European Digital Carrier System

 It is also called E-lines.

 The E1 digital transmission system provides full-duplex transmissions at 2.048 Mbps. The bandwidth
is divided into 32 multiplexed 64 kbps channels. Either one or two of those channels are reserved
for framing, based on the frame format. For digitized voice, the information bandwidth generally
consists of 32 multiplexed 64 kbps channels, whereas for data, it may be channelized the same
as with voice, or may carry from one to several hundred signals on an unchannelized basis.

The figures above show the frame alignment for the E1 European standard PCM-TDM system. With the
basic E1 system, a 125-μs frame is divided into 32 equal time slots. Time slot 0 is used for a frame
alignment pattern and for an alarm channel. Time slot 17 is used for a common signaling channel (CSC).
The signaling for all 30 voice-band channels is accomplished on the common signaling channel.
Consequently, 30 voice-band channels are time-division multiplexed into each E1 frame.
European Transmission Rates and Capacities
 Line Transmission Channel
Bit Rate (Mbps) Capacity
E1 2.048 30
E2 8.448 120
E3 34.368 480
E4 139.264 1920

The European Digital Multiplexing Hierarchy is shown in the table above.

With the European E1 standard, each time slot has eight bits. Consequently, the total number of bits per
frame is
8 𝑏𝑖𝑡𝑠 32 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑠𝑙𝑜𝑡 256 𝑏𝑖𝑡𝑠
𝑥 =
𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑠𝑙𝑜𝑡 𝑓𝑟𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑓𝑟𝑎𝑚𝑒

And the line speed for an E-1 TDM system is

256 𝑏𝑖𝑡𝑠 8000 𝑓𝑟𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑠
𝑥 = 2.048 𝑀𝑏𝑝𝑠
𝑓𝑟𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑
The European digital transmission system has a TDM multiplexing hierarchy similar to the North American
hierarchy except the European system is based on the 32-time-slot (30-voice-channel) E1 system.
Interconnecting T carriers with E carriers is not generally a problem because most multiplexers and
demultiplexers are designed to perform the necessary bit rate conversions.