ADSL sharing ratio

[hameed_farah]

Hi everyone,
I am about to get an ADSL connection and read that ADSL has some sort of sharing and ratios, the ISP says that his the ratio they are using is 8 users per each ADSL channel.
So is this any good? And what's the download speed I am supposed to get? It is a 512/128 kbps connection.

[HalfLifer]

Depending on your location I think...

DSL is dedicated line, no sharing, atleast in the US.

[redxii1234]

I read that DSL can still get slow at peak times, but even then it still isn't being shared, never ever, not in a billion years that it will be shared.

[tomsykes]

Yes & No.

The DSL portion of the link itself (ie, from your modem to the local exchange / central office) is not shared - it is a totally dedicated copper pair.

From the central office to the ISP's main office / internet *IS* shared. It is generally a shared ATM virtual circuit - with varying bandwidths. Some ISP's are cheap and hookup T1's to their DSLAMs, others use OC-3/STM1 line rates (or fractions thereof). It depends on your ISP.

Some ISP's do guarantee bandwidth beyond the central office, but this is usually for business customers, and is rarely (if ever) applied to residential customers .

So, for most of you (home users) your DSL will be shared with others in your area at the central office (yes, even in the US halflifer :)

Think of it this way: If your ISP had 100 dsl ports available in the DSLAM, each limited to 512kbps, that is ~50Mbps of traffic. Obviously, not everyone will be maxing out their connection at once, so oversubscription CAN safely occur without causing a degredation of service.

Cheers

Tom Sykes
Melbourne Australia
B.Eng(Communications), 2nd year

[TERROR1]

Well said Tom :-) nice book but true everthing gets shared or split up now days.....lol:rotfl:

[hameed_farah]

At least I should be happy that they are telling me about the sharing...
Also I am not in USA.

Originally posted by tomsykes
Some ISP's do guarantee bandwidth beyond the central office, but this is usually for business customers, and is rarely (if ever) applied to residential customers .
I was told this as well

So, for most of you (home users) your DSL will be shared with others in your area at the central office (yes, even in the US halflifer :)

Think of it this way: If your ISP had 100 dsl ports available in the DSLAM, each limited to 512kbps, that is ~50Mbps of traffic. Obviously, not everyone will be maxing out their connection at once, so oversubscription CAN safely occur without causing a degredation of service.[/B]
As I said, he indeed is saying that they are oversubscribing, and claimed that the 8:1 ratio is a standard one worldwide. I think he is saying that for each DSL port they have there are 8 users connected, so is this bad?
According to my calculation it is very bad :(
(512 kbps/s) / 8 users / 8bits = 8kB/s downlaod rate!
So if we follow som statistical assumptions I will get 12kB/s. Am I right?

[tomsykes]

Same here, I'm 20,000km away :D

[hameed_farah]

Same here what?

[tomsykes]

'same here' i am not in the USA.

Nevermind.

[hameed_farah]

So can't any body help me here?

[tomsykes]

Originally posted by hameed_farah
So can't any body help me here?

800% oversubscription is acceptable for a residential service.

[MosDef112]

LOL.. Sad but true.

[hameed_farah]

OK, but if someone of those other 7 users is hosting a very popular ftp server that is eating the connection, I think I will be affected a lot, right?
If so do I have the right to complain?
Suppose that the contract doesn't prevent him from running a server.

[ColdFusion]

Originally posted by hameed_farah
OK, but if someone of those other 7 users is hosting a very popular ftp server that is eating the connection, I think I will be affected a lot, right?
If so do I have the right to complain?
Suppose that the contract doesn't prevent him from running a server.

Dont worry about it. There is plenty of bandwidth to go around.

[hameed_farah]

I really hope so, I will hopefully have it installed next week, so I'll keep you posted.