DS3 and Fractional DS3 Broadband

In the quest to upgrade bandwidth, companies have generally turned to DS3 bandwidth service. Here is what DS3 is all about and the different technologies used to provide DS3 and similar mid-level bandwidth services.

DS3 stands for Digital Signal 3, a standardized switched circuit TDM telecom service. As a refresher, DS0 is the basic building block at 64 Kbps. That’s one channel of digitized telephone call. DS1 is a bundle of 24 DS0 channels at 1.5 Mbps. You are probably more familiar with its implementation as a line service called T1. DS3 is the next step up at 45 Mbps. It’s a bundle of 672 DS0 channels as a large telephone trunk or 28 T1 lines multiplexed together for transport. When you order a T3 line, you are getting the line service implementation of DS3.

Even though DS1 and DS3 were originally conceived as telephone company technologies, they are more often used to transport data packets today. That includes private point to point lines and dedicated Internet connections. In these applications, the entire payload is used to transport data packets.

A full DS3 circuit will give you 45 Mbps bandwidth in both the upload and download directions. This is the most common service ordered and is readily available nationwide. You’ll need an interface card for your router to connect to a DS3 termination. There are two interconnect cables, one for transmit (upload) and one for receive (download). They are 75 ohm coax, similar to what you’ll find for Cable TV connections, although the specified cable type is Bellcore 734 or 735 for this application. The connectors are type BNC. You’ll find these on the router interface card. There may be more than one pair if the router can handle multiple DS3 connections.

At this point, you might be imagining coaxial cables stretched from your building back to the telephone central office, like the twisted pairs used for T1 and multi-line telephone service. In practice, the coaxial connection is only used for short distances. The DS3 bandwidth itself is most often delivered over a SONET fiber optic cable, where it is demultiplexed and dropped off at your premises.

DS3 bandwidth may be higher than you require. There’s a big gap between T1 line bandwidth at 1.5 Mbps and DS3 at 45 Mbps. Companies often begin scaling up their bandwidth by bonding multiple T1 lines to double or triple the individual line bandwidth. This works up to about 10 or 12 Mbps in most cases. Let’s say you only need 20 or 30 Mbps right now. What do you do?

One option is to order fractional DS3 service. A full DS3 interface is installed, but the line bandwidth is limited to the fractional amount you order. That could be 15, 20 or 30 Mbps. You can possibly save money this way, but not necessarily. The reason is that full DS3 is more of a standard service that is readily available. The fractional services are a special order that may or may not be available in a particular location, depending on the service provider. In the end, it might make the most economic sense to get a full DS3 connection.

There are other technical options in this bandwidth range that compete with fractional and even full DS3. The most popular is Ethernet over Copper. This is a highly scalable service that competes with T1 at the 1.5, 2, and 3 Mbps levels. You can also get 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 50, and sometimes even 100 Mbps Ethernet over Copper. This lets you match your budget more closely to the bandwidth you require. Ethernet over Copper (EoC) is often less expensive than either T1 or DS3 for similar bandwidths, although not as readily available as yet.

Downtown in major business districts you may also find fixed wireless bandwidth services. These often deliver DS3 bandwidths, but perhaps in an Ethernet protocol. Most of the time that’s what you want anyway, since you’ll be connecting to a LAN running Ethernet.

A final option isn’t DS3, but might give you a similar benefit for a lot less money. That’s business class Cable broadband. It is shared, not dedicated, and the bandwidth varies with the amount of user activity. Still, you can get up to 50 or 100 Mbps download with 5 or 10 Mbps upload service for about the price of a T1 line. You’ll need to have the cable passing by your business location for this service to be available. Otherwise the construction costs are prohibitive.

Are you in need of higher bandwidth to support your growing business, additional computerization or a move to cloud services? If so, get pricing and availability for DS3 and fractional DS3 services, plus related bandwidth services that may also meet your needs.

A Dedicated Line Between Offices

Many companies have two offices that they would like to link. These offices may be in the same city, across the country or even in different countries. What options are available to do this and what services can you get?

The traditional telecom services link between offices is the dedicated private line. T1 lines have been long used for this purpose because they are almost universally available and often the lowest cost solution. A point to point T1 data line will give you 1.5 Mbps of symmetrical bandwidth. That means 1.5 Mbps upload and 1.5 Mbps download. Symmetrical bandwidth is important when used to link business locations because you’ll have similar traffic levels going in both directions. That differs from the Internet where downloading predominates.

Two other characteristics of T1 lines are important to consider. One is that this is a private line. It’s like having a pair of wires connected at one building and the opposite end of the wires connected at the other building. In fact, for local T1 lines that may be close to the way it is wired up. Over longer distances, your T1 service will probably be multiplexed on a higher bandwidth connection, likely a fiber optic network, for the long haul portion of the interconnection. Regardless, you have a private service that is difficult for anyone to intercept. If you want to ensure the ultimate in privacy, you have the option to encrypt your transmissions on that line.

