DS3 vs Multiple T1 Lines
Bonding T1 lines for greater bandwidth is a good value up to about
8x or 9x bonding. Above that, it makes better economic sense to
order DS3 service over fiber or T3 copper line. In metropolitan
areas with high levels of buildout, the decision point may be
less than 8 T1 lines.
WAN Bottlenecks Now Readily
Unclogged
Your Wide Area Network or WAN may be the bottleneck in your network
when you have significant voice or data transfer between facilities.
With lower line prices available, unclogging the WAN can cost
less than you think and can unleash higher business productivity.
DS3, OCx over SONET and Carrier Ethernet connections are recommended
for the corporate WAN.
DS3 as an Internet Backbone
DS3 service configured as an dedicated Internet port offers 45
Mbps of upload and download bandwidth. This is ideal for small
and medium size ISPs and WISPs. that have exceeded the capacity
available from multiple T1 lines.
What is the T-Carrier System?
T-Carrier is a set of standards developed by the Bell Telephone
Companies back in the 1950s. These include T1 and T3 lines. They
also define digital signal levels such as DS0, DS1 and DS3. DS0
is 64 Kbps, DS1 is 1.5 Mbps and DS3 is 45 Mbps.
The Importance of DS0
DS0 and DS3 are part of the same set of digital signal standards.
DS0 is 64 Kbps, the bandwidth required to support one telephone
call of 8 bits at a sampling rate of 8 Kbps. DS3 has a speed
of 44,736 Kbps, commonly referred to as 45 Mbps. This speed level
was chosen so that 672 DS0s could be multiplexed into one DS3.
One DS3 can also multiplex 28 DS1 services. DS1 is the signal
level transmitted on a T1 line.