HILVERSUM, Netherlands -- AimValley has published an IETF draft standard, disclosing the Transparent SDH/SONET over Packet (TSoP) technology. This circuit emulation method is applied in the TSoP Smart SFP™ module that was jointly developed by AimValley and OE‑Solutions and which has recently been launched. The TSoP IETF draft standard is written in collaboration with experts from Alcatel‑Lucent.

The essence of the TSoP method is that an STM‑N or OC‑N client signal is transported completely transparent in a Pseudowire (PW) over a Packet Switched Network (PSN): The bits that are input on one edge of the PSN are exactly the same as the bits that are output on the other edge. This transparency extends to the timing properties of the client signal. Actually, to transport an STM‑N/OC‑N client signal transparently, only its bit rate is relevant to the PW and PSN layers. This implies that SONET/SDH differences disappear.

Although circuit emulation techniques are routinely deployed in the network for a number of years, there was, until now, no method standardized for the emulation of complete STM‑N or OC‑N circuits in a transparent manner over MPLS and Ethernet packet networks. Alcatel‑Lucent and AimValley have taken the initiative to close this gap by publishing an IETF draft standard that describes such a method in a document provisionally titled: draft-manhoudt-pwe3-tsop.

Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU)