- 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.
A SONET rate of 2.5 Gb/s. This is 48 times the basic data rate of 51.84 Mb/s.
Short for Optical Carrier, used to specify the speed of fiber optic networks conforming to the SONET standard. The table shows the speeds for common OC levels. OC = Speed OC-1 = 51.85 Mbps OC-3 = 155.52 Mbps OC-12 = 622.08 Mbps OC-24 = 1.244 Gbps OC-48 = 2.488 Gbps OC-192 = 9.952 Gbps OC-255 = 13.21 Gbps
Submitted by Merit Network ANN ARBOR--Ask your typical Internet expert how fast an OC-48 link is, and the likely response will be "That's fast. Real fast!"
Michigan's leading Internet service is about to be upgraded to OC-48 speed. The new backbone design will enable Michigan organizations to benefit from next-generation Internet applications and technologies, including high-quality interactive video, distance learning, and real-time access to the world's most powerful scientific instruments.
Merit Network, Inc. provides Internet connectivity to all 13 of Michigan's publicly funded universities and to Michigan's community colleges, K-12 schools, libraries, state agencies, and cultural and research organizations. Through these organizations, Merit serves almost a million people in Michigan every day.
"Merit and the state of Michigan have always been at the forefront of Internet technology," says Scott Gerstenberger, who runs the Merit statewide network. "With this new upgrade, we will be making a smooth transition to some of the fastest Internet speeds available anywhere in the world today."
Merit will spend $10 million on its network infrastructure over the next three years to implement the new backbone and other improvements. The OC-48 upgrade is expected to meet the growth needs of Merit's customers for the next three years and will save money compared to other upgrade paths.
To put this story into perspective: A standard dialup connection (like AOL) carries at most 52,000 bits of information per second. A T1 line (often used by businesses) carries 1.5 million bits per second. A single OC-48 link carries 2.4 gigabits (2.4 billion) bits per second.
"Internet traffic doubles just about every year," says Brian Cashman, the MichNet backbone manager. "With this design, Merit's customers in Michigan will stay ahead of that growth. This design also uses dual OC-48 circuits, which build in redundancy and give Michigan an even more reliable network."
Jeff Ogden, who is Merit's associate director for high performance networks, works closely with Michigan's universities on Internet2. Currently the only way for a Michigan organization to participate in Internet2 is through Merit.
"Michigan organizations are already participating in Internet2 with extraordinary results," says Ogden. "For example, Michigan Technological University is using Internet2 to team up with NASA and the University of Cincinnati on a proposal to monitor remote mechanical systems in factories, highway bridges, geological fault lines, and even in-flight aircraft."
"As Internet2 applications move into the mainstream, this traffic will place larger bandwidth demands on our network," Ogden said. "Merit's OC-48 upgrade will handle this increased traffic and permit new applications to be developed that we can't even foresee today."
Organizations in Michigan will begin to benefit from the Merit upgrade starting in the first quarter of 2002. For more information, visit http://www.merit.edu/
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