How fast is fast? Chart puts into perspective line speeds used in Internet backbones, LANs, and WANs.
How fast is fast? This chart puts into perspective line speeds used in Internet backbones, LANs, and WANs.
Speed of Internet backbone standards
| 13.21 Gbps | OC-255 |
| 10 Gbps | OC-192 |
| 4.976 Gbps | OC-96 |
| 2.488 Gbps | OC-48, STS-48 |
| 1.866 Gbps | OC-36 |
| 1.244 Gbps | OC-24 |
| 933.12 Mbps | OC-18 |
| 622.08 Mbps | OC-12, STS-12 |
| 466.56 Mbps | OC-9 |
| 155.52 Mbps | OC-3, STS-3 |
| 100 Mbps | CDDI, FDDI, Fast Ethernet, Category 5 cable |
| 51.84 Mbps | OC-1, STS-1 |
| 44.736 Mbps | T-3, DS-3 North America |
| 34.368 Mbps | E-3 Europe |
| 20 Mbps | Category 4 cable |
| 16 Mbps | Fast Token Ring LANs |
| 10 Mbps | Thin Ethernet, category 3 cable, cable modem |
| 8.448 Mbps | E-2 Europe |
| 6.312 Mbps | T-2, DS-2 North America |
| 6.144 Mbps | Standard ADSL downstream |
| 4 Mbps | Token Ring LANs |
| 3.152 Mbps | DS-1c |
| 2.048 Mbps | E-1, DS-1 Europe |
| 1.544 Mbps | ADSL, T-1, DS-1 North America |
| 128 Kbps | ISDN |
| 64 Kbps | DS-0, pulse code modulation |
| 56 Kbps | 56flex, U.S. Robotics x2 modems, |
| 33.6 Kbps | 56flex, x2 modem communications rate |
| 28.8 Kbps | V.34, Rockwell V.Fast Class modems |
| 20 Kbps | Level 1 cable, minimum cable data speed |
| 14.4 Kbps | V.32bis modem, V.17 fax |
| 9600 bps | modem speed circa early 1990s |
| 2400 bps | modem speed circa 1980s |
Units of Measurement
bit= smallest unit of digital information, i.e. ones & zeros
byte= a set of bits
bps= bits per second
Kbps= kilobits per second =1000 bits per second
Mbps = Million bits per second =1,000,000 bits per second
Gbps = Gigabits per second = 1,000,000,000 (one billion) bits per second
Tbps = Terabits per second = 1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion) bits per second
*Editor’s note: individual components in the bandwidth measurement chart have not been separated by Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) protocol layer or media.
This article was originally published on June 24, 2010
