This table shows the stated data rates for the most
important end-user and backbone transmission technologies.
Technology |
Speed |
Physical Medium |
Application |
GSM mobile telephone service |
9.6 to 14.4
Kbps |
RF in space (wireless) |
Mobile telephone for
business and personal use |
High-Speed
Circuit-Switched Data service (HSCSD) |
Up to 56 Kbps |
RF in space (wireless) |
Mobile telephone for
business and personal use |
Regular telephone
service (POTS) |
Up to 56 Kbps |
twisted pair |
Home and small business
access |
Dedicated 56Kbps 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 |
General Packet Radio
System (GPRS) |
56 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 |
AppleTalk |
230.4 Kbps |
Twisted pair |
Local area network for
Apple devices; several networks can be bridged; non-Apple devices can also
be connected |
Enhanced Data GSM
Environment (EDGE) |
384 Kbps |
RF in space (wireless) |
Mobile telephone for
business and personal use |
satellite |
400 Kbps (DirecPC and
others) |
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 |
Universal Mobile
Telecommunications Service (UMTS) |
Up to 2 Mbps |
RF in space (wireless) |
Mobile telephone for
business and personal use (available in 2002 or later) |
E-carrier |
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 |
IBM
token ring/802.5 |
4 Mbps (also 16 Mbps) |
Twisted-pair, coaxial
cable, or optical fiber |
Second most commonly-used
local area network after Ethernet |
DS2/T-2 |
6.312 Mbps |
Twisted-pair, coaxial
cable, or optical fiber |
Large company to ISP
ISP to Internet infrastructure |
Digital Subscriber
Line (DSL) |
512 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 |
512 Kbps to 52 Mbps
(see "Key and explanation" below) |
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) |
IBM
token ring/802.5 |
16 Mbps (also 4 Mbps) |
Twisted-pair, coaxial
cable, or optical fiber |
Second most commonly-used
local area network after Ethernet |
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 |
High-Speed Serial
Interface (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-T (twisted pair);
100BASE-T (twisted pair);
100BASE-T (optical fiber) |
Workstations with 10 Mbps
Ethernet cards can plug into a Fast Ethernet LAN |
Fiber Distributed-Data
Interface (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 |
E-4 |
139.264 Mbps |
Optical fiber |
Carries 4 E3 channels
Up to 1,920 simultaneous voice conversations |
OC-3/SDH |
155.52 Mbps |
Optical fiber |
Large company backbone
Internet backbone |
E-5 |
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 100 meters) |
Workstations/networks
with 10/100 Mbps Ethernet 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 |