Measuring APS in a Network Application Note

Introduction
Automatic Protection Switching or APS is one of the most valuable features of SDH
networks. Networks with APS quickly react to failures, minimizing lost traffic, which
minimizes lost revenue to service providers. The network is said to be “self healing.” This
application note covers how to use Sunrise Telecom SDH analyzer to measure the amount
of time it takes for a network to complete an automatic protection switchover. This is
important since ITU-T G.841 require that a protection switchover occur within 50ms. To
understand the APS measurement, a brief review is first given. This is followed by an
explanation of the basis behind the APS measurement. The final section covers how to
operate your Sunrise Telecom SunSet SDH test set to make an APS time measurement.

This application note assumes that the reader has some basic SDH knowledge

What is APS?

Automatic protection switching keeps the network working even if a network element or
link fails. The Network Elements (NEs) in a SDH network constantly monitor the health of
the network. When a failure is detected by one or more network elements, the network
proceeds through a coordinated predefined sequence of steps to transfer (or switchover)
live traffic to the backup facility (also called “protection” facility.) This is done very
quickly to minimize lost traffic. Traffic remains on the protection facility until the primary
facility (also called “working” facility) fault is cleared, at which time the traffic reverts to
the working facility.

APS Architectures

Several Automatic Protection Switching architectures have been defined for SDH
networks. As an example, the most basic APS scheme called “linear 1+1” is shown in
Figure 1.
 Line Terminating Line Terminating
Equipment Equipment
working line

fault
detection

protection line
APS control

Head-end Tail-end
1+1 APS Architecture

Figure 1

At the head-end line terminating equipment, the same signal is sent on two different fibers.
To be effective, the protection line should take a different geographic path from the
working line. Circuitry in the tail-end line terminating equipment constantly monitors the
working line for a valid signal. Should the signal disappear or degrade below a specified
threshold, the APS control circuitry performs a switchover to the protection line. Since the
head-end equipment is not involved in the switchover, coordination between head-end and
tail-end is not needed. Network operators then go about the task of isolating,
troubleshooting, and repairing the working facility. In this protection scheme, the
protection line becomes the new working facility and the repaired working line becomes
the new protection facility. This is called “nonrevertive switching”.

While the 1+1 linear APS architecture is simple and a protection switchover is fast, it is
expensive and wasteful of fiber bandwidth. Two fibers are required, each taking a different
route. A more efficient protection scheme is to share the protection facility among several
working facilities, referred to as “1:n protection architecture” and shown in Figure 2.

Line Terminating Line Terminating

Equipment Equipment
working line 1

working line 2

.
.
.
working line n

fault fault
detection detection

APS control shared protection line APS control

Tail-end
Head-end
1:n APS Architecture

Figure 2
In a SDH or SDH network, the K1 and K2 line overhead bytes (also called the “APS
channel”) are used by the NEs to exchange request and acknowledgements for protection
switch actions. The protocol for the APS channel is summarized in Figure 3. The 16 bits
within the APS channel contain information on the APS configuration, detection of
network failure, APS commands, and revert commands. When a netwo rk failure is
detected, the Multiplexer Section Terminating Equipment NEs communicate and
coordinate the protection switchover by changing certain bits within the K1 & K2 bytes.

A1 A2 J0/Z0 J1 K1 K2
B1 E1 F1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
B3
D1 D2 D3 C2 Switch Action Channel # Provision/Alarms
Channel Req. Bridged 0xx = Future
H1 H2 H3 G1
100 = Unidir.
101 = Bidir.
F2 0000 = Null Channel 110 = RDI-L
B2 K1 K2 xxxx = Working Channel 111 = AIS-L
H4 1111 = Extra Traffic
D4 D5 D6
Provision
D7 D8 D9 Z3 0 = 1+1 or short ring
Switch Priority
0000 = No Request 1 = 1:n or long ring
D10 D11 D12 Z4

S1/Z1 M0, E2 Z5 1111 = Lockout of Protection

M1/Z2

APS Channel K1 & K2 Bytes

Figure 3

During the protection switchover, the network elements signal an APS by sending AIS
throughout the network. AIS is also present at the ADM drop points. The AIS condition
may come and go as the network elements progress through their algorithm to switch
traffic to the protect circuit.

