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Optical Carrier levels (OCx)

Definition

Optical Carrier levels (OCx)

The Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) includes a set of signal rate multiples for transmitting digital signals on optical fiber. The base rate (OC-1) is 51.84 Mbps. Certain multiples of the base rate are provided as shown in the following table. Asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) makes use of some of the Optical Carrier levels.

Optical Carrier Level	Data Rate
OC-1	51.84 Mbps
OC-3	155.52 Mbps
OC-12	622.08 Mbps
OC-24	1.244 Gbps
OC-48	2.488 Gbps
OC-192	10 Gbps
OC-256	13.271 Gbps
OC-768	40 Gbps

Related glossary terms: small form factor (SFF), gigapop (gigabit point-of-presence), small form-factor pluggable (SFP), DTMF (dual tone multi frequency), carrier network, dark fiber, Router, V.xx, terminal adapter (TA), port

Contributor(s): Carol Cartier and Tom Payne

This was last updated in April 2008

Posted by: Margaret Rouse

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