VSC9180
Data Sheet
Functional Overview
The VSC9180 Hitless Transceiver receives parallel data on a 4-bit or 16-bit bus and serializes it to redundant 2.5Gb/s
STS-48/STM-16 ‘like’ signal. The parallel data can be in the form of a 4-bit or 16-bit byte interleaved STS-48/STM-
16 SONET/SDH signal with an accompanying word clock, much like a traditional SONET/SDH transceiver like the
VSC8141 16-bit transceiver or VSC8144 4-bit transceiver. This data can also be four, frequency and nearly frame
synchronous, serial STS-12/STM-4 signals with no accompanying clock. In the quad serial STS-12/STM-4 mode, the
VSC9180 retimes the incoming STS-12/STM-4 signals using a reference clock, and deskews them up to +/- 3 bytes.
The four STS-12/STM-4 signals are interleaved according to the SONET/SDH sequence and STS-48 ‘like’ signal is
created. The bytes are derived directly from the four received STS-12/STM-4 signals, in groups of four per signal
channel, and no overwriting is performed on the A1/A2 boundary, B2 bytes, and K1/K2 protection. This allows the
four received tributaries to be transported transparently across the backplane.
The receive circuitry interfaces to two frequency synchronous serial STS-48 ‘like’ signals using two redundant
CDRs. The CDRs lock to their respective channels, recover the clocks, and deserialize each signal internally. Both
signals are then framed and dual FIFOs are used to deskew both signals by up to +/-75ns. Once this deskew has been
performed, the CHSEL signal allows the user to choose which received input is then de-multiplexed to the parallel
output. Loss of Lock (LOL), Severely Errored Frame (SEF), and Bit Error Rate (BER) alarms are provided on a per
channel basis. SEF and BER can be used to drive the CHSEL signal so a 'hitless' transition will take place in hard-
ware if the selected input fails for external reasons. LOL is not recommended for this if there is a possibility of one of
the input channels becoming disconnected. Per channel bit error rate (BER) alarms provide additional information for
controlling CHSEL. A Loss of Alignment (LOA) alarm is provided to indicate that the received signals are either
non-synchronous or are skewed beyond the capability of the VSC9180 to hitlessly switch. The INTRLV and BUS-
MODE signals select the mode to recreate either the 4-bit or 16-bit byte interleaved STS-48/STM-16 output, or the
original received STS-12/STM-4 signals.
Figure 1: Hitless Backplane Sparing in Synchronous TSI/ADM Applications
Protection
VSC8144
VSC9180
'Hitless'
Xceiver
Pointer Processor
Performance Monitor
FEC CODEC
2.5G SDH
Interface
2.5G
4-bit
Backplane
Interface
SONET
Xceiver
Working
System Timing Domain
Line Timing Domain
The CDR circuitry recovers the incoming clock using the same reference provided to the CMU on the transmit side.
The received signal frequency does not need to exactly match the transmitted signal frequency allowing the device to
be used in wavelength cross connect applications where the bidirectional signals will be different frequencies. The
VSC9180 supports both line and equipment loopback, though not both simultaneously.
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G52346, Revision 4.6
September 2, 2003