A set of four DS1 signals is multiplexed into seven DS2 signals, which are multiplexed into a single DS3 signal. The multiplexing occurs just as with DS1-to-DS2 multiplexing. The resulting DS3 signal uses either the standard M13 asynchronous framing format or the C-bit parity framing format. Although the two framing formats differ in their use of control and message bits, the basic frame structures are identical. The DS3 frame structures are shown in Figure 3 and Figure 4.