As stated in the previous paragraph, AIS signals an APS event. But what causes the
network to initiate an automatic protection switchover? The three most common are:
Detection of AIS (AIS is used to both initiate and signal an APS event,) detection of
excessive B2 errors, and initiation through a network management terminal. According to
ITU-T G.841, a network element is required to detect AIS and initiate an APS within 10ms.
B2 errors should be detected according to a defined algorithm, and more than 10ms is
allowed. This means that the entire time for both failure detection and traffic restoration
may be 60ms or more (10ms or more detect time plus 50ms switch time.)
Deriving APS timing by measuring AIS

AIS will be present throughout the network during an APS switchover, so measuring the
duration of AIS is a valid means of deriving the time that a network requires to complete a
protection switchover. The type of AIS will vary depending on the location of the fault
relative to the test equipment, as shown in the table.

Relative location of fault and test AIS

equipment
Within the same SDH multiplexing section MS-AIS
Within the same SDH high order path AU-AIS
partition
Within the same low order path TU-AIS
Test equipment at a 45M drop 45M AIS
Test equipment at a 34M drop 34M AIS
Test equipment at a 2M drop 2M AIS

The above discussion applies whether the testing is done in-service or out-of-service.

Measuring APS in the SunSet SDH

Connect the test set to the location in the network that you are concerned about. For many
applications, this will be a drop point of an ADM. For other applications, it will be a
monitoring point within the ring. Examples of both are shown in Figure 4. You will also
need to decide whether to connect the test set in-service or out-of-service. For most
applications, traffic cannot be interrupted, so the testing will be done in-service. If a
network is being installed or a new service provisioned, then testing can be done out-of-
service. The test set will then generate a test pattern to simulate traffic.

For the SSSDH, the APS time can be measured in either or both directions inside a SDH
ring.
 2M
Point of Loopback
Sunrise Failure To initiate an
Telecom Sunrise APS, insert
ADM Telecom MS-AIS

MS-AIS
measured.

SDH 45M
ADM ADM
ring

protection circuit In-service test.

Sunrise 45M AIS
Telecom measured.
working circuit
ADM

Sunrise
Telecom VC-12 mapping
(2M payload)
SDH in-service
test. TU-AIS
measured.
Sunrise Out-of-service test.
Telecom 2M AIS measured.

APS time measurement locations

Figure 4

Operators then select three parameters to measure the APS time:

Sensor.
Switch time limit.
Gate Time.

Sensor
The Sensor is set to AIS. For an out-of-service test, make sure that pattern synchronization
is established before beginning the test. Your Sunrise Telecom test equipment
automatically selects the appropriate AIS flavor based on the test configuration, as shown
in the table below. If the payload is being tested within a higher rate, then APS is
measured by timing AIS at either the high rate or the payload rate.
Switch Time Limit
After the APS time is measured, a “PASS” or “FAIL” will be displayed along with the
measured time. The Switch time limit allows you to set criteria for the maximum APS time
allowed for the network to pass APS testing. In general, this value should be set to 50ms.

Gate Time
During an automatic protection switchover, AIS may come and go as the NEs progress
through their algorithm to switch traffic to the protection circuit. The Gate time allows
you to set a time limit on how long to wait. Gate time must be longer than Switch time
limit, but should not be so long that other network events are mistakenly combined with the
APS time measurement. Here is another way to think of Gate Time and Switch Time Limit :
(Gate Time) – (Switch Time Limit) = the minimum interval required for the circuit to be
AIS free. A good value for Gate Time is 100ms.

Starting the measurement

Once the three parameters are set, start the measurement. The SunSet test set is now armed
and waiting for an APS event to be detected. Initiate the APS using a network mana gement
terminal, inserting MS-AIS with Sunrise Telecom SSSDH, generating a burst of B2 erros,
or by breaking the working circuit. The APS time is measured and displayed.

Conclusion
Measuring APS is important to ensure that the SDH protection mechanism built into your
network is working properly. When a failure occurs, minimizing lost traffic through the
network will ensure happy end-customers. Use the APS measurement feature of your
Sunrise Telecom SSSDH analyzer to ensure that your network APS is configured and
operating properly.