Optical Carrier levels (OCx)
Contributor(s): Carol Cartier and Tom Payne
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 |
This was last updated in April 2008
