100 Mbps Business Ethernet vs OC3 SONET Bandwidth

By: John Shepler

Many high tech companies and large corporations got into fiber optic bandwidth service years ago. The service they chose was the one available: OC3 SONET. Since then, many have upgraded to higher speeds, also in the SONET family of service, or simply stuck with the OC3 that has been performing reliably over the years.

The entrance of 100 Mbps and higher Ethernet MAN and WAN bandwidth is challenging the dominance of SONET fiber service. Long time users are taking a closer look at the competition. Companies upgrading or ordering bandwidth the for first time are doing their homework before choosing one technology over the other.

SONET (Synchronous Optical NETwork) in the SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) became the core of most metropolitan, wide area and international networks over the last decades. It was originally developed as a massive telephone trunking technology designed to bundle hundreds and thousands of simultaneous phone calls for long distance transport. With the rise of computer to computer communications and the Internet, SONET services were the logical choice to carry data packets as well as voice channels.

What does SONET have going for it? It is a very mature and well supported technology understood by all of the telephone companies and most network carriers. It is highly reliable and can survive certain fiber cuts and equipment failures. There are a number of service levels available between 155 Mbps and 100 Gbps. Costs have also come down over the years to the point where even smaller companies can consider the entry level OC3 SONET service.

Why throw over a winning service for a newer technology like Carrier Ethernet? It comes down to cost, service features and scalability.

In case you haven’t noticed, just about everything that can communicate uses Ethernet. This includes nearly every corporate LAN, all PCs, printers, scanners, routers, network switches and wireless access points. That’s expanding now to telephones, televisions and any other equipment that is joining the “Internet of Things.” Why not an all-Ethernet world?

The brand of Ethernet that leaves your property is called Carrier Ethernet. It has been standardized by and industry group, the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF), so that it works over long distances, has the operations and maintenance features needed for carrier operations and is compatible from provider to provider.

Let’s compare two very common bandwidth services: 100 Mbps Ethernet vs OC3 SONET. Both are provided over fiber optic strands and delivered to your organization at a specified demarcation point. For Ethernet you use a simple Ethernet copper or fiber patch cord to connect your equipment to the carrier’s demarc. OC3 requires a special interface module that plugs into a router to convert between the Ethernet on your LAN and the SONET that runs on the carrier lines.

This is one reason why SONET is losing ground to Ethernet. If your network and everything on it is running Ethernet, why do a protocol conversion from Ethernet to SONET and back again at the far end just to send Ethernet packets from point to point over to the Internet? There are inefficiencies associated with that conversion process. Plus, you need a specific interface module for each SONET level. An OC3 module won’t work for OC12 or OC48.

SONET has specific service levels, although you can sometimes get fractional or rate limited services below the maximum line speed. Ethernet is scalable by design. The carrier provides an Ethernet port with a maximum speed, typically 100, 1,000 or 10,000 Mbps. Your actual service level can be any speed up to the capacity of the port. You pretty much pay for the bandwidth you are actually using rather than the capability of the circuit.

Scalability can also save you money. A 100 Mbps or Fast Ethernet connection on a 1,000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet port can be scaled up or down easily. With SONET you start out at 155 Mbps for the entry level OC3. That sounds like 50% more bandwidth and it is. However, many companies really need 50 or 100 Mbps but had to buy 155 Mbps because it was that or nothing. If your 100 Mbps Ethernet connection bogs down, you can call the service provider and ask for an upgrade to 150 or 200 Mbps and have it in a matter of hours or days. If you tap out an OC3 connection, you have to wait days or weeks for an upgrade to the next generally available SONET level of OC12 at 622 Mbps.

Besides being able to order just the bandwidth you need now while knowing that you can easily upgrade when the need arises, Ethernet service tends to be less expensive than SONET on a per Mbps basis. But how about the quality of service? Both can deliver your packets with high reliability, low latency, and rock solid bandwidth. SONET tends to have fewer “flavors” available. It’s usually a protected ring arrangement with symmetrical dedicated bandwidth and five-nines (99.999%) reliability.

With business Ethernet, you need to be aware of what you are ordering. You can now get Carrier Ethernet with the same redundant path protection as SONET to ensure that if one circuit fails, the system will automatically switch to the other path in under 50 mSec. You can also get the same 99.999% reliability, low latency & jitter, and symmetrical dedicated bandwidth that you’ve come to expect with SONET services. However, if your applications aren’t so critical and you are more interested in saving money than in having the ultimate in performance, be aware that you can also order Ethernet services with asymmetrical bandwidth, shared bandwidth and unprotected circuits. These flavors of Ethernet work well for general Internet usage and casual PC backup to the cloud and are considerably cheaper.

