Cisco ONS 15400 Series

This document provides answers to some common questions about the Cisco ONS 15454 Optical Transport Platform.

A. Consider these options to clear these UNEQ-P alarms:

• SLMF UNEQ-P alarms usually indicate that there is no signal present on the specified Synchronous Transport Signal (STS) or Virtual Tributary (VT). If you have created a new circuit that does not have a signal on it yet, you receive a UNEQ-P alarm on the optical cards and an Alarm Indication Signal Path (AIS-P) alarm on the terminating cards. If this is a working circuit, verify whether the equipment external to the Cisco ONS 15454 works properly.

• Another possibility is that you have an empty VT Tunnel. If you have either built a tunnel and have not added any VT1.5s, or have deleted all the VT1.5s from an existing tunnel, UNEQ-P alarms can occur.

• If you have complete visibility to all network elements (NEs), check for incomplete circuits. These could represent stranded bandwidth from circuits that were not completely deleted. If you find incomplete circuits, verify whether they are active circuits that still pass traffic. If the circuits are not needed or do not pass traffic, delete them, and log out of Cisco Transport Controller (CTC). Log back into CTC, and check for incomplete circuits again. Re-create any needed circuits.

• In the case of “TL1 like” and true TL1 cross connects, this alarm can be displayed when building the individual cross connects in the nodes. It is normal to see UNEQ-P when cross connects are present in one NE but are absent on the same time slot on an adjacent NE.

A. The DS3 card terminates the signal on the ports at the backplane. To check the Performance Monitoring (PM) data on a DS3 from an external device, check the PM data on the OCn that is cross-connected to the DS3 circuit. This enables you to monitor any path-level errors that come in on the DS3 signal.

A. This alarm indicates that the clock runs at the frequency of the last known good timing reference input. The alarm is triggered when the last timing reference input fails.

Note: The Cisco ONS 15454 supports holdover timing per GR-4436 when provisioned for external (BITS) timing.

A. This alarm indicates that the clock uses the internal oscillator as its only timing frequency reference. This occurs when there is no reliable prior timing reference information to use.

A. Try these suggestions to correct this problem:

• Verify whether all of the OCn trunk cards have SONET Data Communications Channel (SDCC) terminations provisioned. Check whether all of the OCn trunk card ports are provisioned in-service. If there are Loss of Signal (LOS) alarms on the OCn trunk cards, there is either a fiber cable problem, or one or more failed OCn cards.

• It is possible that all of the NE icons are tiled on top of each other, especially if this is the first time you use the PC to log in to the network of NEs. In order to verify whether there is more than one NE icon, you need to move the top NE icon to a different location in the GUI. Use the drag and drop method to do so.

  Note: The drag and drop method:

  Hold down the Ctrl key and use the single mouse click button to click and hold. Move the mouse to the desired position and release the button.

A. This can happen when the IP connection to the node to which you were connected is broken. There are several conditions which can cause this:

• If the active Timing Control Card (TCC) resets, the stand-by TCC activates, and IP connectivity is broken. This ends the session in that node.

  Log out and restart CTC.

• Another possible cause is an incorrect static route configuration in a node within the network. In software versions 2.2.x, Proxy Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is used for inter-nodal communication. If there is more than one node that tries to Proxy for the network, there can be contention in the network for Proxy. This can cause a shift in the IP routing among the nodes in the network, and break any existing IP connections.

  Log out and restart a new CTC session.

• The most common problem is with the Data Communications Network (DCN). This is the network between your PC and the NE. Verify whether you can ping the NE from your PC, and that you get a decent ping time (less than 10ms is good), and that you receive no "request timed out" messages.

A. You can add additional NEs with the help of multiple topology host files.

In software versions earlier than 3.x:

CTC can support the management of multiple rings or nodes that are not interconnected by fiber or SONET DCC (SDCC). This is accomplished by a cms.ini file that already resides where the cms.jar file is located. CMS automatically creates this file the first time it is launched. Currently, you must edit this file to support the multiple ring or node ability. Here is an example of the cms.ini (or .cmsrc) file with multiple nodes specified.

