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An optical carrier is the standard unit of measure for the rate of transmission bandwidth for data being carried by Synchronous Optical Networking (SONET) fiber-optic networks.
Optical carrier transmission rate signifies the speed of a fiber-optic network and is abbreviated as OCx, where x is a variable representing a multiplier whose base rate is 51.84 Mbps. Therefore, an OC-1-rated fiber network would have a transmission rate of 51.84 Mbps, while an OC-3-rated network would have a speed of 155.52 Mbps.
Techopedia Explains Optical Carrier
Optical carriers are standardized sets of specifications for transmission bandwidths for SONET fiber networks. The following is a list of all the OC levels available and their corresponding speeds:
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- 1. OC-1 (STM-0): 51.84 Mbps
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- 2. OC-3 (STM-1 or STS-3): 155.52 Mbps
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- 3. OC-9 (STM-3): 466.56 Mbps
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- 4. OC-12 (STM-4): 622.08 Mbps
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- 5. OC-18 (STM-6): 933.12 Mbps
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- 6. OC-24 (STM-8): 1244.16 Mbps
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- 7. OC-36 (STM-12): 1866.24 Mbps
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- 8. OC-48 (STM-16): 2488.32 Mbps
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- 9. OC-192 (STM-64): 9953.28 Mbps
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- 10. OC-768 (STM-256): 40 Gbps
- 11. OC-3072 (STM-1024): 160 Gbps
The Synchronous Transport Module (STM) is equivalent to the OC defined in the Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH). The STM refers to how the data is being framed or arranged for transport.
