Wide Area Network Speeds
The following chart relates various circuit types with their respective
speeds.
Name
|
Speed
|
Comments
|
Type
|
| DS0 |
64 Kb |
(1) channel (1/24) of a DS1 |
Electrical |
| DS1 |
1.536 Mb |
Also known as a T1 |
Electrical |
| DS3 |
44.736 Mb |
(28) DS1s (or T1s) Also a T3 |
Electrical |
| STS1 |
51.840 Mb |
(1) DS3 @ 44.736mbits/sec with SONET (Synchronous Optical
NET) overhead = 51.840mbits/sec |
Electrical |
| OC-1 |
51.840 Mb |
(1) STS1 on Optical Carrier facilities |
Optical |
| OC-3 |
155.52 Mb |
(3) OC-1s |
Optical |
| OC-9 |
466.56 Mb |
(9) OC-1s (not
commonly used) |
Optical |
| OC-12 |
622.08 Mb |
(12) OC-1s or (4) OC-3s |
Optical |
| OC-18 |
933.12 Mb |
(18) OC-1s (not
commonly used) |
Optical |
| OC-24 |
1.244 Gb |
(24) OC-1s (not
commonly used) |
Optical |
| OC-36 |
1.866 Gb |
(36) OC-1s (not
commonly used) |
Optical |
| OC-48 |
2.488 Gb |
(48) OC-1s or (4) OC-12s or (16) OC-3s |
Optical |
| OC-192 |
9.953 Gb |
(192) OC-1s or (4) OC-48s or (64) OC-3s |
Optical |
This multiplexing scheme is set by the equipment manufacturers and has pretty
much been adopted as standard in the Telecommunication industry.
Therefore, rarely will you see implementations of the less common bandwidth
aggregations like OC-9, OC-18, and etc. The OC-3 is technically an
exception to this as it was needed to allow the upper-level hierarchy to work.
All speed values are expressed in Kb (Kilo bits per second), Mb (Mega bits
per second), or Gb (Giga bits per second). This information was gleaned
from various sources including Scott Kindorf. | 