One document matched: draft-ietf-pppext-sdl-pol-00.txt



                    PPP over Simple Data Link (SDL)
           using raw lightwave channels with ATM-like framing
                   <draft-ietf-pppext-sdl-pol-00.txt>

Status of this Memo

   This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with
   all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups.  Note that
   other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-
   Drafts.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet- Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   To view the list Internet-Draft Shadow Directories, see
   http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html.

   This document is the product of the Point-to-Point Protocol
   Extensions Working Group of the Internet Engineering Task Force
   (IETF).  Comments should be submitted to the ietf-ppp@merit.edu
   mailing list.

   Distribution of this memo is unlimited.












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Abstract

   The Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) in RFC-1661 [1] provides a standard
   method for  transporting multi-protocol datagrams over point-to-point
   links, and RFCs 1662 [2] and 1619 [3] provide a means to carry PPP
   over Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) [5] and Synchronous Digital
   Hierarchy (SDH) [6] circuits. PPP over Simple Data Link (SDL) using
   SONET/SDH with ATM-like framing (PPPEXT WG work in Progress) extended
   these standards to include a new encapsulation for PPP called Simple
   Data Link (SDL) [8]. This document extends the use of SDL over raw
   lightwave channels  without an intervening SONET/SDH layer, which are
   also referred to as "dark fiber" or Packet-over-Lightwave" (POL)
   links,

   This document is the product of the Point-to-Point Protocol Working
   Group of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).  Comments should
   be submitted to the ietf-ppp@merit.edu mailing list.

Applicability

   This specification is intended for those implementations which desire
   to use PPP encapsulation over high speed point-to-point circuits with
   the so-called "dark fiber" or raw lightwave channels. This enhanced
   framing mechanisms for PPP encapsulation method has very low
   overhead, good hardware scaling properties and is resilient to
   payload expansion.  It is anticipated that significantly higher
   throughput can be attained with SDL when compared to other transport
   and encapsulation mechanisms for high-speed packet data over
   lightwave channels, and at a significantly lower cost for line
   termination equipment.

   SDL is defined over other media types and for other data link
   protocols, but this specification covers only the use of PPP over SDL
   raw lightwave channels. Systems requiring typical public network
   functions such as transmission quality assessment, protection
   switching/restoration, and OAM&P at the transmission level will may
   require either an additional transmission layer (e.g., SONET/SDH or
   OTN [7]) with or equivalent OAM&P functionality not defined in this
   document.

   The use of SDL requires the presentation of packet length information
   in the SDL header.  Thus, hardware implementing SDL must have access
   to the packet length when generating the header, and where a router's
   input link does not readily have this information (that is, for non-
   SDL input links), the router may be required to buffer the entire
   packet before transmission.  "Worm-hole" routing is thus at least
   problematic with SDL, unless the input links are also SDL.  This,
   however, does not appear to be a great disadvantage on modern routers



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   due to the  general requirement of length information in other parts
   of the system, notably in queueing and congestion control strategies
   such as Weighted Fair Queuing [12] and Random Early Detection [13].
















































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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction ...............................................    5
   2.  Physical Layer Requirements ................................    6
   2.1.  Payload Types ............................................    6
   2.2.  Control Signals ..........................................    6
   2.3.  Synchronization Modes ....................................    6
   2.4.  Framing ..................................................    6
   2.5.  Synchronization Procedure ................................    9
   2.6.  Scrambler Operation ......................................    9
   2.7.  CRC Generation ...........................................   10
   2.8.  Error Correction .........................................   10
   3.  Performance Analysis .......................................   11
   3.1.  Mean Time To Frame (MTTF) ................................   12
   3.2.  Mean Time To Synchronization (MTTS) ......................   13
   3.3.  Probability of False Frame (PFF) .........................   13
   3.4.  Probability of False Synchronization (PFS) ...............   13
   3.5.  Probability of Loss of Frame (PLF) .......................   14
   4.  The Special Messages .......................................   14
   4.1.  Scrambler State ..........................................   14
   4.2.  A/B Message ..............................................   14
   5.  The Set-Reset Scrambler Option .............................   14
   5.1.  The Killer Packet Problem ................................   15
   5.2.  SDL Set-Reset Scrambler ..................................   15
   5.3.  SDL Scrambler Synchronization ............................   15
   5.4.  SDL Scrambler Operation ..................................   16
   6.  Configuration Details ......................................   18
   Appendix A:  CRC Generation ....................................   19
   Appendix B:  Error Correction Tables ...........................   21
   7.  Security Considerations ....................................   23
   8.  References .................................................   23
   9.  Acknowledgments ............................................   24
   10.  Intellectual Properties Considerations ....................   24
   11.  Authors' Addresses ........................................   25

















