Definitions for teachers by teachers

T3

by Terry Franklin

T3, DS3
A connection made up of 28 T1 carriers, used to transmit digital signals on fiber-optic cable at 44.736 megabits per second. The T3 can handle 672 voice conversations or one video channel. The T3 line has enough bandwidth to transmit full-motion real-time video and very large databases over a busy network. A T3 line would be installed as a major networking channel for a large corporation or university with high volume network traffic. Additionally, the T3 is a dedicated phone connection supporting data rates of about 43 Mbps. A T-3 line actually consists of 672 individual channels, each of which supports 64 Kbps. The Internet Server Providers (ISP’s) connecting to the Internet backbone and for the backbone itself use mainly T-3 lines. T-3 lines are sometimes referred to as DS3 lines.

Relevance: The Springfield School District 186 uses a T1 line to eventually link to the Internet. My personal ISP has three dedicated T1 lines that join into a T3 line into the Internet backbone.
Sources: Webopedia.internet.com

by Dianne Fulton

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