352 Principles of Synchronous Digital Hierarchy
11.7.3.2.4 Cross Connect
For carrying the end-to-end trafc in the tributaries of level E1, E3, Ethernet,
or STM-1s, the intermediate NEs need to just pass on the trafc from the
receiver of one direction to the transmitter of another direction. This job is
performed by “cross connecting” the required time slots. The tributaries for
this purpose are called “time slots.” There are 63 E1 time slots in an STM-1.
Each of these time slots in the receiver of an NE can be mapped to any of
the similar time slots in the transmitter of other directions. They can also
be mapped to different directions in case of a multidirectional NE. All these
cross connects can be made through the use of menu drive