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1.  Introduction

   The term packet-over-lightwave (POL) has been used to refer to the
   capability of transmitting packet data directly over a raw lightwave
   channel, also referred to as "dark fiber", without an intervening
   SONET/SDH or optical transport network (OTN) layer. POL solutions are
   attractive in data networking scenarios were neither multi-
   segment/multi-path transport nor the OAM&P capabilities of optical
   transport networking or SONET/SDH is required. SDL on POL does not
   rely on SONET/SDH or OTN overheads to enable networking features such
   as transmission quality assessment, protection switching/restoration,
   and OAM&P.  Performance assessment, switching and OAM&P capabilities
   for SDL on POL are not defined in this document

   This document describes a method to enable the use of SDL framing for
   PPP over such raw lightwave channels and describes the framing and
   encapsulation  requirements for PPP.. The protocol stack is illus-
   trated in Figure 1.  While bit-synchronous HDLC-like framing has a
   worst-case octet overhead of 20% for some specific data patterns, SDL
   uses no payload encoding, and hence, has zero payload overhead.

           +--------------------------+
           |                          |
           |   Higher-layer Protocol  |
           |                          |
           +--------------------------+
           |                          |
           |           PPP            |
           |                          |
           +--------------------------+
           |                          |
           |           SDL            |
           |                          |
           +--------------------------+
           |                          |
           |  Raw Lightwave Channel   |
           |                          |
           +--------------------------+

   Figure 1: Protocol stack for PPP over SDL over a raw lightwave channel.











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2.  Physical Layer Requirements

   The transport mode for SDL on POL is packet-oriented. The raw
   lightwave links are intrinsically bit-synchronous even though PPP
   treats the lower transport layer as a full-duplex octet-oriented syn-
   chronous interface. No provision is made to support sending or
   receiving bare octets over lightwaves (as is the case with
   SONET/SDH).


2.1.  Payload Types

   Only bit-synchronous payloads at STS-1 and higher line rates are
   currently considered in this document.  Operations at lower bit rates
   is feasible but not considered at present. Mappings of plesiochronous
   payloads, such as T1 and T3, on to SDL are not considered in this
   document.


2.2.  Control Signals

   A prior-arrangement method is required to enable SDL framing for POL.
   No LCP-negotiated method is currently proposed. LCP may be used to
   negotiated other PPP-related parameters (see sections 2.4 and 6).



2.3.  Synchronization Modes

   Unlike non-SDL O-S encapsulations, SDL provides a positive indication
   that it has achieved synchronization with the peer.  An SDL PPP
   implementation MUST provide a means to temporarily suspend PPP data
   transmission (both user data and negotiation traffic) if synchroniza-
   tion loss is detected.  An SDL PPP implementation SHOULD also provide
   a configurable timer that is started when SDL is initialized and res-
   tarted on the loss of synchronization, and is terminated when link
   synchronization is achieved.  If this timer expires, implementation-
   dependent action should be taken to report the hardware failure.


2.4.  Framing

   PPP over SDL over raw lightwave channels uses the same data link
   frame format as for PPP over SDL over SONET/SDH [4]. When SDL framing
   for PPP is employed, the SDL "Datagram Offset" is fixed at 4, and the
   "A" and "B" messages are not used. Additional information on these
   optional features of SDL can be found in  Lucent's SDL specification
   [8].



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   Fixing the Datagram Offset to 4 allows a PPP MRU/MTU of 65536 using
   SDL.

   SDL framing is in general accomplished by the use of a four octet
   header on the packet.  This fixed-length header allows the use of a
   simple framer to detect synchronization as described in section 2.6.
   For use with PPP, this header precedes each raw PPP packet as fol-
   lows:

    0                   1                   2                   3
    0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |         Packet Length         |          Header CRC           |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |     PPP packet (beginning with address and control fields)    |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                             .....                             |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                           Packet CRC                          |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   The four octet length header is DC balanced by exclusive-OR (also
   known as "modulo 2 addition") with the hex value B6AB31E0.  This is
   the maximum transition, minimum sidelobe, Barker-like sequence of
   length 32.  No other scrambling is done on the header itself.

   Packet Length is an unsigned 16 bit number in network byte order.
   Unlike the standard PPP FCS, the Header CRC is a CRC-16 generated
   with initial value zero and transmitted in standard network byte
   order.  The PPP packet is scrambled, and begins with the standard
   address and control fields, and may be any integral octet length
   (i.e., it is not padded unless the Self Describing Padding option is
   used).  The Packet CRC is also scrambled, and has a mode-dependent
   length (described below), and is located only on an octet boundary;
   no alignment of this field may be assumed.

   When the Packet Length value is 4 or greater, the distance in octets
   between one message header and the next in SDL is the sum of Packet
   Length field, Datagram Offset value, and the fixed size of the Packet
   CRC field.  The Datagram Offset is a configurable SDL parameter,
   which is set to the fixed value 4 for PPP.  When the Packet Length is
   0, the distance to the next header is 4 octets.  This is the idle
   fill header.  When the Packet Length is 1 to 3, the distance to the
   next header is 12 octets.  These headers are used for special SDL
   messages used only with optional scrambling and management modes.
   See section 5 for details of the messages.

