Most common SONET/SDH data rates
The SONET/SDH Digital Hierarchy
The following table lists the hierarchy of the most common SONET/SDH data rates:
- Optical Level
- Electrical Level
- Line Rate (Mbps)
- Payload Rate (Mbps)
- Overhead Rate (Mbps)
- SDH Equivalent
OC-1 STS-1 51.840 50.112 1.728 -
OC-3 STS-3 155.520 150.336 5.184 STM-1
OC-12 STS-12 622.080 601.344 20.736 STM-4
OC-48 STS-48 2488.320 2405.376 82.944 STM-16
OC-192 STS-192 9953.280 9621.504 331.776 STM-64
OC-768 STS-768 39813.120 38486.016 1327.104 STM-256
Other rates (OC-9, OC-18, OC-24, OC-36, OC-96) are referenced in some of the standards documents but were never widely implemented. It is possible other higher rates (e.g. OC-3072) may be defined in in the future.
The "line rate" refers to the raw bit rate carried over the optical fiber. A portion of the bits transferred over the line are designated as "overhead". The overhead carries information that provides OAM&P (Operations, Administration, Maintenance, and Provisioning) capabilities such as framing, multiplexing, status, trace, and performance monitoring. The "line rate" minus the "overhead rate" yields the "payload rate" which is the bandwidth available for transferring user data such as packets or ATM cells.
The SONET/SDH level designations sometimes include a "c" suffix (such as "OC-48c"). The "c" suffix indicates a "concatenated" or "clear" channel. This implies that the entire payload rate is available as a single channel of communications (i.e. the entire payload rate may be used by a single flow of cells or packets). The opposite of concatenated or clear channel is "channelized". In a channelized link the payload rate is subdivided into multiple fixed rate channels. For example, the payload of an OC-48 link may be subdivided into four OC-12 channels. In this case the data rate of a single cell or packet flow is limited by the bandwidth of an individual channel.