Is SONET or Ethernet the best choice for your business bandwidth needs? Get free consulting help from a bandwidth expert who can also get you the best pricing from multiple carriers who offer services for your location. Also get instant online quotes for many bandwidth services up to 1 Gbps.

Ethernet over Copper FAQ - Part 2

Ethernet over Copper has become a serious contender for business connectivity solutions traditionally provided by T1 lines, DS3 bandwidth and OC3 fiber. Consider the following FAQ, frequently asked questions and answers, to help you decide if EoC service is right for your business.

Q: What is the cost advantage of EoC versus other line services

A: EoC generally offers a significant cost savings compared to what you are used to paying for business bandwidth services. For instance, a 3 Mbps Ethernet connection is often priced the same as a 1.5 Mbps T1 line. The cost savings are even more pronounced at higher bandwidth levels.

Q: What determines Ethernet over Copper availability?

A: The two major elements are local availability of service and distance from the central office that connects your copper pair cabling. T1, DS3 and OC3 have been around much longer that Ethernet over Copper and are more readily available. Not all offices have the necessary terminal equipment to support EoC. The bandwidth available from Ethernet over Copper technology is much higher close to the central office than farther away. While nearly all business locations can get lower bandwidths if available, the higher bandwidth services may be available over short distances only.

Q: Why is dedicated bandwidth important?

A: Dedicated means that you have exclusive use of the available bandwidth on your line. Consumer oriented line services, such as DSL and Cable are shared bandwidth arrangements where the speed of your connection varies with the activity level of other residential and business users. Dedicated bandwidth ensures that your connection won’t get bogged down just when you need it to be productive.

Q: What is EoDS1 and what is its application?

A: EoDS1 is a hybrid between EoC and T1. It essentially uses T1 lines to transport Ethernet service. This increases the geographical area where Ethernet is available and is generally lower in cost than multiple bonded T1 lines to achieve the same bandwidth.

Q: What is Carrier Ethernet?

A: Carrier Ethernet is the same Ethernet protocol that runs on your company LAN but extended for operation over metropolitan and wide area distances. The standards for this technology have been established by an industry association called the Metro Ethernet Forum or MEF. Carrier Ethernet includes Ethernet over Copper and Ethernet over Fiber.

Q: What special network services are available over Carrier Ethernet?

A: There are 3 services you may find interesting. Ethernet Line service or E-Line is a point to point connection, similar to what you get with T1 and other telecom services. Because the protocol is Ethernet on both the LAN and WAN, you can bridge LANs at two business locations to create one larger business network. E-LAN or Ethernet LAN service is a meshed network arrangement that interconnects 3 or more business locations. E-Tree or Ethernet Tree service is a one to many connection suitable for content distribution.

Q: Is EoC suitable for Internet service?

A: Internet connectivity is one of the more popular ways that EoC is used for business. A dedicated Ethernet Internet connection gives you a highly reliable link from your location to the Internet. EoC bandwidth is symmetrical (the same in both upload and download directions) to support voice, video and cloud services as well as Web browsing and email.

Could Ethernet service be the right answer to your business connectivity needs? See what Ethernet over Copper bandwidths and pricing are available for your business location.


You may also be interested in reading Ethernet over Copper FAQ (Part 1) and Ethernet over Copper FAQ (Part 3).

EoDS1 Extends Ethernet over Copper Distance

Demand for Ethernet over Copper has outstripped its availability. Some of this is because
EoC termination equipment is not available yet in all central offices. More is caused by simple distance limitations. What can be done to make Carrier Ethernet available to all the businesses that want it?

MegaPath, a major competitive carrier, has an answer. It’s called EoDS1 or Ethernet over DS1. Now, just what is EoDS1 and how does it differ from EoC?

Both EoC and EoDS1 are copper wireline services. Both are provisioned over ordinary twisted pair telco wiring. This is the same copper bundle that brings in multi-line telephone service. Both use multiple bonded pairs to increase bandwidth. However, one has distance limitations and the other doesn’t. Why is that?

It has to do with the technology that sends the digital signals down the line. Ethernet over Copper is seen as a big improvement over T1 lines because bandwidth options go far beyond the 1.5 Mbps that T1 offers. Typical entry level for EoC is 3 Mbps. Many companies are opting for 10 Mbps now. High bandwidth users can get 20, 30, 45, 60 and even 100 Mbps using the copper plant that is already installed to their business. Prior to Ethernet over Copper, companies that needed higher bandwidths had to bring in fiber or do without.