   General SDL, like PPP, allows the use of no CRC, ITU-T CRC-16, or



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   ITU-T CRC-32 for the packet data.  However, because the Packet Length
   field does not include the CRC length, synchronization cannot be
   maintained if the CRC type is changed per RFC 1570, because frame-
   to-frame distance is, as described above, calculated including the
   CRC length. Although synchronization can be regained by readjusting
   the receiver's frame-to-frame distance after a CRC negotiation, this
   PPP over SDL specification fixes the CRC type to CRC-32 (four
   octets), and all SDL implementations MUST reject any LCP FCS Alterna-
   tives Option [9] requested by the peer when in SDL mode.

   PPP over SDL implementations MAY allow a configuration option to set
   different CRC types for use by prior arrangement.  Any such configur-
   able option MUST default to CRC-32, and MUST NOT be include LCP nego-
   tiation of FCS Alternatives.

   With the SDL Datagram Offset set to 4, the value placed in the Packet
   Length field is exactly the length in octets of the PPP frame itself,
   including the address and control fields but not including the FCS
   field.

   Because Packet Lengths below 4 are reserved, the Packet Length MUST
   be 4 or greater for any legal PPP packet.  PPP packets with fewer
   octets, which are not possible without address/control or protocol
   field compression, MUST be padded to length 4 for SDL.

   Inter-packet time fill is accomplished by sending the four octet
   length header with the Packet Length set to zero.  No provision is
   made for intra-packet time fill.

   By default, an independent, self-synchronous x^43+1 scrambler is used
   on the data portion of the message including the 32 bit CRC.  This is
   done in exactly the same manner as with the ATM x^43+1 scrambler on a
   SONET/SDH link.  The scrambler is not clocked when SDL header bits
   are transmitted.  Thus, the data scrambling can be implemented in an
   entirely independent manner from the SDL framing.

   Optionally, by prior arrangement, SDL links MAY use a set-reset
   scrambler as described in section 2.9.  If this option is provided,
   it MUST be configurable by the administrator, and the option MUST
   default to the self-synchronous scrambler.

   Once the link enters SYNCH state, the SDL header single bit error
   correction logic is enabled (see section 2.9).  Any unrecoverable
   header CRC error returns the link to HUNT state, disables PPP
   transmission, and disables the error correction logic.






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2.5.  Synchronization Procedure

   The link synchronization procedure is similar to the I.432 section
   4.5.1.1 ATM HEC delineation procedure [10], except that the SDL mes-
   sages are variable length.  The machine starts in HUNT state until a
   four octet sequence in the data stream with a valid CRC-16 is found.
   (Note that the CRC-16 single-bit error correction technique described
   in section 2.9 is not employed until the machine is in in SYNCH
   state.  The header must have no bit errors in order to leave HUNT
   state.)  Such a valid sequence is a candidate SDL header.  On finding
   the valid sequence, the machine enters PRESYNCH state.  Any one
   invalid SDL header in PRESYNCH state returns the link to HUNT state.

   If a second valid SDL header is seen after entering PRESYNCH state,
   then the link enters SYNCH state and PPP transmission is enabled.  If
   an invalid SDL header is detected, then the link is returned to HUNT
   state without enabling PPP transmission.


2.6.  Scrambler Operation

   The transmit and receive scramblers are shift registers with 43
   stages that MAY be initialized to all-ones when the link is initial-
   ized.  Synchronization is maintained by the data itself.

               Transmit                            Receive

    DATA-STREAM (FROM PPP)             IN (FROM SDL FRAMER)
    |                                  |
    v                                  |
    XOR<-------------------------+     +->D0-+->D1-> ... ->D41->D42-+
    |                            |     |                            |
    +->D0-+->D1-> ... ->D41->D42-+     XOR<-------------------------+
    |                                  |
    v                                  v
    OUT (TO SDL FRAMER)                DATA-STREAM (TO PPP)

   Each XOR is an exclusive-or gate; also known as a modulo-2 adder.
   Each Dn block is a D-type flip-flop clocked on the appropriate data
   clock.

   The scrambler is clocked once after transmission or reception of each
   bit of payload and before the next bit is applied as input.  Bits
   within an octet are, per SONET/SDH standard practice, transmitted and
   received MSB-first.






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2.7.  CRC Generation

   The CRC-16 and CRC-32 generator polynomials used by SDL are the ITU-T
   standard polynomials [11].  These are:

     x^16+x^12+x^5+1

     x^32+x^26+x^23+x^22+x^16+x^12+x^11+x^10+x^8+x^7+x^5+x^4+x^2+x+1

   The SDL Header CRC and the CRC-16 used for each of the three special
   messages (scrambler state, message A, and message B; see section 5)
   are all generated using an initial remainder value of 0000 hex.

   The optional CRC-16 on the payload data (this mode is not used with
   PPP over SDL except by prior arrangement) uses the standard initial
   remainder value of FFFF hex for calculation and the bits are comple-
   mented before transmission.  The final CRC remainder, however, is
   transmitted in network byte order, unlike the regular PPP FCS.  If
   the CRC-16 algorithm is run over all of the octets including the
   appended CRC itself, then the remainder value on intact packets will
   always be E2F0 hex.  Alternatively, an implementation may stop CRC
   calculation before processing the appended CRC itself, and do a
   direct comparison.

