SONET

Acronym for synchronous optical network. An interface standard for synchronous optical-fiber transmission, applicable to the Physical Layer of the OSI Reference Model. Note: SONET uses a basic bit rate of 51.840 Mb/s, called OC-1 (optical carrier 1). The SONET hierarchy consists of preset integral multiples of OC-1, i.e., OC-3, OC-12, OC-48, etc. [T1.X1]