SONET to Sonnet Translation
An April 1st spoof: compressing SONET frames into English sonnets
Shakespeare, W., "SONET to Sonnet Translation", RFC 1605, DOI 10.17487/RFC1605, April 1994, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1605>.
@misc{rfc1605,
series = {Request for Comments},
number = 1605,
howpublished = {RFC 1605},
publisher = {RFC Editor},
doi = {10.17487/RFC1605},
url = {https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1605},
author = {W. Shakespeare},
title = {{SONET to Sonnet Translation}},
pagetotal = 3,
year = 1994,
month = apr,
} RFC text
Contents
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.
AI ELI5
On this page
§1The Joke
This RFC is published on April 1st, 1994, and is a humor document. It pretends to offer a compression scheme for SONET (Synchronous Optical Network) frames by converting them to English sonnets. The author, credited as W. Shakespeare from Globe Communications, proposes that SONET's 810-byte OC-1 frames can be mapped to approximately 400-byte (14-line) sonnets for a 50% compression ratio.
The mapping uses a fictional "Cerf catalog" of sonnets—a reference to the catalog of published English sonnets to 1950. Each of the 2^704 possible SONET payloads is said to have a matching sonnet.
Pretend we could turn data into poems to make it smaller. It is April 1st, so this is just for laughs.
§2How SONNET Would Work (Joking)
The proposal is simple in concept: replace the SONET OC-1 frame with a sonnet at the sending end, and convert it back to SONET at the receiving end. For example, SONET frame 12 becomes the opening lines of Shakespeare's Sonnet 29: "When do I count the clock that tells the time / And see the brave day sunk in hideous night..."
For higher rates like OC-3, frames can be interleaved or concatenated. Interleaved frames would have interleaved sonnets. Concatenated frames (OC-3c) would have sonnets placed one after another in larger blocks.
The RFC notes that concatenated transmission "makes clear why data communications experts consider concatenated SONET more efficient and esthetically pleasing"—a joke implying sonnets are more enjoyable to read than binary data.
Just say which sonnet you want, and the receiver looks it up. If you need faster speed, use multiple sonnets stuck together.
§3Timing Considerations
The RFC mentions one "critical" concern: "If SONET frames or converted sonnets shift in time, the SONET pointers, or worse, poetic meter, may suffer." This is a tongue-in-cheek warning that timing precision is essential, playing on the idea that both SONET synchronization and the rhythmic meter of sonnets require exact alignment.
If the timing gets messed up, the data might break, and the poem might not rhyme.