Carrier Technology
|
Speed
|
Physical Medium
|
Application
|
Transfer/month
|
|---|
|
Regular Telephone Service (POTS) |
14.4 to 56 Kbps |
Twisted Pair Copper Wire |
Home and small business access |
14.4 = 4.5 gigs
56K = 17.5 gigs |
|
Dedicated 56 Kbps on Frame Relay |
56 Kbps |
Various |
Business e-mail with fairly large attachments |
56K = 17.5 gigs |
|
DS0 |
64 Kbps |
Copper Wire |
The base signal on a channel in the set of digital Signal Levels |
64K =20 gigs |
|
ISDN |
BRI: 64 Kbps to 128 Kpbs
PRI: 23 (T-1) or 30 (E1) assignable 64-Kbps channels plus control channel; up to 1.544 Mbps (T-1) or 2.048 (E1) |
BRI: Twisted-pair
PRI: T-1 or E1 line |
BRI: Faster home and small business access
PRI: Medium and large enterprise access |
128K = 40 gigs
256K = 80 gigs
512K =160gigs |
|
IDSL |
128 Kbps |
Twisted-pair |
Faster home and small business access |
128K = 80 gigs |
|
Satellite |
400 Kbps (DirecPC) |
Airwaves |
Faster home and small enterprise access |
400K =125gigs |
|
Frame relay |
56 Kbps to 1.544 Mbps |
Twisted-pair or coaxial cable |
Large company backbone for LANs to ISP
ISP to Internet infrastructure |
1.24Mbps =
320
1.54Mbps =
481 gigs |
|
T-1 (DS1) |
1.544 Mbps |
Twisted-pair or optical fiber |
Large company to ISP
ISP to Internet infrastructure |
481 gigs |
|
E-1 (DS1) |
2.048 Mbps |
Twisted-pair or optical fiber |
European equivalent of T-1 |
640 gigs |
|
T-1C (DS1C) |
3.152 Mbps |
Twisted-pair or optical fiber |
Large company to ISP
ISP to Internet infrastructure |
985 gigs
|
|
T-2 (DS2) |
6.312 Mbps |
Twisted-pair or optical fiber |
Large company to ISP
ISP to Internet infrastructure |
1972.5 gigs |
|
ADSL |
1.544 to 8 Mbps |
Twisted-pair (used as a digital, broadband medium) |
Home, small business, and enterprise access using existing copper lines |
8 Mbps =
2500 gigs |
|
E-2 |
8.448 Mbps |
Twisted-pair or optical fiber |
Carries four multiplexed E-1 signals |
2640 gigs |
|
Cable modem |
512 Kbps to 52 Mbps
|
Coaxial cable (usually uses Ethernet); in some systems, telephone used for upstream requests |
Home, business, school access |
52 Mbps =
16250 gigs
|
|
Ethernet |
10 Mbps |
10BASE-T (twisted-pair); 10BASE-2 or -5 (coaxial cable); 10BASE-F (optical fiber) |
Most popular business local area network (LAN) |
3125 gigs
|
|
E-3 |
34.368 Mbps |
Twisted-pair or optical fiber |
Carries 16 E-l signals |
10740 gigs |
|
T-3 (DS3) |
45 Mbps |
Coaxial cable |
ISP to Internet infrastructure
Smaller links within Internet infrastructure |
14062 gigs |
|
OC-1 |
51.84 Mbps |
Optical fiber |
ISP to Internet infrastructure
Smaller links within Internet infrastructure |
16200 gigs |
|
Fast Ethernet |
100 Mbps |
100BASE-T4 (twisted pair); 100BASE-TX (coaxial cable); 100BASE-FX (optical fiber) |
Workstations with 10 Mbps Ethernet cards can plug into a Fast Ethernet LAN |
31250 gigs |
|
FDDI |
100 Mbps |
Optical fiber |
Large, wide-range LAN usually in a large company or a larger ISP |
31250 gigs |
|
T-3D (DS3D) |
135 Mbps |
Optical fiber |
ISP to Internet infrastructure
Smaller links within Internet infrastructure |
42187.5 gigs |
|
E4 |
139.264 Mbps |
Optical fiber |
Carries 4 E3 channels
Up to 1,920 simultaneous voice conversations |
43520 gigs |
|
OC-3/STM-1 |
155.52 Mbps |
Optical fiber |
Large company backbone
Internet backbone |
48600 gigs |
|
E5 |
565.148 Mbps |
Optical fiber |
Carries 4 E4 channels
Up to 7,680 simultaneous voice conversations |
176608.75 gigs |
|
OC-12/STM-4 |
622.08 Mbps |
Optical fiber |
Internet backbone |
1944000 gigs |
|
Gigabit Ethernet |
1 Gbps |
Optical fiber (and "copper" up to 25 meters) |
Workstations/networks with 10/100 Mbps Ethernet will plug into Gigabit Ethernet switches |
312500 gigs |
|
OC-24
|
1.244 Gbps |
Optical fiber |
Internet backbone |
388750 gigs |
|
SciNet |
2.325 Gbps (15 OC-3 lines) |
Optical fiber |
Part of the vBNS backbone |
726562.5 gigs
|
|
OC-48/STM-16 |
2.488 Gbps |
Optical fiber |
Internet backbone |
777500 gigs |
|
STM-64 |
10 Gbps |
Optical fiber |
To be determined |
3125000 gigs |
|
OC-256 |
13.271 Gbps |
Optical fiber |
Defined but, to the best of our knowledge, not being used |
4147187.4 gigs |