Ethernet over Copper has changed all that for many businesses, especially those in dense metropolitan areas where central offices are plentiful and nearby. The technical issue is that high speed digital signals degrade rapidly with distance. You can only send data so fast on a twisted pair of small diameter copper wires buried in the ground. EoC gets around this to some extent by using multiple pairs to divvy up the datastream so that each pair can run at a slower speed. When added together at the far end, you can get a lot of bandwidth out of 4 or 8 pairs. Even so, the closer you are to the central office that terminates the wiring from your location, the more bandwidth options will be available.

So why does EoDS1 not suffer from these same limitations? Remember the venerable T1 line running along at 1.5 Mbps? DS1 or Digital Signal level 1 is the definition of the way the data is formatted on a T1 line. Sometimes the terms DS1 and T1 are used interchangeably.

You know that T1 lines and their DS1 signals can be connected miles from the central office. In fact, there aren’t very many locations even out in the boonies that don’t qualify for T1 line service. Until recently, it was the preferred backhaul connectivity for cell phone towers. It’s not just the lower line speed that makes this possible. T1 was developed by the telephone companies to interconnect their own switching centers. These can be long distances apart, so a signal regenerator was designed to boost the T1 signal every 6,000 feet or so. Multiple regenerators can be used on one line, greatly extending the transmission distance.

Here’s something else you should know about T1 lines. They can be pair-bonded, just like EoC, to increase the delivered bandwidth. Bond two T1 lines together and you get a 3 Mbps service. Bond 8 T1 lines to get 12 Mbps, pretty much the maximum speed available using multiple T1 lines.

As you might suspect, EoDS1 is nothing more than Ethernet over T1 lines. In many cases, you can order bonded T1 or EoDS1 and get the same bandwidth result. So why not just stick with T1?

The reason is Ethernet services. Your local area networks run the Ethernet protocol. You can interconnect LANs at multiple locations with T1 lines by going through protocol conversions to and from Ethernet. If you keep everything in the Ethernet protocol, the transmission process is more efficient and you have the option to link your LANs at the layer 2 level. This means that ordinary Ethernet switches can be used to route traffic on what is essentially one large Ethernet network.

Are you considering new Carrier Ethernet service or wish to expand your multi-location links to include places where EoC isn’t available yet? If so, take a closer look at the cost and benefit of Ethernet over DS1 bandwidth service.

Instant Metro Ethernet Provider Maps

Metro Ethernet (Metro E) services have big advantages for businesses and organizations. These include higher bandwidths, lower costs and special services such as meshed WAN connections. The big question is what Metro E services are available for your business. For that, you need a Metro Ethernet provider map.

Why bother mapping out Ethernet availability? This service is so new that it is not yet universally available. You can call up just about any major carrier and ask about T1 service with the expectation that you can get one or more T1 lines anytime you want them. If you want Metro Ethernet, however, you may well find that your usual provider has no Ethernet capability as of yet or that they don’t service your business location.

Besides the newness of the service, there are a couple of other tricky aspects to Metro E. First, there are several methods of providing service. High bandwidth connections, say 50 Mbps and above, almost always require fiber optic lines. It is estimated that fewer than 30% of all business locations are currently “lit” for fiber optic service. If you don’t have it, or have service from a carrier that only deals in the older SONET protocol, there may be costs and/or time delays in getting your building connected.

Your odds of getting the Metro Ethernet service you want increase dramatically when you include a multitude of competitive service providers in your assessment. The problem is that the time honored ways of looking for service providers in the phone book or industrial directories may miss many good opportunities. What you really want is a service that specializes in business bandwidth. That service is readily available at no cost through a bandwidth services broker.

One of the best in the business is Telarus, Inc. They’ve made available a self-service mapping tool called GeoQuote (tm). The GeoQuote search requires only some basic location information such as street address, city and state of the location you want to check. The patented system then searches a massive database and even accesses carrier IT systems to gather information on the Ethernet services at or near your building. The results are presented on a standard street map plus a listing of distance and capability of each service available. If you wish, you can then go on to get a detailed real-time price quote by entering your contact information.

By knowing where high bandwidth fiber is already installed, you can then get competitive quotes and see just what the construction costs are. You may get lucky and find that your building is “on-net” for one or more providers. That means there is already fiber in the building and it only has to be installed to your offices.

What if there is no fiber nearby? You may still be able to get Ethernet bandwidths from 3 to 50 Mbps using a technology called “Ethernet over Copper (EoC).” This service uses the same twisted pair telco wiring that bring in multi-line phone service and T1. The technology is a bit different and requires that the central office where your copper lines are connected has the specialized interface equipment needed for EoC. Many, many COs now have that capability. The speed of the service depends highly on how far you are away from the CO. If you are located nearby, you can get EoC bandwidth that rivals entry level fiber services. If farther away, you may be limited to 10 or 20 Mbps or not be able to get service at all.

