When working with SONET you must always remember that the bandwidth you think you will receive (Line Rate) is actually not the bandwidth you will be able to push through (Payload Bandwidth) due to overhead in the signaling protocol. Below is a table I made that describes throughput rates:
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SONET/SDH Designations and bandwidths |
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| SONET Optical Carrier level | SONET frame format | SDH level and frame format | Line Rate | Overhead | Payload Bandwidth | |
| OC-1 | STS-1 | STM-0 |
51.840 Mbps |
1.728 Mbps |
50.112 Mbps |
|
| OC-3 | STS-3 | STM-1 |
155.520 Mbps |
6.912 Mbps |
148.608 Mbps |
|
| OC-12 | STS-12 | STM-4 |
622.080 Mbps |
20.736 Mbps |
601.344 Mbps |
|
| OC-24 | STS-24 | – |
1.244160 Gbps |
41.472 Mbps |
1.202208 Gbps |
|
| OC-48 | STS-48 | STM-16 |
2.488320 Gbps |
82.944 Mbps |
2.405376 Gbps |
|
| OC-192 | STS-192 | STM-64 |
9.953280 Gbps |
442.368 Mbps |
9.510912 Gbps |
|
| OC-768 | STS-768 | STM-256 |
39.813120 Gbps |
1.327104 Gbps |
38.486016 Gbps |
|