Data circuit-terminating equipment
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
DCE is an abbreviation for Data Circuit-Terminating Equipment and its synonyms are Data Communications Equipment and Data Carrier Equipment.
In a data station, the equipment that performs functions, such as signal conversion and coding, at the network end of the line between the data terminal equipment (DTE) and the line, and that may be a separate or an integral part of the DTE or of intermediate equipment.
The interfacing equipment may be required to couple the data terminal equipment (DTE) into a transmission circuit or channel and from a transmission circuit or channel into the DTE.
Although the terms are most commonly used with RS-232, several data communications standards define different types of interfaces between a DCE and a DTE. The Data Circuit-terminating Equipment (DCE) is a device that communicates with a Data Terminal Equipment (DTE) device in these standards. Standards that use this nomenclature include:
- Federal Standard 1037C, MIL-STD-188
- RS-232
- Certain ITU-T standards in the V series (notably V.24 and V.35)
- Certain ITU-T standards in the X series (notably X.21 and X.25)
Usually, the DTE device is the terminal (or computer), and the DCE is a modem.
When two devices that are both DTE or both DCE that must be connected together without a modem or a similar media translator between them, a Null modem must be used [1].