Even if Ethernet over Copper is unavailable, there is a chance that a related technology called EoDS1 can work for your situation. This involves using multiple T1 lines to bring in the Ethernet signal. Distance isn’t an issue for this approach, although you are limited to 10 or 12 Mbps max.

Are you curious now about the fiber and copper based Ethernet services available to your business? Try using the GeoQuote instant Metro Ethernet provider maps and get complete price quotes for each competitive service.

Ethernet over Copper Data Service

Traditional data service connections include T1 lines, DS3 bandwidth, OC-3 and higher level SONET fiber optic technologies. Frame Relay and MPLS networks provide nation-wide and international connectivity. So, why use Ethernet over Copper?

EoC or Ethernet over Copper is a fairly recent last mile connection technology. You don’t find coast to coast EoC being offered. If you do, it is probably implemented as a short hop to the central office, IP-based MPLS networking or Carrier Ethernet over fiber for the long haul, and then another short EoC link at the destination.

What Ethernet over Copper offers is a low cost, high performance solution to connect your business location to a larger private network or public network, such as the Internet. EoC offers the advantage of being able to repurpose existing twisted pair copper infrastructure to avoid the high cost of new fiber optic construction or line of sight limitations with high bandwidth fixed wireless solutions.

What kind of bandwidth can you expect? Low speed Ethernet lines at 2x2 Mbps or 3x3 Mbps are good replacements for T1 lines. These services are typically priced the same as a T1 line but offer higher bandwidth for the money. There are higher bandwidths available, from 5 Mbps on up to 200 Mbps.

The 2x2 designation indicates that this is a symmetrical line service. The bandwidth is 2 Mbps in both the upload and download directions. Similarly, 3x3 Mbps means 3 Mbps upload and 3 Mbps download. This differentiates Ethernet over Copper from services like DSL and Cable, which are asymmetrical. In other words, those services offer much higher download speed than upload speeds. For simple email or Web browsing activities, this isn’t critical. But if you are uploading large files or images, accessing cloud services, or managing a remote server, upload speed becomes much more important.

What is Ethernet over Copper? It differs from traditional telco-based services in that the native protocol is Ethernet rather than TDM or SONET. Ethernet has become the standard LAN protocol and the most common interface to nearly all computers and network equipment. With EoC, you connect to the network using a standard RJ-45 Ethernet connector. That’s it. There are no special interface or conversion circuit cards required.

Ethernet over Copper uses dry or unpowered local loop connections from your location to the nearest telco central office. This is standard telephone wire that isn’t being used for any other purpose. Nearly all businesses have multi-line cables with multiple twisted pairs already installed. Most of the time there are numerous spare wires in that bundle. EoC equipment uses two or more of those spare pairs to transport digital data as Ethernet packets.

The one limitation of Ethernet over Copper technology is that the bandwidth it can carry depends on distance between the EoC equipment at the central office and similar equipment at your location. Within a mile or so, you can generally get all the speed you want at a fraction of what you’ll pay for other telecom services. At you get farther away, the maximum rate decreases due to signal attenuation in the line. More than a few miles and the signal becomes unusable. That may sound like quite a limitation, but in reality most business locations are well within the range of Ethernet over Copper. The exceptions are rural businesses, and offices where the Ethernet termination equipment isn’t installed yet.

Can EoC give you the bandwidth you need at a cost savings over other solutions? Get pricing and availability for Ethernet over Copper data service connections at your business location or locations now.

Finding Information on PBX Telephone Systems Pricing

Are you building a new office building or hotel? How about plans to upgrade your antiquated business telephone system? If so, you are no doubt interested in finding good information on PBX telephone systems pricing. Ideally, you want to get a range of options and competitive prices so you can make and informed buying decision. But, how much trouble is that going to be?

No trouble at all. Well, no trouble if you take advantage of an online clearinghouse that connects qualified vendors of PBX phone systems with qualified business buyers. That clearinghouse is called the VAR Network.

The VAR Network specializes in two important telecom technology areas. One is PBX telephone. The other is network equipment. For many businesses, these are complementary technologies. Most companies have both multi-user telephone systems and computer networks for internal communications and Internet access.