   The standard CRC-32 on the payload data (used for standard PPP over
   SDL) uses the initial remainder value of FFFFFFFF hex for calculation
   and the bits are complemented before transmission.  The CRC, however,
   is transmitted in network byte order, most significant bit first,
   unlike the optional PPP 32 bit FCS, which is transmitted in reverse
   order.  The remainder value on intact packets when the appended CRC
   value is included in the calculation is 38FB2284.

   C code to generate these CRCs is found in Appendix A.


2.8.  Error Correction

   The error correction technique is based on the use of a Galois number
   field, as with the ATM HEC correction.  In a Galois number field,
   f(a+b) = f(a) + f(b).  Since the CRC-16 used for SDL forms such a
   field, we can state that CRC(message+error) = CRC(message) +
   CRC(error).  Since the CRC-16 remainder of a properly formed message
   is always zero, this means that, for the N distinct "error" strings
   corresponding to a single bit error, there are N distinct CRC(error)
   values, where N is the number of bits in the message.

   A table look-up is thus applied to the CRC-16 residue after calcula-
   tion over the four octet SDL header to correct bit errors in the



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   header and to detect multiple bit errors.  For the optional set-reset
   scrambler, a table look-up is similarly applied to the CRC-16 residue
   after calculation over the eight octet scrambler state message to
   correct bit errors and to detect multiple bit errors.  (This second
   correction is also used for the special SDL A and B messages, which
   are not used for standard PPP over SDL.)

   Note:  No error correction is performed for the payload.

   Note:  This error correction technique is used only when the link has
   entered SYNCH state.  While in HUNT or PRESYNCH state, error correc-
   tion should not be performed, and only messages with syndrome 0000
   are accepted. If the calculated syndrome does not appear in this
   table, then an unrecoverable error has occurred.  Any such error in
   the SDL header will return the link to HUNT state.

   Since the CRC calculation is started with zero, the two tables can be
   merged.  The four octet table is merely the last 32 entries of the
   eight octet table.

   Eight octet (64 bit) single bit error syndrome table (in hex):

     FD81 F6D0 7B68 3DB4 1EDA 0F6D 8FA6 47D3
     ABF9 DDEC 6EF6 377B 93AD C1C6 60E3 B861
     D420 6A10 3508 1A84 0D42 06A1 8B40 45A0
     22D0 1168 08B4 045A 022D 8906 4483 AA51
     DD38 6E9C 374E 1BA7 85C3 CAF1 ED68 76B4
     3B5A 1DAD 86C6 4363 A9A1 DCC0 6E60 3730
     1B98 0DCC 06E6 0373 89A9 CCC4 6662 3331
     9188 48C4 2462 1231 8108 4084 2042 1021

   Thus, if the syndrome 6EF6 is seen on an eight octet message, then
   the third bit (hex 20) of the second octet is in error.  Similarly,
   if 48C4 is seen on an eight octet message, then the second bit (hex
   40) in the eighth octet is in error.  For a four octet message, the
   same two syndromes would indicate a multiple bit error for 6EF6, and
   a single bit error in the second bit of the fourth octet for 48C4.

   Note that eight octet messages are used only for the optional set-
   reset scrambling mode, described in section 6.

   Corresponding C code to generate this table is found in Appendix B.


3.  Performance Analysis

   There are five general statistics that are important for framing
   algorithms.  These are:



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     MTTF   Mean time to frame
     MTTS   Mean time to synchronization
     PFF    Probability of false frame
     PFS    Probability of false synchronization
     PLF    Probability of loss of frame

   The following sections summarize each of these statistics for SDL.
   Details and mathematic development can be found in the Lucent SDL
   documentation [8].


3.1.  Mean Time To Frame (MTTF)

   This metric measures the amount of time required to establish correct
   framing in the input data.  This may be measured in any convenient
   units, such as seconds or bytes.  For SDL, the relevant measurement
   is in packets, since fragments of packets are not useful.

   In order to calculate MTTF, we must first determine how often the
   frame detection state machine is "unavailable" because it failed to
   detect the next incoming SDL frame within the user data.

   Since the probability of a false header detection using CRC-16 in
   random data is 2^-16 and this rate is large compared to the allowable
   packet size, it is worthwhile to run multiple parallel frame-
   detection state machines.  Each machine starts with a different can-
   didate framing point in order to reduce the probability of falsely
   detecting user data as a valid frame header.

