MEF 8 Circuit Emulation Services over

9500 MPR

The Alcatel-Lucent 9500 Microwave Packet Radio (MPR) is a native packet microwave transmission system that can be deployed on a TDM network today, offering service providers a cost-effective way to transition smoothly from TDM-based to IP networks. The 9500 MPR efficiently transports multimedia traffic regardless of the access technology, whether it is TDM, ATM or Ethernet, since it handles packets natively. 9500 MPR supports both MEF8 Circuit Emulation and ATM Pseudowire techniques. This paper describes the Circuit Emulation solution based on MEF8 that is implemented on 9500 MPR in order to transport TDM services over the Ethernet layer.

1 Introduction
The Alcatel-Lucent 9500 MPR is both a revolutionary and evolutionary platform, transporting multimedia traffic using packet technology while maintaining support for existing, widely deployed TDM systems. The 9500 MPR introduces the innovative concept of Multiservice Aggregation Layer: the platform converges all traffic over a single packet transport layer using industry-standard Pseudowire and Circuit Emulation technologies. Ethernet becomes the common transmission layer to transport any kind of traffic. As traffic streams are provided outside the microwave node, recovery of the TDM connectivity at the backbone/core site can be obtained by using the Alcatel-Lucent 9500 MPR as a standalone unit, (without a microwave uplink), the Alcatel-Lucent 7750 Service Router (SR) part of the Alcatel-Lucent IP product line, the 1850TSS of the Alcatel-Lucent OMSN Product line or any third party supporting MEF8 Circuit Emulation Techniques.
Access network Packet Backhaul network Ethernet aggregation layer

Cell Site Any TDM/ATM/Ethernet interfaces

E1/T1 TDM

BTS CEP
E1 IMA

9500 MPR

Aggregated traffic over Ethernet

NodeB

Figure 1

2 CES techniques on the 9500 MPR

The 9500 MPR supports MEF8 structured agnostic emulation TDM services. The block diagram in Fig. 2 shows the MEF8 encapsulation process. The MEF8 Processing Block receives a bit stream from the E1/T1 interface and performs the following functions: Packetizes the incoming data to a pre-determined payload size 2

Encapsulates the payload into a packet format specified by the MEF8 standard for the emulated data type. RTP and CES Control Word headers are added. Adds the Ethernet header
CES TDM Interface CES IWF Type CES Payload Adapted Payload Ethernet Interface

TDM Service Interface

Customer TDM Service

TSP
(optional) (e.g. framing, mux/demux)

CES IWF

IWF IWF
DS1 (T1), E1, DS3 (T3), E3, Nx64 CES Control Word RTP (optional) TDM Payload

ECDX

EFTF

Ethertype ECID CES Control Word RTP (optional) TDM Payload

Destination Addr. Source Address Ethertype ECID CES Control Word RTP (optional) TDM Payload FCS

Figure 2

Setup and teardown of MEF 8 emulated circuits is based on exchange of service parameters between the two CES interworking functions (IWFs) at either end of the emulated circuit; if one of those IWFs belongs to the 9500 MPR the following parameters must be defined: Mac addresses of the two IWFs ECID (2 different values may be used for each direction) TDM clock source: clock recovery adaptive, clock recovery differential, clock loopback (TDM line in) VLAN (One VLAN is assigned to each bidirectional circuit emulated E1 flow)

RTP, which is optional in MEF8, is always present but not used if the clock recovery is not be differential

3 Data awareness on the 9500 MPR

The 9500 MPR introduce the concept of data awareness, that includes patented techniques that improve the transmission of Ethernet frames belonging to a Circuit Emulation Service as described in the MEF8 implementation agreement. 3

Data Awareness gives benefits to MEF8 frames in term of better throughput, lower latency, and BER performances that cannot be attained by dealing with Ethernet Packets in agnostic (unaware) mode. 1. Keeping the BER performances When MEF8 Ethernet frames are transmitted through a noisy medium (e.g. the Radio Physical Layer), bit errors may occur. If an Ethernet frame is affected by one error, this is detected by the (Frame Check Sum) FCS and usually the entire frame is dropped, unlike TDM over TDM transport. This behaviour affects the TDM traffic with a worse BER that, compared with a traditional TDM over TDM transmission process, is higher, multiplied by a factor that is the frame length (at least 2 orders of magnitude higher). In order to avoid such BER degradation, a specific technique is put in place such as that, when the TDM is recreated at the TDM-Bound IWF, the bit error are propagated without any multiplication effect. 2. Latency control In order to improve the Packet Delay Variation (PDV) affecting MEF8 Ethernet frames, a special technique is implemented. This implementation gives a benefit in term of PDV and then, it results in two advantages at the TDM-Bound IWF: 1) Jitter buffer: it can be smaller, reducing the overall latency on the TDM circuit 2) Better wander performances at the recreated TDM circuit 3. Header compression The 9500 MPR uses a special technique that improves the use of bandwidth on air when MEF8 emulated circuit are transported, by means of an algorithm which reduces the weight of the MEF8 Header before sending the MEF8 Ethernet frame on the Radio Physical Layer These algorithms improve the Bandwidth Efficiency while transporting MEF8 Ethernet frames.

4 Conclusion
The Alcatel-Lucent 9500 MPR is a true, packet wireless transmission system that handles packets natively, transporting multimedia traffic efficiently and allowing operators to launch data services cost-effectively without impacting traditional voice service.

The Alcatel-Lucent 9500 MPR solves the potential problems due to the Circuit Emulation Services over packet networks, guaranteeing equivalent performances of traditional PDH radios for TDM streams. Alcatel-Lucent is the leader in IP transformation and the migration to fully packet-based mobile networks. 9500 MPR is the revolutionary wireless transmission solution that gives the operator the next-generation backhauling strategy needed to compete in the marketplace.