#CMS
Preferences File #Tue Aug 10 15:00:27 PDT 1999
Topology.Hosts=192.168.106.119\n192.168.106.109\n192.168.106.143
CMS_LAUNCHER.CmsJarPath=C\:\\TEMP\\CMS63812.jar
CMS.LastHost=192.168.106.143

Note:  The NE host names are separated by a \n (textual version of a new line). This file is not intended to be editable, though there currently is no way to enter multiple nodes other than by manual editing. Do not edit this file while you are logged in with CMS, because it can over-write. All other lines in the cms.ini file must not be edited.

In software version 3.x and later:

CTC can support the management of multiple rings or nodes that are not interconnected by fiber or SDCC. In order to accomplish this, create Login Node Groups under Edit > Preferences > Login Node Groups in the CTC menu.

A. Assume that you have already loaded the appropriate Java™ Runtime Environment (JRE) version and the policy file to your PC. Java is probably active in the background. When you launch the CTC from your PC, the Timing Control Card (TCC) compares its .jar file to the .jar file located on the cache of the PC. During this time, the node either detects the correct version, and continues to run the program, or begins to download the proper version of CTC. This process takes a few minutes.

A. The procedure varies based on the software installed.

Complete these steps for Release 2.2x:

1. Edit the cms.ini file to include a line similar to this: CmsNetwork.Map=/download/usphy.gif Make sure that the line is entered exactly as it appears above (case sensitive). This example is for a gif file located on a C: drive in the directory called download. This is located off the C: root, and the gif file is called usphy.gif.

   Note: If you had a file called state.gif located on the C: drive in the directory called picture, you would enter the this:

   Note: CmsNetwork.Map=C\:\\picture\\state.gif

2. If, for example, you changed the map to an image of California, you would then have to change the top/bottom latitude, and left/right longitude to frame the new image. Therefore, for California, you would add these lines to the cms.ini file: CmsNetwork.LeftLong=126.51 CmsNetwork.RightLong=117.41 CmsNetwork.TopLat=40.8 Cms Network.BottomLat=36.6 The numbers associated with these lines vary based on the image used.

A. For Release 3.x and later, you can do this through Edit > Preferences > Map in the CTC menu.

A. In Release 2.2.x, it is recommended that you run only two concurrent CTC sessions per node. Release 3.x and later can handle up to five concurrent CTC sessions. CTC performance can vary, based on the volume of activity in each session, network bandwidth, TCCx card load and the size of the DCC connected network.

A. The blue alarms are not really alarms at all. They are conditions. They display the condition of certain facilities, such as timing facilities, and there is no alarm severity associated with them.

Note: In CTC version 3.0 and later, and Cisco Transport Manager (CTM) version 2.1, the blue conditions do not appear in the alarm browser. They can be retrieved in a new browser called the Conditions browser.

A. The CTC username and password used to log into the local NE are different from the ones required to log into the other NEs. For network access to all NEs, CTC usernames and passwords must be added to each node. Users are not automatically added to the other network NEs.

A. Here are the possible problems associated with the launch of CTC on a Windows 2000 PC.

• It can take up to 30 minutes for Java to launch for the first time on a Windows 2000 PC. This is the only known issue with the launch of CTC on Windows 2000.

• It can be an IP problem. Issue the ping command to verify whether your PC has a good physical connection to the network element (NE).

• You need to run the javapolicyinstall.bat script located under the Windows directory on the Cisco ONS 15454 software CD if you get the error message applet security restriction.

• Reinstall the appropriate java version for the software you run. You can find this information in the ONS15454 Reference Guide for your release.

• If you receive the error message "applet not Inited", run the javapolicyinstall.bat script located under the Windows directory of the Cisco ONS 15454 software CD.

A. A DCC is a Data Communications Channel. It is contained within section and line overhead, and is used as an Embedded Operations Channel (EOC) to communicate between network elements (NEs). You can use the Line DCCs (LDCCs) and the SONET DCCs (SDCCs) (when the SDCC is not used for Cisco ONS 15454 DCC terminations) to tunnel third party SONET equipment SDCCs across Cisco ONS 15454 networks.

