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A series of digital transmission formatspromulgated by the ITU and used outside of North America andJapan.The basic unit of the E-carrier system is the DS0, which hasa transmission rate of 64 Kbps, and is commonly used for onevoice circuit. The E1 format consists of 32 DS0 channels,for a total capacity of 2.048 Mbps. E2, E3, E4, andE5 circuits carry multiple E1 channels multiplexed,resulting in transmission rates of up to 565.148 Mbps.The E-carrier system is similar to, and compatible with, theT-carrier system used in North America, but has highercapacity since it uses out-of-band signaling in contrast tothe in-band signaling or bit-robbing used in the T-system.