There is another synergy between telephone and computer systems. The latest in telephony developments is VoIP or Voice Over Internet Protocol. VoIP telephone systems "speak" the IP computer language that runs on all Ethernet based networks. Some companies still keep their computer and telephone networks separate. But others integrate the two onto a single company LAN that serves both voice and data. It take some engineering expertise to make this work so that both voice and data function as if they each had the network to themselves. But when it does work, there is a huge advantage of plugging everything into a common set of network jacks. Moving phones and adding new ones is as simple as unplugging from one network jack and plugging into another somewhere else in the building.

The VAR Network is made of up Value Added Resellers or VARs who are authorized representatives for one or more equipment lines. These VARs often offer everything from pre-sales consultations to sales, installation and ongoing support for the manufacturers they represent. They are located all over the country and chances are there are a number that serve your area. But how to you find them? The easy way is to browse through the customer website for the VAR network. You can select from the most popular equipment lines or search for exactly what you are looking for. When you find it, simply enter some basic contact information and your request will enter the system.

What happens then is that the search database of the VAR Network will match up your request with appropriate VARs who have been pre-screened for membership in the network. The matching algorithm is based on what type of equipment and/or service you are looking for and where you are located. When there is a match, a email request is sent to the matching VARs to have them contact you at your mutual convenience. You can then decide whether you want to do business with one or more of the VARs who call you.

The VAR Network supports a wide range of PBX telephone systems, including those offered by Allworx, Avaya, Cisco, Fonality, Nortel, Mitel, ShoreTel, NEC, Polycom, 3 Com, Inter-Tel, TalkSwitch, Toshiba, Lucent, Artisoft, Vodavi, Vertical, and Switchvox. Network hardware includes the lines of Adtran, Cisco, 3 Com, Extreme, Foundry, Juniper and Nortel, among others.

And what does all of this cost? Not a penny. The VAR Network functions as a match-maker between Value Added Resellers and companies that are looking for what they sell. There is no cost or obligation for you to use the system. The only request is that you have an actual business need, so as not to waste everyone's valuable time. If you do have a current or near term need and would like to give this system a try, simply visit the VAR Network website now and do just that. If you happen to be someone in the business telephone system or computer networking business, you are also invited to visit the VAR Network and see how it can help bring you new business.

SIP vs PRI Telephone Trunking

Telephone trunking is the means of transporting multiple telephone conversations across metro or long distances on a single line. The first approach to this used analog frequency division multiplexing in an approach known as carrier telephony. The noise and crosstalk associated with carrier telephony has long since been replaced by digital trunk lines using time division multiplexing techniques. But now TDM trunk lines are being challenged by an even newer technology called SIP trunking.

The impetus for SIP trunking is the move from the traditional circuit switched telephone world to packet switching. In other words, the traditional PBX system is giving way to the iPBX or VoIP telephone system. Does that mean that T1 telephone lines are yesterday's news? Not by a long shot.

The dirty little secret is that just about all business telephone systems with more than half a dozen phone lines are using T1 trunk lines or their big brother, the T3 line or DS3 connection. That includes the latest IP PBX systems, even those that are connected to their phone service providers via SIP trunking. The reason is simple. T1 lines are the most universally available and cost effective carriers commonly available.

The real discussion is what format T1 line to employ. Business office PBX systems and call centers usually want a variant known as T1 PRI. The PRI stands for Primary Rate Interface, a term that comes from a set of telecommunication standards called ISDN or Integrated Services Digital Network. What PRI adds to a standard channelized T1 line is a dedicated signaling channel that makes call setup and teardown faster, plus the ability to provide Caller ID and ANI (Automatic Number Identification.) A T1 PRI line gives you 23 channels that can each carry one telephone call plus the data or signaling channel. If you need more phone lines, simply add another T1 PRI line to your system. If you need a lot more phone lines, say more than 4 or 5 T1 PRI lines worth, you may find it more cost effective to upgrade to a T3 line or DS3 service on fiber optic carrier.

SIP trunking also uses a T1 line, but one configured differently than a T1 PRI line. In this case, channelization is unnecessary because the phone conversations are assigned to packets, not channels. SIP or Session Initiation Protocol is a switching system used for IP telephony, also known as VoIP. SIP is becoming more popular, supplanting other switching protocols in VoIP phone systems.

Both T1 PRI and SIP trunks connect between your phone system and your telephone service provider. Which you select depends on your system's capabilities and the provider that terminates your calls to the PSTN or Public Switched Telephone Network. It is not necessarily true that a new VoIP phone system will automatically use a SIP trunk for service. In fact, many IP PBX systems are ordered with T1 PRI interface cards because the best service deal may well be from a competitive supplier providing PRI local and/or long distance telephone service.

Not sure what to order or if you are getting the best possible deal from your current service provider? Let our expert consultants help you get the best lease rates on the most cost effective voice and/or data services for your business needs.