The other important characteristic of T1 lines is that the bandwidth is dedicated to your usage. You can load it up with two-way traffic 24/7 or just use it when you want to transfer a file. Whatever doesn’t get used just sits there waiting for you. You’ll never run into the situation where your service slows down because some other company is downloading HD videos from the Internet. This also means that there are no usage restrictions. Your T1 line can be used lightly or continuously and your bill at the end of the month will be the same.

T1 lines are available in both data and voice configurations. The voice configuration, called T1 telephone, can transport 24 separate phone conversations. A variation, T1 PRI or ISDN PRI transports 23 phone lines plus a switching and information channel used to provide Caller ID.

What if you need more bandwidth? The next step up with traditional telecom services is DS3 at 45 Mbps, followed by SONET fiber optic including OC-3 at 155 Mbps, OC-12 at 622 Mbps, OC-48 at 2.5 Gbps and OC-192 at 10 Gbps.

You also have the choice of Ethernet line services from typically 10 Mbps on up to 10 Gbps as point to point dedicated connections. Ethernet tends to be lower in cost than traditional services and more scalable. In other words, it’s easier to increase line speed with Ethernet than with T-carrier or SONET.

Another option to link offices, especially over long distances like coast to coast or internationally, is MPLS networking. MPLS networks are highly secure, well engineered to provide committed bandwidth levels, and reasonably priced. It may well be cheaper to order a last mile connection at each end and let the MPLS network handle the long haul than specify a dedicated point to point line service. You’ll get similar performance either way.

Are you looking to establish a dedicated line between offices, perhaps with one of them overseas? Compare options and prices online for T1, DS3 and Ethernet up to 1 Gbps. Note that US to international destination connections will require some manual effort to price, with quotes delivered promptly to your specifications.

MegaPath Pushes EoC to 400 Mbps

The bandwidth of Ethernet over Copper services has been setting new standards on a regular basis. It’s now at the point where you have to think seriously whether you really need to invest in fiber optic construction to light your building or if EoC will get the job done. MegaPath has just upped the ante for those doing copper/fiber tradeoffs. The new upper limit is 400 Mbps.

Many companies that are using Ethernet over Copper are doing so as T1 line replacements to get twice the bandwidth for the same cost. The 2x2 Mbps and 3x3 Mbps options are especially popular for this application. Other companies are moving to mid-band Ethernet where even bonded T1 cannot go. These are bandwidths in the 10 to 20 Mbps range, suitable for many mid-size operations. It’s the companies that have hundred or thousands of employees to support or are engaged in high bandwidth requirement applications that have been stuck with fiber as their only option.

That’s all changed within the last year. More sophisticated modulation schemes and bonding to 8 copper pairs have pushed the bandwidth limit past 50 Mbps to 100 Mbps and even 200 Mbps. Now, MegaPath is offering a new service that can exceed 400 Mbps. This could be a strong option for companies that have specified OC-3 SONET fiber optic service at 155 Mbps and even OC-12 at 622 Mbps.

To be fair, the 400 Mbps speed is only specified on the download path. Upload speeds could be a fraction of that. Does asymmetrical service make sense in a business environment? It could, depending on what you are doing with it. Internet access is typically asymmetrical in nature, with download speeds 10x what you use for upload. That’s because most internet usage at the desktop consists of sending keyboard requests for Web pages or files and then viewing the results or making other use of the data in applications. The principal is that the huge files are almost always coming to the user rather than being sent.

That’s especially true for video, now the number one source of traffic on the Internet. It takes relative little upload activity to request the video files, even streaming, and a considerable amount of download bandwidth over extended periods of time.

Some cloud applications also fall into this category. If you routinely send huge files to the cloud and expect little back, then the asymmetry is wrong for you. However, if most of your bandwidth activity is using large information packages delivered from the cloud, then an asymmetric bandwidth connection could work in your favor.

MegaPath is also offering symmetrical Ethernet bandwidth up to 100 Mbps x 100 Mbps for point to point, point to multipoint and dedicated Internet access. Other options include Ethernet over DS1 and Ethernet over DS3 to address the inherent distance limitations of Ethernet over Copper service. As part of rolling out the new higher bandwidth services, MegaPath is increasing the number of central offices with EoC equipment from 200 to over 680 within a year.

Are your bandwidth requirements increasing, perhaps because of a current or planned move to cloud-based services? If so, you should know that fiber optic connections are only one option to get the line speeds you need for efficient operation. Get competitive quotes now for low, mid-level, and high bandwidth Ethernet over Copper line services for your business location. Sorry, no residential service available.