Hopefully this will clear up and make some sense of some "Buzz words" that are commonly used.
T1 or DS-1 - This is the equivalent of 24 phone lines.
It had handle 1.5 million bits per second [1.5Mbps] The key word is BITS not bytes. Bits are much smaller then bytes - and they have a vary compare to a byte. A bit is One - A byte can be 4,8,10,12,16 depending on the thing we are talking about - The telecommunications industry uses bits - so we do to.. Please never confuse the two. From a PC standpoint 8 bits equal one byte.
T2 or DS-2 - This is the equivalent of 4 T1's. The capacity is 6.3 million bits per second [6.3Mbps]
T3 or DS-3 - This is the equivalent of 28 T1's. The capacity is 45
million bits per second [45Mbps]
T4 or DS-4 - This is the equivalnet of 6 T3's. The capacity is 274 million bits per second [274Mbps]. Sprint currently uses DS-4 for the backbone.
OC-1 - Sometimes called SONET. OC-1 uses ATM switches [as all OC-X does] and runs at 51 million bits per second [51Mbps]. Uses Fiber
OC-3 - This is the equivalent of 155 million bits per second
[155Mbps]. MCI currently runs a few of these on their backbone.
OC-12 - 600 million bits per second [600 Mbps]
OC-48 - 2.4 gigabits per second [2.4 Gbps]
Frame Relay - Basically dead and gone as far the Internet is concerned. Especially with the bandwidth requirements the way they are. Frame relay runs around 64kbps to 1.5Mbps [64,000 bits per
second to 1.5 million bits per second]. Frame Relay is shared line with other people and your bandwidth depends on the current utilization of the line.
ATM - Asynchronus Transfer Mode. ATM is a very expensive switching solution that is used in carry OC-3 and OC-12 lines.
Bandwith Chart
Connection Type
Bits per Second
Bytes per Second
Download time of 5 Megs
14.4 Modem
14,400
1,600
52 minutes
28.8 Modem
28,800
3,200
26 minutes
33.6 Modem
33,600
3,800
22 minutes
56k Line
57,600
7,168
12 minutes
64k 1 ISDN B Channel
65,535
8,192
10 minutes
128k 2 ISDN B Channels
131,072
16,384
5 minutes
T1/DS1
1,536,000
192,000
43 seconds
T2/DS2
6,144,000
768,000
7 seconds
T3/DS3
46,080,000
5,760,000
1 second
T4/DS4
276,480,000
34,560,000
0.2 seconds
Sonet/OC1
51,000,000
6,380,000
0.9 seconds
Sonet/OC3
155,000,000
19,370,000
0.5 seconds
Sonet/OC12
600,000,000
75,000,000
0.15 seconds
Sonet/OC48
2,400,000,000
300,000,000
Give me a break?
Originally by Dennis Cox From The Develop Company at Internet Global