In order to create a DCC tunnel, you connect the tunnel end points from one Cisco ONS 15454 optical port to another. Traffic is forwarded transparently, byte-for-byte, across the ONS 15454 network. For more details, refer to the most recent user documentation.

In order to build a DCC tunnel, refer to the appropriate version of the Cisco ONS15454 Procedure Guide. This depends upon the version of ONS15454 software you run.

A. The Cisco ONS 15454 has lost its Data Communications Channel (DCC). The Cisco ONS 15454 uses the DCC on the SONET section layer (SDCC) to communicate network management information. The possible causes are:

• One or both ends of the fiber span are not in service.

• The far end of the fiber span does not have a DCC termination provisioned.

• There is signal failure on the fiber span (must be accompanied by Loss of Signal (LOS) alarms), broken or dirty connectors, loss budget out of parameters, improper termination, or a broken fiber.

• High Bit Error Rates (BERs) or a BER threshold for signal degrade alarm can sometimes cause this alarm.

A. Stitched, also known as Multicard EtherSwitch, allows you to provision two or more Ethernet cards in the same chassis to act as a single Layer 2 (L2) switch. Multi-Card mode limits circuit size to STS6c, because this mode reserves the remaining STS6c of bandwidth available to the card for a “stitch” to other E-Series cards in the Ethergroup. This limitation does not allow you to fully utilize your bandwidth. However, all installed Ethernet cards in an Ethergroup can transmit to and receive from any provisioned Ethernet circuit and VLAN(s). The most common application for this mode of operation is the use of Shared Packet Rings, which utilize Spanning Tree Protocol rather than SONET switching to provide redundancy. This makes more efficient use of SONET bandwidth as the circuits are created unprotected.

Unstitched, also known as a Singlecard EtherSwitch, allows each Ethernet card to remain a single switching entity. Unstitched circuits alleviate the limitation of STS-6. They allow the user to setup a point-to-point connection directly between two Ethernet cards on two nodes. This allows a full STS-12c to be provisioned to the card. However, the unstitched Ethernet card cannot share VLANs that are provisioned on other Ethernet cards in the node.

A. This feature is supported in release 4.1 and later versions, when you use TCC2 cards.

A. The power requirements for the Cisco ONS 15454 are:

• Input power: 48 Volts DC (VDC) (-42 to -57 VDC), with a maximum draw for a fully populated shelf to be 24 amps at 1016.8 watts that consume 3469.46 BTU per hour.

A. In a fully populated Cisco ONS 15454 shelf (slots 1 through 17), when all cards pull the maximum load of 1016.8 watts, the Cisco ONS 15454 has a maximum BTU per hour rating of 3469.46=.

A. OC-3 ports can either remain unprotected, or they can be members of a protection group. Protection is provided on a port-by-port basis, so on a single card, some ports can carry unprotected traffic, while others are members of protection groups.

Sometimes, protection groups are not created with a single card (port 1 on card A cannot protect port 2 on card A). Protection groups must be created through identical ports on two separate OC-3 cards. For example, port 1 on card A can protect port 1 on card B, but not port 2, 3, or 4 on card B. One OC-3 card can support as many as four protection groups.

This example best illustrates OC-3 protection groups:

Cards A and B are OC-3 cards that currently have no protection groups on them. A protection group is created through port 1 on card A as the protection port, and port 1 on card B as the working port. The remaining three ports on card A can remain unprotected and carry unprotected traffic. They can also serve as protection ports for working traffic carried on the three remaining ports on card B. It is possible that the remaining three ports on card A are not used for either working or protect traffic in conjunction with a third OC-3 card.

Similarly, the remaining three ports on card B can remain unprotected and carry unprotected traffic. They can also serve as working ports in protection groups, where protection traffic is carried on the three remaining ports on card A. It is possible that the remaining three ports on card B are not used for either working or protecting traffic in conjunction with a third OC-3 card.

