Comparison of Cable and DSL Service
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Both Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) and Cable Modem services offer high speed Internet access. Compared to traditional dialup access, these two technologies open up homes and small businesses
to a new realm of possibilities for network connectivity and applications. One of the major concerns over cable is that since most systems are Ethernet based, overall performance will
suffer as more users "get online" and surf the Web or Play online.
To compare DSL Vs Cable Service is difficult. Both Cable Service and DSL performance vary from one minute to the next depending on the pattern of use and traffic congestion on the Internet.
Both offer specific advantages for Internet service. Consider all of the factors, not just the technical differences, when making the DSL vs Cable decision.
While similar in many respects, DSL and cable internet differ in some fundamental ways, following are some of them.
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DSL Service
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Cable Internet
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Bandwidth : From 128 Kbps to 1.544 Mbps, but you pay higher prices to
get the higher rates of data transfer. Also, DSL is typically limited to 128 Kbps upstream.
Not Shared : Bandwidth is dedicated, not shared, between the user’s location
and the nearest central office of your ISP.
Gaming : Too many users playing at the same time will not degrade the network.
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Bandwidth : Although you can theoretically get up to 30 Mbps downstream, the
average rate is around 500 to 700 Kbps downstream and 128 Kbps upstream.
Shared : The bandwidth to your Cable ISP is shared by you and all the other
Internet users in your area using same service.
Gaming : Too many users playing will reduce the network speed as it is shared.
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According to the supporters of cable modems, DSL will soon become outdated due to intensive data requirement of video on demand, multi player games, streaming of audio and video, Internet software
distribution, and other such services that generally require very high data downloading speeds. On the other hand, supporters of DSL say that Cable modem access will face tough time with its
inherent security and speed issues (There are still some cable modem systems in existence that do not encrypt/filter traffic within the local cable loop) and any single addition of subscriber
to a neighborhood hub dilutes the overall quality of cable modem service.
On the contrary, DSL is slower than cable with an average speed of 1.5 megabits per second, but is considered far secure and reliable since it's based on a dedicated line between a home and
the phone company. Hence there is a little security risk of personal computing systems getting hacked when using DSL access type.
Presently the cable companies are working with the problem of switches to isolate segments in a computer network by segmenting their fiber network at the central office so that
higher demand neighborhoods are located on separate nodes. This helps guarantee that each segment has an equal amount of bandwidth to the cable backbone.
More recently, there has been an increasing trend towards Internet access via satellite transmission.
Future of New Technology
It is hard to predict what will happen tomorrow on the Internet. Here are some of the trends. cable modems may become slow as more people sign up and cable companies don't upgrade capacity.
Or, alternative ISPs will be allowed to offer Internet service over cable and you will see the same price war that pushed ISP rates. DSL has the ability to expand with less pain. You can
always switch ISPs in case yours does not upgrade its Internet connection as fast as it should and Telephone companies may improve phone lines to make higher speeds available to more remote locations.
One new Internet access technology that may swing the consensus clearly in favor of DSL is VDSL, or Very High Bit Rate DSL. VDSL can provide an incredible amount of bandwidth, with speeds up to 52 Mbps
downstream and 16 Mbps upstream. That is many times faster than the average for either standard ADSL or Cable Internet.
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