What is Optical Carrier levels (OCx)? - Definition from Whatis.com

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

Contributor(s): Carol Cartier and Tom Payne
This was last updated in July 2000

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