Only ports 1 and 3 on an OC-3 card can be used for DCC connectivity. The SONET DCC (SDCC) tab allows the user to select ports 2 and 4, but this Java error appears to indicate that these are invalid choices:

cerent.cms.idl.SonetTopology.xInvalidDcc

This limitation is resolved in Release 3.0 and later, in which SDCCs are supported on all four ports of an OC3-4 card.

A. These cards handle the SONET payloads differently (the C2 byte in the System Overhead (SOH)). A DS3 card has an asynchronous payload with a C2 hex value of 04, whereas a DS3-XM card has a Virtual Tributary (VT) payload with a C2 hex value of 02.

A. Bit errors on optical cards are usually a result of power levels outside the specified threshold for the OCn card in question. Low signals can be the result of poorly seated or dirty fiber connectors. They can also be caused by incorrect OCn card type in that the power budget for the particular card type is insufficient for the loss on the span. “Hot” signals must be attenuated such that the level is comfortably within the Rx threshold for the specified card.

Bit errors on electrical cards are generally caused by defective cabling, improperly provisioned Line Build Out, synchronization problems and defective hardware. Perform facility and terminal loopbacks to isolate the cause. Always use a test set whenever possible, because the cause of the errors could be external cabling or equipment connected to the Cisco ONS 15454.

A. Yes, you can provision the OC-3 IR 1310 card to support Synchronous Transport Module (STM)-1 signals. However all four ports on the card must be provisioned for STM-1. All four ports drop and insert STM-1 traffic in unprotected or 1+1 protected Automatic Protection Switch (APS) mode. Each STM-1 is mapped as a 155 Mbps concatenated signal (Synchronous Transport Signal (STS)-3c) for transparent transport over a SONET network. The original STM-1 traffic can be handed off as an STM-1 or an OC-3.

A. When a circuit is reported as incomplete, it does not necessarily mean that traffic is affected.

All provisioned circuits use the MAC address of a Cisco ONS 15454 to identify the source and destination endpoints of a circuit. A circuit shows up as incomplete if the MAC address of either the source node or the destination node is invalid. In the Cisco Transport Controller (CTC), check for any invalid MAC address alarms.

Furthermore, all circuit information is propagated around the network by the SONET Data Communication Channels (SDCCs) between each Cisco ONS 15454. If the Cisco ONS 15454 has not been able to obtain updated circuit information from the other nodes, circuits can show up as incomplete. In CTC, make sure that all nodes are both visible and initialized on the network map. Also, make sure that SDCC is up and running between nodes, and that you do not receive any SDCC termination failure alarms.

A. From Release 3.0 onwards, the Cisco ONS 15454 supports two Bidirectional Line Switched Rings (BLSRs) with up to 16 ONS 15454 nodes. Support for up to 32 Nodes is introduced in Release 3.4, although switch times can be longer than the industry standard 60msec. For Unidirectional Path Switched Ring (UPSR) networks, the number of nodes is theoretically unlimited, but a practical limit would be 50.

A. When a TCC is inserted in the Cisco ONS 15454 shelf, the red Fail LED flashes for several minutes. This is the normal TCC boot process.

However, sometimes the second TCC that is inserted in the Cisco ONS 15454 shelf continuously flashes the Fail and Standby/Active LEDs. This indicates that the TCC carries a different working software load compared to the active TCC in the 15454 shelf. The active TCC is in the process of downloading its working software to the newly-inserted TCC. The active TCC always downloads its working software to the standby TCC. This process normally takes between 15 and 20 minutes. However, newer software releases can take as long as 45 minutes for the active TCC to copy the software to the standby TCC.

A. You cannot have TCC+ and TCC cards in the same NE, but you can have TCC+ and TCC cards running in the same network.

A. Timing reference switches can be caused by these factors:

• The optical or Building Integrated Timing Supply (BITS) input experiences Loss of Signal (LOS) alarms, Loss of Frame (LOF) alarms, Alarm Indication Signal (AIS) alarms, or the interface is out of service.

