| Technology |
Speed | Physical
Medium | Application |
| GSM mobile telephone
Service | 9.6 to 14.4 Kbps |
RF in space (wireless) | Mobile
telephone for business and personal use |
| High-Speed Circuit Switched Data service (HSCSD) | Up
to 56 Kbps | RF in space (wireless) | Mobile
telephone for business and personal use |
| Regular telephone service (POTS) | Up to 56
Kbps | Twisted-pair | Home and small business
access |
| Dedicated
56Kbps on frame relay | 56 Kbps | Various | Business
e-mail with fairly large file attachments |
| DS0 | 64 Kbps | All | The
base signal on a channel in the set of Digital Signal levels |
| General Packet Radio System (GPRS) | 56
to 114 Kbps | RF in space (wireless) | Mobile
telephone for business and personal use |
| ISDN | BRI: 64 Kbps to 128 Kbps
PRI: 23
(T-1) or 30 (E1) assignable 64 Kbps channels plus control channel; up to 1.544
Mbps (T-1) or 2.048 (E1) | BRI: Twisted-pair
PRI: T-1 or
E1 line | BRI: Faster home and small business access
PRI:
Medium and large enterprise access |
| IDSL | 128
Kbps | Twisted-pair | Faster home and small
business access |
| AppleTalk | 230.4
Kbps | Twisted pair | Local area network
for Apple devices; several networks can be bridged; non-Apple devices can also
be connected. |
| Enhanced
Data GSM Environment (EDGE) | 384 Kbps | RF
in space (wireless) | Mobile telephone for business and personal
use |
| Satellite | 400
Kbps (DirecPC and others) | RF in space (wireless) | Faster
home and small enterprise access |
| frame
relay | 56 Kbps to 1.544 Mbps | Twisted-pair
or coaxial cable | Large company backbone for LANs to ISP
ISP to Internet infrastructure |
| DS1
/ T-1 | 1.544 Mbps | Twisted-pair, coaxial
cable, or optical fiber | Large company to ISP
ISP to Internet
infrastructure |
| Universal
Mobile Telecommunications Service (UMTS) | Up to 2 Mbps | RF
in space (wireless) | Mobile telephone for business and personal
use (available in 2002 or later) |
| E-carrier | 2.048
Mbps | Twisted-pair, coaxial cable, or optical fiber | 32-channel
European equivalent of T-1 |
| T-1
(DS1C) | 3.152 Mbps | Twisted-pair, coaxial
cable, or optical fiber | Large caompany to ISP
ISP to
Internet infrastructure |
| IBM
token ring / 802.5 | 4 Mbps (also 16 Mbps) | Twisted-pair,
coaxial cable, or optical fiber | Second most commonly-used
local area network after Ethernet. |
| DS2
/ T2 | 6.312 Mbps | Twisted-pair, coaxial
cable, or optical fiber | Large company to ISP
ISP to Internet
infrastructure |
| Digital
Subscriber Line (DSL) | 512 Kbps to 8 Mbps | Twisted-pair
(used as a digital, broadband medium) | Home, small business,
and enterprise access using existing copper lines |
| E-2 | 8.448 Mbps | Twisted-pair,
coaxial cable, or optical fiber | Carries four multiplexed E-1
signals |
| cable modem | 512
Kbps to 52 Mbps | Coaxial cable (usually uses Ethernet); in
some system, telephone used for upstream requests | Home, business,
school access |
| Ethernet
| 10 Mbps | 10BASE-T (twisted-pair);
10BASE-2 or -5 (coaxial cable);
10BASE-F (optical fiber) | Most
popular business local area network (LAN) |
| IBM token ring/802.5 | 16 Mbps (also 4 Mbps) | Twisted-pair,
coaxial cable, or optical fiber | Second most commonly-used
local area network after Ethernet |
| E-3 | 34.368
Mbps | Twisted-pair or optical fiber | Carries
16 E-1 signals |
| DS3
/ T-3 | 44.736 Mbps | Coaxial
cable | ISP to Internet infrastructure
Smaller
links within Internet infrastructure |
| OC- 1 | 51.84 mbps | Optical
fiber | ISP to Internet infrastructure
Smaller links within
Internet infrastructure |
| High-Speed
Serial Interface (HSSI) | Up to 53 Mbps | HSSI
cable | Between router hardware and WAN lines
Short-range
(50 feet) interconnection between slower LAN devices and faster WAN lines |
| Fast Ethernet | 100
Mbps | 100BASE-T
(twisted pair);
100BASE-T
(twisted
pair);
100BASE-T
(optical fiber) | Workstations with
10 Mbps Ethernet cards can plug into a Fast Ethernet LAN |
| Fiber Distributed-Data Interface (FDDI) | 100
Mbps | Optical fiber | Large, wide-range LAN
usually in a large company or a larger ISP |
| T-3D (DS3D) | 135 Mbps | Optical
fiber | ISP to Internet infrastructure
Smaller links within
Internet infrastructure |
| E-4 | 139.264
Mbps | Optical fiber | Carries 4 E3 channels
Up to 1,920 simultaneous voice conversations |
| OC-3 / SDH | 155.52 Mbps | Optical
fiber | Large company backbone
Internet backbone |
| E-5 | 565.148
Mbps | Optical fiber | Carries 4 E4 channels
Up to 7,680 simultaneous voice conversation |
| OC-12 / STM-4 | 622.08 Mbps | Optical
fiber | Internet backbone |
| Gigabit Ethernet | 1 Gbps | Optical
fiber (and "copper" up to 100 meters) | Workstation/networks
with 10/100 Mbps Ethernet plug into Gigabit Ethernet switches |
| OC-24 | 1.244 Gbps | Optical
fiber | Internet backbone |
| SciNet | 2.325 Gbps (15 OC-3 lines) | Optical
fiber | Part of the vBNS backbone |
| OC-48 / STM-16 | 2.488 Gbps | Optical
fiber | Internet backbone |
| OC-192 / STM-64 | 10 Gbps | Optical
fiber | Backbone |
| OC-256 | 13.271
Gbps | Optical fiber | Backbone |
