I know that internet providers gives you a limited bandwidth for uploading and download and most of the times they divided with more download speed than upload. How does this division work? Is it a hardware thing , like the cable is specifically made for download/uploaded speed ? Is it possible to have a flexible division between these two, for example if I wanna download I have 90/10 division and if I wanna upload 10/90? (Excuse my English, it’s not my mother language).
In: Technology
It is a hardware thing, in part. But it’s also dependent on individual use case. With residential internet for example, in most cases download speeds will be much higher than upload speeds (download = data being transferred to you from elsewhere, upload = you transferring data elsewhere). This is because most residential internet users mostly request services from elsewhere and rarely are hosting services for others to use from their home.
Now onto the hardware bit. With residential fiber, there is typically a single medium in which data is being transferred, and being that data is being transferred via photons (as opposed to electrons with copper mediums) through a glass tube, attenuation (signal loss) is negligible, so download and upload speeds are congruent. Whereas with standard cable internet (copper cable), there are separate mediums for download and upload. With copper cabling, electrons being passed through the medium are much more likely to run into one another and cause friction, as well as electrons being effected by other nearby appliances producing an electromagnetic field, resulting in slower data transfer and higher signal loss.
Most ISP’s offer separate packages for business and residential, with business packages allotting higher upload speeds, since businesses are more likely to host services (upload data).
Latest Answers