Connection Chart
| Carrier Technology | Speed | Physical Medium | Application |
|---|---|---|---|
| GSM
(mobile telephone service) |
9.6 Kbps to 14.4 Kbps | RF in space (wireless) | Mobile telephone for business and personal use |
| HSCSD
(High-speed circuit-switched data service) |
Up to 56 Kbps | RF in space (wireless) | Mobile telephone for business and personal use |
|
POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) |
Up to 56 Kbps | Twisted-pair | Home and small business access |
| Dedicated 56 Kbps on Frame Relay | 56 Kbps | Various | Business e-mail with fairly large file attachments |
| DS0 | 64 Kbps | All | The base signal on a channel in the set of Digital Signal levels |
| GPRS (General Packet Radio System) |
56 Kbps to 114 Kbps | RF in space (wireless) | Mobile telephone for business and personal use |
| ISDN | BRI: 64 Kbps to 128 Kbps PRI: 23 (T-1) or 30 (E1) assignable 64 Kbps channels plus control channel; up to 1.544 Mbps (T-1) or 2.048 (E1) |
BRI: Twisted-pair PRI: T-1 or E1 line |
BRI: Faster home and small business access PRI: Medium and large enterprise access |
| IDSL | 128 Kbps | Twisted-pair | Faster home and small business access |
|
EDGE (Enhanced Data GSM Environment) |
384 Kbps | RF in space (wireless) | Mobile telephone for business and personal use |
| Satellite | 400 Kbps (DirecPC) | RF in space (wireless) | Faster home and small enterprise access |
| Frame relay | 56 Kbps to 1.544 Mbps | Twisted-pair or coaxial cable |
Large company backbone for LANs to ISP ISP to Internet infrastructure |
| DS1/T-1 | 1.544 Mbps | Twisted-pair, coaxial cable, or optical fiber | Large company to ISP ISP to Internet infrastructure |
| UMTS
(Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service) |
Up to 2 Mbps | RF in space (wireless) | Mobile telephone for business and personal use |
|
EV-DO (Evolution Data Optimized) |
400-700 Kbps (but capable of 2.4Mbps) | RF in space (wireless) | Mobile telephone for business and personal use |
| E-1 | 2.048 Mbps | Twisted-pair, coaxial cable, or optical fiber | 32-channel European equivalent of T-1 |
| T-1C (DS1C) | 3.152 Mbps | Twisted-pair, coaxial cable, or optical fiber |
Large company to ISP ISP to Internet infrastructure |
| DS2/T-2 | 6.312 Mbps | Twisted-pair, coaxial cable, or optical fiber | Large company to ISP ISP to Internet infrastructure |
| DSL
(Digital Subscriber Line) |
256 Kbps to 8 Mbps | Twisted-pair (used as a digital, broadband medium) | Home, small business, and enterprise access using existing copper lines |
| E-2 | 8.448 Mbps | Twisted-pair, coaxial cable, or optical fiber | Carries four multiplexed E-1 signals |
| Cable modem | 256 Kbps to 52 Mbps | Coaxial cable (usually uses Ethernet); in some systems, telephone used for upstream requests | Home, business, school access |
| Ethernet | 10 Mbps | 10BASE-T (twisted-pair); 10BASE-2 or -5 (coaxial cable); 10BASE-F (optical fiber) | Most popular business local area network (LAN) |
| E-3 | 34.368 Mbps | Twisted-pair or optical fiber | Carries 16 E-l signals |
| DS3/T-3 | 44.736 Mbps | Coaxial cable | ISP to Internet infrastructure Smaller links within Internet infrastructure |
| OC-1 | 51.84 Mbps | Optical fiber |
ISP to Internet infrastructure Smaller links within Internet infrastructure |
| HSSI | Up to 53 Mbps | HSSI cable | Between router hardware and WAN lines Short-range (50 feet) interconnection between slower LAN devices and faster WAN lines |
| Fast Ethernet | 100 Mbps | 100BASE-T4 (twisted pair); 100BASE-TX (twisted pair); 100BASE-FX (optical fiber) | Workstations with 10 Mbps Ethernet cards can plug into a Fast Ethernet LAN |
| FDDI | 100 Mbps | Optical fiber | Large, wide-range LAN usually in a large company or a larger ISP |
|
T-3D (DS3D) |
135 Mbps | Optical fiber |
ISP to Internet infrastructure Smaller links within Internet infrastructure |
| E4 | 139.264 Mbps | Optical fiber | Carries 4 E3 channels Up to 1,920 simultaneous voice conversations |
| OC-3/STM-1 | 155.52 Mbps | Optical fiber |
Large company backbone Internet backbone |
| E5 | 565.148 Mbps | Optical fiber | Carries 4 E4 channels Up to 7,680 simultaneous voice conversations |
| OC-12/STM-4 | 622.08 Mbps | Optical fiber | Internet backbone |
| Gigabit Ethernet | 1 Gbps | Optical fiber (and "copper" up to 25 meters) | Workstations/networks with 10/100 Mbps Ethernet will plug into Gigabit Ethernet switches |
| OC-24 | 1.244 Gbps | Optical fiber | Internet backbone |
| SciNet | 2.325 Gbps (15 OC-3 lines) | Optical fiber | Part of the vBNS backbone |
| OC-48/STM-16 | 2.488 Gbps | Optical fiber | Internet backbone |
| OC-192/STM-64 | 10 Gbps | Optical fiber | Backbone |
| OC-256 | 13.271 Gbps | Optical fiber | Backbone |