OC-3/OC-12 over Ethernet?

[pzpgd1mlf]

Hello Team

Is there such a thing as OC-x over Ethernet, or only OC-x over Sonet?

Thank you

[Marvin Rhoads]

Not to my knowledge. Remember the S in SONET stands for Synchronous. Ethernet transport is inherently not synchronous and is thus not suited as a candidate technology an alternative for SONET transport.

There is Packet Over SONET (POS), a technology for encapsulating Ethernet and transporting the frames on a SONET underlay. Also, the 10 Gbps Ethernet WAN Phy uses a lightweight version of the OC-192 SONET frame type so there is some possibility of carrying Ethernet over a SONET network in that manner.

[pzpgd1mlf]

I think I found additional information, which has a different terminology actually, that is CESoP (Circuit Emulation Services Over PSN). The M3600, ASR901 and ASR903 all support CESoP, but have limited OC3 and OC12 ports.