maintain the parallel
networks is high. The next negation network is based on a
unified pure IP platform which can significantly reduce
OPEX. This pure IP platform is perfect for next generation
telecom service, e.g. IP multimedia communication, IPTV
and broadband Internet etc. Unfortunately, it is impossible
for all telecom subscribers to move from legacy service to
IP-based services overnight. The present telecom services
are likely to last up to ten years, even after the core network
is migrated to IP. So, it is mandatory for a packet network to
support the legacy services, including TDM services.
The advanced IP network can transport priority traffic across
the network with low packet loss rate, low latency, and small
jitter. The priority traffic can be used to carry the TDM byte stream.
This technology is known as TDM over Packet (TDMoP), or TDM
over IP (TDMoIP), or Circuit Emulation Service over Packet Switch
Network (CESoPSN). This paper introduces the TDMoP solution
supported by Huawei.
F
Leading Edge
The TDM over packet network
57 DEC 2005

ISSUE 20
The challenges facing
TDM over Packet
The packet networks have, by nature,
packet loss, reordering, transportation latency
and a packet delay variant. These characteristics
of the packet network can affect the TDM
service carried over the network.
Another challenge of TDM over packet
is the synchronization. The TDM service
requires both ends of the TDM connection
to be synchronized. If they are not, buffer
overflow or underflow would occur, leading
to frame dropped or inserted, and the quality
decreases. Synchronization is necessary
because the packet network can use the flow
control to adapt the bit rate of sender and
receiver. There is no global synchronization
on current IP/Ethernet networks. This
makes it difficult to synchronize the TDM
equipments over the packet network.
Huawei has developed a TDM over
Packet solution with leading partners to solve
all these issues.
The architecture of a
TDM over packet network
As shown in Figure 1, the solution
provided by Huawei solves packet loss, miss-
ordering and packet jitter issues of the most
carrier-class IP networks. It also supports
high accuracy and stability clock recovery
for either network reference clock or service
clock.
In this solution, there are several com-
ponents including CLE, access node, gate-
way and management system.
CLE is customer located equipment
which provides various user interfaces (e.g.
X.21, V.35, V.36), G.703/704, and xDSL
or fiber uplink interfaces. The CLE performs
the TDM over IP function complying with
the standard draft from IETF.
The access node is DSLAM or Multi
Service Access Node (MSAN) equipment which
provides xDSL and fiber access to CLE. The
access node supports the network reference
clock recovering from IP network. The net-
work reference clock can be transported to
the CLE over NTR protocol of G.SHDSL.
The gateway has a similar TDM over IP
functionality of CLE. It interoperates with
the legacy TDM network to provide the
TDM service across IP and TDM network.
The management system supports end-
to-end service configuration for the TDM
over Packet service.
Synchronization solution
In PSTN/SDH networks, there is one
node called the clock master, which provides
a time reference to the other, called the slave.
Somewhere in the network there is at least
one extremely accurate primary reference
clock, with long term accuracy of one part
in 10
11
. This node, the accuracy of which is
called stratum 1, provides the reference clock
to secondary nodes with stratum 2 accuracy,
and these in turn provide a time reference
to stratum 3 nodes.
In the case of the packet network, there
Figure1 TDM over IP end-to-end solution by Huawei
Legacy SDH
E1/E3/STM-1
E1/STM-1
Gateway to
PSTN/LL/SDH
xDSL/Fiber xDSL/Fiber
CLE CLE CLE
E1/nx64K
E1/nx64K
E1/ISDN PRA
PBX
Phone
Fax/Modem
CLE to CLE Pseudo Wire
C
L
E

t
o

C
L
E

P
s
e
u
d
o

W
i
r
e
E1/nx64K
DTE
DTE
BSS/OSS
TL1/Coba
iManager
Pseudo Wire
Solution
Legacy Digital
Leased Line
Legacy PSTN
IP Network
MA/UA Series
MA/UA Series
Huawei Technologies
DEC 2005

