Metro Ethernet

SONET/SDH Concatenation

To transport tributary signals in excess of the basic STS-1/STM-1 signal rates, the SPEs/Virtual Containers can be concatenated—that is, glued together. In this case, their relationship with respect to each other is fixed in time, and they act as one bonded pipe.

Different types of concatenations are defined, including contiguous standard concatenation and virtual concatenation.

Contiguous Standard Concatenation

Contiguous standard SONET concatenation allows the concatenation of M STS-1 signals within an STS-N signal, with M <= N and M = 3, 12, 48, 192, 768, and so on in multiples of 4. The SPEs of these M STS-1s can be concatenated to form an STS-Mc. The STS-Mc notation is shorthand for describing an STS-M signal whose ...