   The results for this calculation for 64KB, 8KB and 384B packets are:

     Number of  Unavailability  Unavailability  Unavailability
      Framers     64Kb Packets     8KB packets   384 byte pkts
         1         8.75E-1         3.68E-1         2.31E-2
         2         7.50E-1         1.04E-1         3.57E-4
         3         6.27E-1         2.32E-2         4.17E-6
         4         5.08E-1         4.35E-3         3.89E-8

   Using these values, MTTF can be calculated as a function of the Bit
   Error Rate (BER).  These plots show a characteristically flat region
   for all BERs up to a knee, beyond which the begins to rise sharply.
   In all cases, this knee point has been found to occur at a BER of
   approximately 1E-4, which is several orders of magnitude above that
   observed on existing SONET/SDH links.  The flat rate values are sum-
   marized as:

     Number of  Flat Region   Flat region   Flat region
      Framers   64KB Packets  8KB packets   384B packets



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         1         8.50          2.08          1.52
         2         4.57          1.62          1.50
         3         3.18          1.52          1.50
         4         2.53          1.50          1.50

   Thus, for common packet sizes in an implementation with two parallel
   framers using links with a BER of 1E-4 or better, the MTTF is approx-
   imately 1.5 packets.  This is also the optimal time, since it
   represents initiating framing at an average point half-way into one
   packet, and achieving good framing after seeing exactly one correctly
   framed packet.

   Note that the numbers in both tables apply only after the link loses
   synchronization, which is by itself a very rare event as per the
   estimate PLF in seccion 3.5.


3.2.  Mean Time To Synchronization (MTTS)

   The MTTS for standard SDL with a self-synchronous scrambler is the
   same as the MTTF, or 1.5 packets.

   The MTTS for SDL using the optional set-reset scrambler is one half
   of the scrambling state transmission interval (in packets) plus the
   MTTF.  For insertion at the default rate of one per eight packets,
   the MTTS is 5.5 packets.

   (The probability of receiving a bad scrambling state transmission
   should also be included in this calculation.  The probability of ran-
   dom corruption of this short message is shown in the SDL document [8]
   to be small enough that it can be neglected for this calculation.)


3.3.  Probability of False Frame (PFF)

   The PFF is 232.8E-12 (2^-32), since false framing requires two con-
   secutive headers with falsely correct CRC-16.


3.4.  Probability of False Synchronization (PFS)

   The PFS for the standard self-synchronous scrambler is the same as
   the PFF, or 232.8E-21 (2^-32).

   The PFS for the set-reset scrambler is 54.21E-21 (2^-64), and is cal-
   culated as the PFF above multiplied by the probability of a falsely
   detected scrambler state message, which itself contains two indepen-
   dent CRC-16 calculations.



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3.5.  Probability of Loss of Frame (PLF)

   The PLF is a function of the BER, and for SDL is approximately the
   square of the BER multiplied by 500, which is the probability of two
   or more bit errors occurring within the 32 bit SDL header. Thus, at a
   BER of 1E-5, the PLF is 5E-8. For the typical fiber BER, between 1E-
   10 to 1E-12, frame delineation loss would occur less than once every
   year, on the average, even at OC-768 rates.


4.  The Special Messages

   When the SDL Packet Length field has any value between 0000 and 0003,
   the message following the header has a special, pre-defined length.
   The 0 value is a time-fill on an idle link, and no other data fol-
   lows.  The next octet on the link is the first octet of the next SDL
   header.

   The values 1 through 3 are defined in the following subsections.
   These special messages each consist of a six octet data portion fol-
   lowed by another CRC-16 over that data portion, as with the SDL
   header, and this CRC is used for single bit error correction.


4.1.  Scrambler State

   The special value of 1 for Packet Length is reserved to transfer the
   scrambler state from the transmitter to the receiver for the optional
   set-reset scrambler.  In this case, the SDL header is followed by six
   octets (48 bits) of scrambler state.  Neither the scrambler state nor
   the CRC are scrambled.


4.2.  A/B Message

   The special values of 2 and 3 for Packet Length are reserved for "A"
   and "B" messages, which are also six octets in length followed by two
   octets of CRC-16.  Each of these eight octets are scrambled.  No use
   for these messages with PPP SDL is defined.  These messages are
   reserved for use by link maintenance protocols, in a manner analogous
   to ATM's OAM cells.


5.  The Set-Reset Scrambler Option

   Standard PPP over SDL uses a self-synchronous scrambler.  SDL imple-
   mentations MAY also employ a set-reset scrambler to avoid some of the
   possible inherent problems with self-synchronous scramblers.



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5.1.  The Killer Packet Problem

   Scrambling in general solves two problems.  First, most line inter-
   faces (e.g., SONET/SDH) require a minimum density of bit transitions
   in order to maintain hardware clock recovery.  Since data streams
   frequently contain long runs of all zeros or all ones, scrambling the
   bits using a pseudo-random number sequence breaks up these patters.
   Second, all link-layer synchronization mechanisms rely on detecting
   long-range patterns in the received data to detect framing.

   Self-synchronous scramblers are an easy way to partially avoid these
   problems.  One problem that is inherent with self-synchronous, how-
   ever, is that long user packets from malicious sites can make use of
   the known properties of these scramblers to inject either long
   strings of zeros or other synchronization-destroying patterns into
   the link.

   Such carefully constructed packets are called "killer packets."


