E-carrier system
<communications> A series of
digital transmission formats promulgated by the
ITU and used outside of North America and Japan.
The basic unit of the E-carrier system is the
DS0, which has a transmission rate of 64 Kbps, and is commonly used for one voice circuit.
The
E1 format consists of 32 DS0 channels, for a total capacity of 2.048 Mbps.
E2,
E3,
E4, and
E5 circuits carry multiple E1 channels multiplexed, resulting in transmission rates of up to 565.148 Mbps.
The E-carrier system is similar to, and compatible with, the
T-carrier system used in North America, but has higher capacity since it uses out-of-band signaling in contrast to the in-band signaling or
bit-robbing used in the T-system.
