Physical Layer
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The physical layer refers to the first layer in the OSI networking model. The ATM and SDH layers are the regenerator section level, digital line level, transmission path level, virtual path level, and virtual channel level. The physical layer is modeled on three major entities: transmission path, digital line and the regenerator section. The regenerator section refers to the section and photonic layers. The photonic layer is the lowest SONET layer and it is responsible for transmitting the bits to the physical medium. The section layer is responsible for generating the proper STS-N frames which are to be transmitted across the physical medium. It deals with issues such as proper framing, error monitoring, section maintenance, and orderwire. The line layer ensures reliable transport of the payload and overhead generated by the path layer. It provides synchronization and multiplexing for multiple paths. It modifies overhead bits relating to quality control. The path layer is SONET's highest level layer. It takes data to be transmitted and transforms them into signals required by the line layer, and adds or modifies the path overhead bits for performance monitoring and protection switching.
Read more about this topic: Synchronous Optical Networking
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