5.2.  SDL Set-Reset Scrambler

   An alternative to the self-synchronous scrambler is the externally
   synchronized or "set-reset" scrambler.  This is a free-running scram-
   bler that is not affected by the patterns in the user data, and
   therefore minimizes the possibility that a malicious user could
   present data to the network that mimics an undesirable data pattern.

   The option set-reset scrambler defined for SDL is an
   x^48+x^28+x^27+x+1 independent scrambler initialized to all ones when
   the link enters PRESYNCH state and reinitialized if the value ever
   becomes all zero bits.  As with the self-synchronous scrambler, all
   octets in the PPP packet data following the SDL header through the
   final packet CRC are scrambled.


5.3.  SDL Scrambler Synchronization

   As described in the previous section, the special value of 1 for
   Packet Length is reserved to transfer the scrambler state from the
   transmitter to the receiver.  In this case, the SDL header is fol-
   lowed by six octets (48 bits) of scrambler state plus two octets of
   CRC-16 over the scrambler state.  None of these eight octets are
   scrambled.

   SDL synchronization consists of two components, link and scrambler
   synchronization.  Both must be completed before PPP data flows on the
   link.



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   If a valid SDL header is seen in PRESYNCH state, then the link enters
   SYNCH state, and the scrambler synchronization sequence is started.
   If an invalid SDL header is detected, then the link is returned to
   HUNT state, and PPP transmission is suspended.

   When scrambler synchronization is started, a scrambler state message
   is sent (Packet Length set to 1 and six octets of scrambler state in
   network byte order follow the SDL header).  This message is sent
   once.  At this point, PPP transmission is enabled.

   Scrambler state messages are periodically transmitted to keep the
   peers in synchronization.  A period of once per eight transmitted
   packets is suggested, and it SHOULD be configurable.  Excessive
   packet CRC errors detected indicates an extended loss of synchroniza-
   tion and should trigger link resynchronization.

   On reception of a scrambler state message, an SDL implementation MUST
   compare the received 48 bits of state with the receiver's scrambler
   state.  If any of these bits differ, then a synchronization slip
   error is declared.  After such an error, the next valid scrambler
   state message received MUST be loaded into the receiver's scrambler,
   and the error condition is then cleared.


5.4.  SDL Scrambler Operation

   The transmit and receive scramblers are shift registers with 48
   stages that are initialized to all-ones when the link is initialized.
   Each is refilled with all one bits if the value in the shift register
   ever becomes all zeros.  This scrambler is not reset at the beginning
   of each frame, as is the SONET/SDH X^7+X^6+1 scrambler, nor is it
   modified by the transmitted data, as is the ATM self-synchronous
   scrambler.  Instead it is kept in synchronization using special SDL
   messages.

    +----XOR<--------------XOR<---XOR<----------------+
    |     ^                 ^      ^                  |
    |     |                 |      |                  |
    +->D0-+->D1-> ... ->D26-+->D27-+->D28-> ... ->D47-+
    |
    v
    OUT

   Each XOR is an exclusive-or gate; also known as a modulo-2 adder.
   Each Dn block is a D-type flip-flop clocked on the appropriate data
   clock.

   The scrambler is clocked once after transmission of each bit of SDL



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   data, whether or not the transmitted bit is scrambled.  When scram-
   bling is enabled for a given octet, the OUT bit is exclusive-ored
   with the raw data bit to produce the transmitted bit.  Bits within an
   octet are transmitted MSB-first.

   Reception of scrambled data is identical to transmission.  Each
   received bit is exclusive-ored with the output of the separate
   receive data scrambler.

   To generate a scrambler state message, the contents of D47 through D0
   are snapshot at the point where the first scrambler state bit is
   sent.  D47 is transmitted as the first bit of the output.  The first
   octet transmitted contains D47 through D40, the second octet D39
   through D32, and the sixth octet D7 through D0.

   The receiver of a scrambler state message MUST first run the CRC-16
   check and correct algorithm over this message.  If the CRC-16 message
   check detects multiple bit errors, then the message is dropped and is
   not processed further.

   Otherwise, it then should compare the contents of the entire receive
   scrambler state D47:D0 with the corrected message.  (By pipelining
   the receiver with multiple clock stages between SDL Header error-
   correction block and the descrambling block, the receive descrambler
   will be on the correct clock boundary when the message arrives at the
   descrambler.  This means that the decoded scrambler state can be
   treated as immediately available at the beginning of the D47 clock
   cycle into the receive scrambler.)

   If any of the received scrambler state bits is different from the
   corresponding shift register bit, then a soft error flag is set.  If
   the flag was already set when this occurs, then a synchronization
   slip error is declared.  This error SHOULD be counted and reported
   through implementation-defined network management procedures.  When
   the receiver has this soft error flag set, any scrambler state mes-
   sage that passes the CRC-16 message check without multiple bit errors
   is clocked directly into the receiver's state register after the com-
   parison is done, and the soft error flag is then cleared.  Otherwise,
   while uncorrectable scrambler state messages are received, the soft
   error flag state is maintained.

