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Subject:Re: for all you telecommunications-minded writers From:Linda Sherman <linsherm -at- gte -dot- net> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 30 Jan 2001 15:08:27 -0500
train2 -at- sprynet -dot- com wrote:
>
> Does anyone have any idea what the "T" in T-carrier systems (T-1, T-3 etc...) stands for???
> Nobody seems to know this answer for sure (or care).
Time division multiplexing (TDM), and I am 100% sure. :)
Back when Bell was still Bell, new carrier systems were simply lettered
A, B, C... and so on as they were developed. They got all the way to P.
These letters meant nothing. However, all these carrier systems had one
thing in common: they were based on frequency division multiplexing
(FDM).
When TDM carrier technology was developed, the folks at Bell decided to
use T rather than Q, so that all carrier systems whose names started
with T would be TDM, and those starting with anything else would be FDM.
That was the idea, anyway, but the very similar E-1 carrier system used
in Europe is TDM also. The E stands for European, as you might imagine.
A common misconception is that the T stands for "twisted pair". In fact,
twisted pair existed long before T-1s came along. T-carrier technology
was developed to take advantage of existing wiring technology.
Lin
--
Linda K Sherman <linsherm -at- gte -dot- net>
Learn Welsh - http://www.dalati.com
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