Next Generation SDH/SONET (PDF)

Since the turn of the twentieth century, telecommunications has
shifted from traditional voice transport to data transport,
although digitized voice is still a large contributor. Instead of
an evolution of existing transport standards, a revolution was
necessary in order to enable additional data-related transport.

Next Generation SDH/SONET provides a detailed description
of the enablers of efficient data transport over any synchronous
network. These include virtual concatenation (VCAT), the operation
to provide more granularity, and the link capacity adjustment
scheme (LCAS), an extension of VCAT that provides more flexibility.
Equally, generic framing procedure (GFP), the methodology that
efficiently transports asynchronous, or variable bit-rate data
signals over a synchronous or constant bit-rate, is explored in
detail.

* Describes new extensions to SDH/SONET standards to provide more
granularity and flexibility in their structures, enabling the
efficient transport of data-related signals such as Ethernet and
FICON

* Presents comprehensive sections on the implementation of
multi-service transport platforms (MSTP) enabled by VCAT, LCAS and
GFP

* Provides valuable advice on how to exploit existing networks to
create or extend LANs towards metro (MAN) or wide (WAN) area
networks and also to support storage area (SAN) networks

This volume will appeal to manufacturers, engineers and all
those involved in developing and deploying SDH, SONET and OTN
technology. It will also be an invaluable resource for postgraduate
students on network communications courses.