   (The intent of this mechanism is to reduce the likelihood that a
   falsely corrected scrambler state message with multiple bit errors
   can corrupt the running scrambler state.)







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6.  Configuration Details

   The following PPP Configuration Options are recommended:

      Magic Number
      No Address and Control Field Compression
      No Protocol Field Compression
      No FCS alternatives (32-bit FCS default)

   This configuration means that standard PPP over SDL on POL generally
   presents a 32-bit aligned datagram to the network layer.  With the
   address, control, and protocol field intact, the PPP overhead on each
   packet is four octets.  If the SDL framer presents the SDL packet
   header to the PPP input handling in order to communicate the packet
   length , this header is also four octets, and word-alignment is
   preserved.

   Since SDL does take the place of HDLC as a transport for PPP, it is
   at least tempting to remove the HDLC-derived overhead.  This is not
   done for standard PPP over SDL in order to preserve the message
   alignment and the future possibility of Frame Relay internetworking.

   By prior external arrangement, any two SDL implementations MAY omit
   the address and control fields or implement protocol field compres-
   sion.  Such use is not standardized and MUST NOT be the default on
   any SDL implementation.

























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Appendix A:  CRC Generation

   The following unoptimized code generates proper CRC-16 and CRC-32
   values for SDL messages.  Note that the polynomial bits are numbered
   in big-endian order for SDL CRCs; bit 0 is the MSB.

     typedef unsigned char u8;
     typedef unsigned short u16;
     typedef unsigned long u32;

     #define POLY16  0x1021
     #define POLY32  0x04C11DB7

     u16
     crc16(u16 crcval, u8 cval)
     {
         int i;

         crcval ^= cval << 8;
         for (i = 8; i--; )
             crcval = crcval & 0x8000 ? (crcval << 1) ^ POLY16 :
                 crcval << 1;
         return crcval;
     }

     u32
     crc32(u32 crcval, u8 cval)
     {
         int i;

         crcval ^= cval << 24;
         for (i = 8; i--; )
             crcval = crcval & 0x80000000 ? (crcval << 1) ^ POLY32 :
                 crcval << 1;
         return crcval;
     }

     u16
     crc16_special(u8 *buffer, int len)
     {
         u16 crc;

         crc = 0;
         while (--len >= 0)
             crc = crc16(crc,*buffer++);
         return crc;
     }




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     u16
     crc16_payload(u8 *buffer, int len)
     {
         u16 crc;

         crc = 0xFFFF;
         while (--len >= 0)
             crc = crc16(crc,*buffer++);
         return crc ^ 0xFFFF;
     }

     u32
     crc32_payload(u8 *buffer, int len)
     {
         u32 crc;

         crc = 0xFFFFFFFFul;
         while (--len >= 0)
             crc = crc32(crc,*buffer++);
         return crc ^ 0xFFFFFFFFul;
     }

     void
     make_sdl_header(int packet_length, u8 *buffer)
     {
         u16 crc;

         buffer[0] = (packet_length >> 8) & 0xFF;
         buffer[1] = packet_length & 0xFF;
         crc = crc16_special(buffer,2);
         buffer[0] ^= 0xB6;
         buffer[1] ^= 0xAB;
         buffer[2] = ((crc >> 8) & 0xFF) ^ 0x31;
         buffer[3] = (crc & 0xFF) ^ 0xE0;
     }
















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Appendix B:  Error Correction Tables

   To generate the error correction table, the following implementation
   may be used.  It creates a table called sdl_error_position, which is
   indexed on CRC residue value.  The tables can be used to determine if
   no error exists (table entry is equal to FE hex), one correctable
   error exists (table entry is zero-based index to errored bit with MSB
   of first octet being 0), or more than one error exists, and error is
   uncorrectable (table entry is FF hex).  To use for eight octet mes-
   sages, the bit index from this table is used directly.  To use for
   four octet messages, the index is treated as an unrecoverable error
   if it is below 32, and as bit index plus 32 if it is above 32.

   The program also prints out the error syndrome table shown in section
   2.9.  This may be used as part of a "switch" statement in a hardware
   implementation.

       u8 sdl_error_position[65536];

       /* Calculate new CRC from old^(byte<<8) */
       u16
       crc16_t8(u16 crcval)
       {
           u16 f1,f2,f3;

           f1 = (crcval>>8) | (crcval<<8);
           f2 = (crcval>>12) | (crcval&0xF000) | ((crcval>>7)&0x01E0);
           f3 = ((crcval>>3) & 0x1FE0) ^ ((crcval<<4) & 0xF000);
           return f1^f2^f3;
       }

       void
       generate_error_table(u8 *bptab, int nbytes)
       {
           u16 crc;
           int i, j, k;

           /* Marker for no error */
           bptab[0] = 0xFE;

           /* Marker for >1 error */
           for (i = 1; i < 65536; i++ )
               bptab[i] = 0xFF;

           /* Mark all single bit error cases. */
           printf("Error syndrome table:\n");
           for (i = 0; i < nbytes; i++) {
               putchar(' ');



