What is T1 and E1?

Difference between T1 and E1

explained
What is T1 and E1?
T1 is a digital carrier signal that transmits the DS – 1 signal. It has a data rate of
about 1.544 megabits / second. It contains twenty four digital channels and hence
requires a device that has digital connection. This digital connection is called as the
CSU / DSU – Customer Switching Unit or Digital Switching Unit. The scalability of
the T1 is up to 200 and above users. It also provides some services similar to the
internet provider. Most of the computer uses a T1 connection. This technology
makes your modem to have higher speeds and it is an affordable technology.
E1 is similar to the T1. T1 is the North American term whereas the E1 is the
European term for the transmission (digital). The data rate of E1 is about 2 mega bits
per second. It has 32 channels at the speed of 64 Kbps. It is important to know that 2
channels among the 32 are already reserved. One channel is used for signaling
while the other channel is used for controlling. The difference between T1 and E1
lies in the number of channels here. The speed remains the same. There may be
inter – connection between the E1 and T1 lines. This is interconnected because it is
used for international purpose.
Differences in the physical delivery:
Here are we are going to discuss the differences in the physical delivery.
Data Rate: The main difference is the data rate. T1 has a data rate of 1.544 mbps
and E1 has a data rate of 2.048 mbps.
Copper Delivery: In the T1 signal there is a copper delivery among 4 wires. It is
grouped into two pairs. One pair is the RX (1+2) and another is TX (4+5). The RX is
the data that is from the network and the TX is to the network. In the E1, there are
two types of physical delivery; balanced physical delivery and unbalance physical
delivery. The balanced physical delivery has 4 copper wires. It is similar to that of T1.
Whereas in the unbalanced physical delivery there is a coax connector which has
one cable for RX and one cable for TX.
Services: T1 has a specific type of service. It has repeaters for every six thousand
feet, a pulse or waveform shape and a jitter. The E1 has 32 timeslots. This can be
said as DS. Each DS is about 8 bits wide.
Differences in the Framing Format:
Let us discuss the differences in the framing format.
Framing: In T1, there are two types of framing formats. One is D4 (twelve bits group)
– used in aligning the equipment which is used for framing and another is ESF
(twenty four bits group) – used in aligning the frames as well as in the maintenance
of the channel which is facilitated by the data link. In E1, there are two framing
formats. One is a called the double frame – it uses the DS0 and another is the
multiframe which is the independent form.

Difference Between E1 and T1

Posted on July 29, 2011 by Andrew
2

E1 vs T1

E1 and T1 are digital telecommunication carrier standards, initially developed in

different continents to carry voice conversations simultaneously using time division
multiplexing. Both the standards use transmit and receive paths separately to achieve
full duplex communication. E1 is the European hierarchy, which was called as
CEPT30+2 (European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications
Administrations) prior to 1988, while T1 is used as North American standard. Structure
and the frames of the E1 and T1 carriers have significant differences.

What is E1?

E1 consists of 32 channels, which can be used to carry simultaneous voice calls, and
each channel is called as a Time Slot (TS). As per the ITU-T recommendations, 2 time
slots are reserved for signalling and synchronization. Therefore, E1 can carry 30 voice
calls or data communications simultaneously. Each Time Slot of E1 has a bandwidth
of 64 Kbps, which leads to 2048 Kbps total speed for an E1 carrier. Time division
multiplexing is used to separate the channels from each other. In general E1 time slots
are designed to send Pulse Code Modulated (PCM) voice signals, which have a
sampling frequency of 8000 samples per second. Due to this reason, each E1 frame
is designed to send 1 sample from each channel and the size of E1 frame is limited to
125 µs (1s/8000). So, within this 125µs frame interval, 32 samples should be sent,
which has 8 bits in each sample. Therefore, the total number of bits that should be
transferred in a single frame is 256 bits. Two types of physical delivery methods are
available as per the E1 standard, which is called as balanced physical delivery and
unbalanced physical delivery. Balanced physical delivery is the most popular method,
which uses 4 copper wires grouped as two pairs for transmit and receive paths.

What is T1?

T1 is the North American digital communication carrier standard that consists of 24

channels, which has 64Kbps bandwidth each. Initially each 64Kbps channel is
designed to transfer pulse code modulated voice signals. As per the North American
standard PCM with µ-Law is used with T1 carrier. Duration of the T1 time frame is
decided based on the sampling frequency of PCM, because within one second each
channel of T1 frame should transfer 8000 samples. In other words, 1 sample within
125µS (1s/8000 samples). As per the ANSI specification, each T1 consists of 24
channels, which are multiplexed into 125µS time frame. Other than these channels,
T1 frame consists of a Framing bit, which denotes the end of the frame, is also used
for signalling. Altogether, T1 frame consists of 193 bits (24 samples x 8 bits per sample
+ 1 frame bit) that need to be transferred within 125µS. Therefore, data rate of T1
carrier is 1.544 Mbps (193 bits/125µS). Physical transmission of T1 channels are done
using 4 copper wires grouped into two pairs.

What is the difference between E1 and T1?

E1 and T1 are digital telecommunication carrier standards; in other words, multi-

channel telecommunication systems, which are time multiplexed into a single carrier

to transmit and receive. Both standards use two pairs of wires for transmit and

receive paths to achieve full duplex communication. Initially, both methods are

developed in order to send voice channels over copper wires simultaneously, which

leads to less transmission cost.

- Data rate of E1 is 2048kbps as per the recommendations of ITU-T, while the data

rate of T1 is 1.544Mbps as per the ANSI recommendations.

- E1 comprises of 32 simultaneous channels, while T1 consists of 24 simultaneous

channels, which has 64kbps data rate in each channel.

 - Since both systems initially designed to transmit PCM voice, frame rate of both

carriers are designed as 8000 frames per second to support 8kHz sampling rate of

PCM.

- Even though both E1 and T1 have same 125µS frame interval, E1 transmit 256

bits, while T1 transmit 193 bits within the same period.

- In general E1 uses European standard of PCM called A-law while T1 uses North

American standard of PCM known as µ-Law as voice channel modulation method.

- Both E1 and T1 carrier methods are initially developed to transmit and receive

pulse code modulated voice signals over time multiplexed copper wires.

- Key difference of E1 and T1 is the number of channels, which can be transmitted

simultaneously over the given physical medium.