PPP extensions for IP/PPP-HDLC over SONET-SDH/WDM

IP has emerged as the internetworking protocol of choice. IP is a best-effort protocol which provides no guarantee of delivery or ordering of packets at their destination. IP is designed to be transparent to the topology of the underlying transport network. This transparency is provided by a framing protocol operating over the data link or MAC layer. Due to the popularity of IP, attempts are underway to transport IP traffic over transport networks such as ADSL, HFC, ATM, SONET/SDH, and WDM. This paper examines the dynamics of IP traffic over SONET/SDH using PPP in HDLC-like framing. Although IP in ATM framing (IP/ATM/SONET) is also presented, the main focus of this paper is on IP/PPP/SONET and its extensions, such as PPP multilink, and PPP tunneling protocol. A discussion on the applicability of these PPP extensions to wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) networks is also presented in the conclusion