Circuit emulation services over ethernet-part 1

Due to Ethernet's ubiquity, simplicity, scalability and cost effectiveness there is significant customer demand for Ethernet-based access and transport in the metropolitan network. Many service providers have recognized this need and are currently establishing Ethernet-based services to meet this demand. The migration to all-Ethernet access will not be instantaneous since many customers currently have legacy TDM access interfaces on their routers and PBX equipment. Circuit Emulation Services (CES) over Ethernet provides TDM circuit emulation to support TDM traffic such as T1/E1, T3/E3, OC3/12, etc. This two-part paper presents the application of CES over Ethernet as well as a new technology that addresses the issues associated with clock recovery and synchronization in an Ethernet network with its inherent network jitter. Part 1 describes a clock synchronization technique where a transmitter periodically sends explicit time indications or timestamps to a receiver to enable the receiver to synchronize its local clock to the transmitter's clock.