ISSUE 20 58
is no network reference available for TDM
emulated service. To provide synchroni-
zation among TDM equipments, some
timing schemes of GPS, such as the out-
band clock network, or in-band clock
recovery must be implicated. The timing
schemes are shown in Figure2.
The GPS scheme provides an accurate
and stable clock independently to the packet
network. The out-band timing scheme
constructs a parallel synchronization
network to provide clock to TDM equip-
ment. In in-band P2P adaptive timing
scheme, clock is carried by the TDM traffic,
and is recovered by adaptive mode by the
receiver. In in-band common reference
timing scheme, a common reference clock
is used. The reference clock is sent over packet
network by TDMoP traffic to the TDMoP
terminals or the access equipment. The GPS
and out-band timing scheme can satisfy the
synchronization requirement. However,
sometimes the two schemes are not
acceptable because of high cost. The
performance of adaptive timing scheme is
highly dependant on the performance
of the packet network. In the case of a com-
mon reference clock, some advanced tech-
nologies can be implemented to improve the
clock performance in a cost effective way.
Test results showed the advance timing
scheme over packet satisfies the synchro-
nization requirement of ISDN signaling, fax,
modem, GSM and 3G BTS.
QoS
The packet loss, reordering and jitter of
the packet network decreases the quality of
TDM service. The TDM over Packet
solution must solve this problem.
The packet loss leads to an interruption
in TDM traffic. The TDMoIP system has
the capability to recognize the packet loss
and correct the error by inserting stuffing
packet. Otherwise, the end to end latency
changes. If extremely high quality is re-
quired, two copies of each TDMoP packet are
sent at the same time. If an incidental packet
is lost, the receiver can use the second copy
of the packet to retrieve the TDM stream.
The packet reordering can be detected by
examining the sequence number. The
receiver has the ability to sort the packet in
a correct sequence.
In-band P2P Adaptive Timing Scheme
GPS Timing Scheme
Out-band Timing Scheme
Even if the packet arrives through the same
path, the arrival time may be different, due to
packet delay variant or packet jitter. The re-
ceiver equipment has a jitter buffer to smooth
the arrival time difference of various packets.
Latency of TDM service is critical because
long latency may cause echo and difficulty
in conversation. The latency of TDM over
Packet service is composed of packing time
and transportation delay. It is impossible for
the TDM over Packet terminal to shorten the
transportation delay. So, to lower the latency
over packet network, the same priority sche-
me must be implemented in the packet network.
Advantages
The TDM over Packet solution can be
used for PBX/E1/ISDN access to PSTN via
broadband access network. This would help
CLEC cut down the CAPEX to construct
TDM network for those services.
The TDM over Packet solution can also
help ILEC migrate to NGN smoothly. The
ILEC can provide TDM service over all-IP
networks, decoupling the migration of the
network and service migration to IP service
of subscriber. The unified all-IP based packet
network will help ILEC significantly cut
down OPEX.
The solution can provide an accurate clock
for most TDM based services, e.g. ISDN
BRI/PRI, fax or modem over ISDN, GSM
BTS and 3G BTS for voice access. The
solution can guarantee the quality of TDM
service and fully comply with international
quality requirements of TDM service de-
fined in the ITU-T series standards. In a word,
TDM over Packet technology is now mature
enough for operator implementation.
In-band Common Reference Timing Scheme
Figure 2 The timing scheme for TDM over Packet
GPS
GPS
CLK
CLK
NTR
CLE
TDMoP
CLE
TDMoP
PBX / Router
Access Node
IP Network
Access Node
PBX / Router
NTR
CLE
TDMoP
CLE
TDMoP
PBX / Router
Access Node
IP Network
Access Node
PBX / Router
External Clock
Distribution
Network
GW
TDMoP
CLE
TDMoP
PSTN / SDH
CLK
Adaptive
Clock Mode
Access Node
IP Network
CLK
Access Node
PBX / Router
CLE
TDMoP
CLE
TDMoP
PBX / Router
NTR
Access Node
TDMoP
Stratum 1 master reference clock
IP Network
Access Node
PBX / Router