Network Working Group                                    W. Shakespeare
Request for Comments: 1605                         Globe Communications
Category: Informational                                    1 April 1994


                      SONET to Sonnet Translation

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  This memo
   does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of
   this memo is unlimited.

Abstract

   Because Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) transmits data in frames
   of bytes, it is fairly easy to envision ways to compress SONET frames
   to yield higher bandwidth over a given fiber optic link.  This memo
   describes a particular method, SONET Over Novel English Translation
   (SONNET).

Protocol Overview

   In brief, SONNET is a method for compressing 810-byte (9 lines by 90
   bytes) SONET OC-1 frames into approximately 400-byte (fourteen line
   decasyllabic) English sonnets.  This compression scheme yields a
   roughly 50% average compression, and thus SONNET compression speeds
   are designated OCh-#, where 'h' indicates 50% (one half) compression
   and the # is the speed of the uncompressed link.  The acronym is
   pronounced "owch."

   Mapping of the 2**704 possible SONET payloads is achieved by matching
   each possible payload pattern with its equivalent Cerf catalog number
   (see [1], which lists a vast number of sonnets in English, many of
   which are truly terrible but suffice for the purposes of this memo).

Basic Transmission Rules

   The basic transmission rules are quite simple.  The basic SONET OC-1
   frame is replaced with the corresponding sonnet at the transmission
   end converted back from the sonnet to SONET at the receiving end.
   Thus, for example, SONET frame 12 is transmitted as:

        When do I count the clock that tells the time
        And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;
        When I behold the violet past prime,
        And sable curls,...

   For rates higher than OC-1, the OC-1 frames may either come
   interleaved or concatenated into larger frames.  Under SONNET
   conversion rules, interleaved frames have their corresponding sonnet
   representations interleaved.  Thus SONET frames 33, 29 and 138 in an
   OC-3 frame would be converted to the sequence:

        Full many a glorious morning have I seen
        When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
        When my loves swears that she is made of truth
        Flatter the mountain-tops with sovereign eye
        I all alone beweep my outcast state,
        I do believe her, though I know she lies
        Kissing with golden face...

   while in an OC-3c frame, the individual OC-1 frames concatenated, one
   after another, viz.:

        Full many a glorious morning have I seen Flatter the mountain-
        tops with sovereign eye Kissing with golden face...

        When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes, I all alone
        beweep my outcast state,...

        When my loves swears that she is made of truth I do believe her,
        though I know she lies...

   (This example, perhaps, makes clear why data communications experts
   consider concatenated SONET more efficient and esthetically
   pleasing).

Timing Issues

   It is critical in this translation scheme to maintain consistent
   timing within a frame.  If SONET frames or converted sonnets shift in
   time, the SONET pointers, or worse, poetic meter, may suffer.

References

   [1] Cerf, B., "A Catalog of All Published English Sonnets to 1950",
       Random House, 1953. (Now out of print.)

Security Considerations

   Security issues are not discussed in this memo.

Author's Address

   William Shakespeare
   Globe Communications
   London, United Kingdom

   Any suggestions that this, or any other work by this author, might
   be the work of a third party such as C. Marlow, R. Bacon, or
   C. Partridge or based on a previously developed theme by
   P.V. Mockapetris are completely spurious.