| optical carrier A series of physical protocols (OC-1, OC-2, OC-3, and so on), defined for Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) optical signal transmissions. OC signal levels put Synchronous Transport Signal (STS) frames onto multimode fiber-optic line at a variety of speeds. The base rate is 51.84 Mbps (OC-1). Each signal level thereafter operates at a speed divisible by that number (thus, OC-3 runs at 155.52 Mbps). See also SONET, STS-1, and STS-3c. |