• The Synchronous Status Messaging (SSM) indicates Do Not Use for Synchronization (DUS) alarms, or the SSM indicates that the clock is of Stratum-3 (ST-3) or lower quality.

• The input frequency is off by more than 10 ppms.

• The input clock is unstable (wandering).

• The reference has not been valid for at least two minutes.

A. No. This is an inappropriate use of the BITS interfaces, and is not supported. When you daisy-chain BITS, unnecessary wander buildup is caused in the clock network. Instead of daisy-chain, use a Timing Signal Generator (TSG) to create multiple copies of the Central Office (CO) BITS clock. Run the copies to each Cisco ONS 15454 separately.

A. No. Only BITS output to another NE through the backplane pins is supported. Timing from a DS1 signal is not supported.

A. No. This function is not supported because there is no stable clock source.

A. Although in theory there is no limit on the number of NEs that can be line-timed from another NE that derives its timing from a ST-1 BITS clock, a practical limit would be five hops in any one direction from the source.

A. A receiver clock enters holdover mode when it loses all its timing references for a significant period. The main contributors to holdover performance are:

• Initial frequency offset

• Frequency drift

• Fractional frequency offset due to temperature variations

According to GR-253 recommendation, the values must be better than these:

• Initial frequency offset less than 0.05 ppm

• Frequency drift less than 5.8 x 10 (exp -6) ppm per second

• Fractional frequency offset due to temperature variations less than 4.1 ppm

The summary of those three must be less than 4.6 ppm per day in first 24 hours of holdover mode. Technical specification for the Cisco ONS 15454 is even better than requested in the GR-253 recommendation, as shown here:

• Holdover stability, including temperature variation frequency offset, is 3.7 ppm per day.

• It results in less then 255 slips in first 24 hours of holdover mode.

A. In Release 2, ONS 15454 supports a maximum of six simultaneous TL1 sessions (five by way of the LAN port, and one by way of the serial RS-232 port).

In Release 3.0, ONS 15454 supports a maximum of 11 simultaneous TL1 sessions (10 by way of the LAN port and one by way of the serial RS-232 port).

In release 3.1 and later, 20 concurrent TL1 sessions are supported (19 by way of the LAN port and one by way of serial RS-232 port).

A. The problem occurs because Common Object Request Brokerage Architecture (CORBA) attempts to make a socket connection to the wrong IP address. When the Cisco ONS 15454 receives a packet from a PC, it sees the IP address of the PC, but the address that is published on the tunnel (Internet) is the address for the VPN. The Cisco ONS 15454 attempts to respond to the IP address of the VPN. The router does not recognize this address and in turn, drops the packet, which causes Cisco Transport Control (CTC) to temporarily timeout. There is approximately a 20-second timeout for the CTC session on the PC. When CTC loses the connection to the PC, the PC re-establishes the connection. The CTC cycles in and out indefinitely as the PC and the node try to communicate with one another.

From Release 3.3 onwards, CTC can communicate with an NE over VPN if the these statements are true:

• The gateway NE (GNE) proxy mode is enabled.

• The GNE can open a backward connection to the CTC host.

• Any Network Address Translation (NAT) between the CTC host and the GNE is bi-directional.

• There is no Port Address Translation (PAT) between the CTC host and the GNE (BTW, PAT is what boxes such as LinkSys use).

From Release. 4.0 onwards, all but the first item from the list above, are no longer restrictions. In Release. 4.0, only port 80 and 1080 are required.

A. Yes, the Cisco ONS 15454 supports SNMPv1 and SNMPv2c. It also allows some SNMP set commands.

A. A maximum of ten SNMP trap destinations can be configured in the Cisco ONS 15454.

A. MIBS can be found on the distribution CD for the software and documentation. You can also download MIBS from Cisco.com with a valid CCO account.

A. Yes, release 4.6 software supports this feature.

A. No. Even though CiscoWorks is an SNMP manager, it does not have ONS 15454 MIBS pre-compiled. CiscoWorks only support IOS-based systems.