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.
Colocation is Often Cost Effective
Bandwidth
Colocation is locating your servers in a colocation facility,
also known as a carrier hotel. Advantages of this approach include
ready availability of low cost bandwidth including DS3, Carrier
Ethernet and SONET Fiber Optic OCx options. These data centers
also offer backup power, environmental control and high levels
of security.
Applications Demanding DS3
Bandwidth
DS3 transport is often used for real time video transport, high
resolution images, large engineering files, and data backups to
remote data centers. You can get this bandwidth through fiber
optic delivery or over copper coaxial lines, called T3 lines.
How Does DS3 differ from T3?
The terms DS3 and T3 are often used interchangeably. Both refer
to a TDM (Time Division Multiplexing) digital telecom service
operating at 45 Mbps. Strictly speaking, DS3 is the digital signal
level that can be carried by either copper or fiber physical links.
T3 is the T-Carrier standard for DS3 over coaxial copper service.
What is DS3 over Copper?
DS3oC, or DS3 over Copper, is a last mile connectivity solution
that delivers high bandwidth service where fiber optic connections
are unavailable or not cost effective to construct. Instead, standard
twisted pair copper wires like those used for telephone or T1
line service provide the link from the carrier POP to your building.
Multiple pairs and special modulation schemes are used to provision
carrier-grade DS3 service on copper wiring.