Maximum Bandwidth Chart

Maximum Dedicated Bandwidths
How fast is fast? This chart puts into perspective line speeds used in Internet backbones, LANs, and WANs.

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            Token RingLANs  
10Mbps             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  
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