Synchronization is the essential building block technology which enables real-time and high speed transmission for the 21 st Century Telecommunication networks.
Why synchronizing networks ?
New digital technologies and value-added time sensitive services like real-time Video on Demand, high speed Internet access, Videoconferencing, Bank to Bank crypted data exchange, multimedia applications, are based on reliable network architectures (Internet, GSM, DCS 1800, ATM, SDH, xDSL and many other network technologies).
All those architectures and services underlie one basic principle : networks must be synchronized.
Moreover, dramatic subscriber growth and consumer demand are driving Telecommunication operators to place emphasis on quality, reliability and breadth of services. Therefore it is imperative that they address the serious timing and solve synchronization problems that may degrade service quality.
When timing synchronization is off, quality issues range from distorted, unreadable faxes and corrupted or lost data to frozen images on videoconferencing systems, requiring retransmission (Table 1).
|
Service |
Consequences |
|
Voice Traffic (PSTN) |
Clicks can be heard during conversation |
|
Fax Transmission Group 3 |
Loss of part or all of transmitted lines |
|
Data Transfer on PSTN |
Data corruption |
|
Video Conferencing |
Loss of image(s). Image at receiver frozen |
|
Coded Data |
Loss of message (if coding key is lost) |
|
SS7 Networks |
Errored data |
|
SDH |
Pointer movements and faults at SDH/ PDH junction |
Table 1 : Loss of synchronization consequences on services |
This table clearly shows that the more services have a high value added, the more they require to be supported by a very reliable synchronization function.
|
