SONET (Synchronous Optical Network)
SONET (known outside the US as synchronous digital hierarchy or SDH) is a network technology built around dual fiber-optic rings. If one ring fails, the network is designed to immediately switch traffic to the other ring.
At its core, SONET uses time-division multiplexing to move data at speeds of up to 2.488G bit/sec.
SONET provides is a sophisticated framing structure for operations, administration and maintenance within the network.
This framing structure defines for service providers a sophisticated mechanism for multiplexing multiple slower data streams. These slower streams may be other SONET streams, DS3s, DS1s, or even 64K bit/sec DS0s. Even more importantly, the SONET/SDH layer provides very valuable management hooks for maintenance and performance monitoring on transmission facilities. These hooks, while transparent to the user, are most valuable in providing a high level of service.
Additional resources
What is SONET?
More detailed overview from Tektronix.
Can we ditch SONET?
No. Network World Convergence Newsletter, 03/21/01.
Network and Services Integration ForumVendor group dealing with the integration of SONET with other technologies.
Topic: Optical
Latest optical news and analysis from Network World Fusion.
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