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               for (j = 0; j < 8; j++) {
                   crc = 0;
                   for (k = 0; k < i; k++)
                         crc = crc16_t8(crc);
                   crc = crc16_t8(crc ^ (0x8000>>j));
                   for (k++; k < nbytes; k++)
                         crc = crc16_t8(crc);
                   bptab[crc] = (i * 8) + j;
                   printf(" %04X",crc);
               }
               putchar('\n');
           }
       }

       int
       main(int argc, char **argv)
       {
           u8 buffer[8] = {
               0x01,0x55,0x02,0xaa,
               0x99,0x72,0x18,0x56
           };
           u16 crc;
           int i;

           generate_error_table(sdl_error_position,8);

           /* Run sample message through check routine. */
           crc = 0;
           for (i = 0; i < 8; i++)
               crc = crc16_t8(crc ^ (buffer[i]<<8));

           /* Output is 0000 64 -- no error encountered. */
           printf("\nError test:  CRC %04X, bit position %d\n",
             crc,sdl_message_error_position[crc]);
       }
















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7.  Security Considerations

   The reliability of communication networks places special requirements
   in the handling of data payloads as appropriate to the specific line
   encoding schemes. This document describes framing and scrambling
   options for SDL over raw lightwave channels that enable the use of
   current typical design (non burst mode) optical transceiver and tim-
   ing subsystem. In particular, this proposal is compatible with DWDM
   regenerator networks. No other security concerns have been identi-
   fied.


8.  References

      [1]   Simpson, W., Editor, "The Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP)," RFC
            1661, Daydreamer, July 1994.

      [2]   Simpson, W., Editor, "PPP in HDLC-like Framing," RFC 1662,
            Daydreamer, July 1994.

      [3]   Simpson, W., Editor, "PPP over SONET/SDH," RFC 1619, Daydreamer,
            May 1994.

      [4]   Carlson, Langner, Hernandez-Valencia, Manchester, "PPP over
            Simple Data Link (SDL) using SONET/SDH with ATM-like
            framing." PPPEXT WG work in progress.

      [5]   "American National Standard for Telecommunications -
            Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) Payload Mappings," ANSI
            T1.105.02-1995.

      [6]   ITU-T Recommendation G.707, "Network Node Interface for the
            Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH)," March 1996.


      [7]   ITU-T Recommendation G.872, "Architecture of Optical
            Transport Networks," February 1999.

      [8]   Doshi,B., Dravida, S., Hernandez-Valencia, E., Matragi, W.,
            Qureshi, M.,  Anderson, J., Manchester, J.,"A Simple Data Link
            Protocol for High Speed Packet Networks", Bell Labs Technical
            Journal, pp. 85-104, Vol.4 No.1, January-March 1999.

      [9]   Simpson, W., Editor, "PPP LCP Extensions," RFC 1570, Daydreamer,
            January 1994.

      [10]   ITU-T Recommendation I.432.1, "B-ISDN User-Network Interface -
            Physical Layer Specification: General Characteristics,"



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            February 1999.

      [11]  ITU-T Recommendation V.41, "Code-independent error-control
            system," November 1989.

      [12]  Demers, A., S. Keshav, and S. Shenker, "Analysis and
            simulation of a fair queueing algorithm," ACM SIGCOMM volume
            19 number 4, pp. 1-12, September 1989.

      [13]  Floyd, S. and V. Jacobson, "Random Early Detection Gateways
            for Congestion Avoidance," IEEE/ACM Transactions on
            Networking, August 1993.


9.  Acknowledgments

   The authors recognize Jon Anderson, Bharat Doshi, Subra Dravida and
   James Manchester from Lucent Technologies for their various contribu-
   tions to this work.


10.  Intellectual Properties Considerations

   Lucent Technologies Inc. may own intellectual property on some of the
   technologies disclosed in this document. The patent licensing policy
   of Lucent Technologies Inc. with respect to any patents or patent
   applications relating to this submission is stated in the March 1,
   1999, letter to the IETF from Dr. Roger E. Stricker, Intellectual
   Property Vice President, Lucent Technologies Inc.  This letter is on
   file in the offices of the IETF Secretariat.

   IronBridge Networks has no claim on any of this material.



















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11.  Authors' Addresses

     James Carlson
     IronBridge Networks
     55 Hayden Avenue
     Lexington MA  02421-7996
     Phone:  +1 781 372 8132
     Fax:    +1 781 372 8090
     Email:  carlson@ibnets.com


     Enrique J. Hernandez-Valencia
     Lucent Technologies Bell Laboratories
     101 Crawford Corners Rd.
     Holmdel NJ  07733-3030
     Email:  enrique@lucent.com


     Nevin Jones
     Lucent Technologies Microelectronics Group
     555 Union Boulevard
     Allentown PA  18103-1286
     Email:  nrjones@lucent.com


     Paul Langner
     Lucent Technologies Microelectronics Group
     555 Union Boulevard
     Allentown PA  18103-1286
     Email:  plangner@lucent.com





















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