SONET

Acronym for synchronous optical network . An interface standard for synchronous 2.46-Gb/s optical-fiber transmission , applicable to the Physical Layer of the OSI Reference Model. Note 1: SONET uses a basic data rate of 51.840 Mb/s, called OC1 (optical carrier 1). The SONET hierarchy is defined in multiples of OC1, up to and including OC48, for a maximum data rate of 2.48832 Gb/s. Note 2: SONET was developed by the Exchange Carriers Standards Association (ECSA).