subject: T3 Lines Are Suitable For A Wide Variety Of Heavy Traffic Applications [print this page] T3 lines are a form of premium telecommunications voice and data service. T3s are commonly rented by organizations on a fixed term (monthly or yearly) basis.
T3s are also known as DS3 lines or circuits. Digital Signal (DS) refers to a system of classifying digital circuits based on the format and rate of the signal (DS) and the equipment providing the signal (T). The T and DS designations have become interchangeable or synonymous so that DS3 implies T3, DS1 implies T1 and so on.
T3s are referred to as reserved circuits meaning that, as in the case for T1 lines, they are dedicated lines reserved for the exclusive use of the customer to whom they are leased. They are a high cost service priced at several thousand dollars per month and commonly bundled together with superior support services targeted toward large-scale, commercial organizations with high volume network traffic loads. The high cost of these lines places them beyond the scope of most private individuals.
Typical users include Internet service providers, software developers, banks and financial services firms, industrial corporations, universities and government departments. Other example applications include large call centers, video conference centers, enterprise wide VoIP and IP PBX systems and research laboratories. A T3 is the second fastest, non-optical connection offered commercially in North America.
A T3 connection is the typical next step up from a T1 connection. Customers that cannot justify a full T3 sometimes move into a fractional T3 connection. Fractional connections are shared connections and allow a customer to select speeds as low as 3 Mbps as well as trimmed support service.
T3s may physically exist either as copper wire or fiber optic cable. They provide 44.736 Mbps of total bandwidth. In other words, they provide speeds of up to about 45 Mbps. That is exceptionally high bandwidth allowing super high speeds. They have the capacity to deliver full-motion video or movie images in real time, or large databases over busy networks.
T3s may physically exist either as copper wire or fiber optic cable. They provide speeds of up to about 45 Mbps. That is ultra high bandwidth allowing super fast speeds. They can deliver full-motion movies in real time. T3s are always-on, high-speed connections that are stable and reliable links to the World Wide Web. They can support up to 500 computer users and 672 regular voice grade telephone lines or channels, each of which supports 64 Kbps.
T3 lines are provided with a service level agreement stipulating performance and uptime levels. They usually form the major backbone infrastructure for a customer. The technology for T3s was created By Bell Labs in the 1960s. T3 connections are now offered by many telecommunication providers. T3 internet, frame relay, voice and VPN services are all provided as part of the package. In technical terms, T3 lines are composed of 28 T1 lines. Similar aggregations exist in the form of T2, T4 and T5 lines, but they are much not common.
