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As a developer, I need to upload things. Is there a technical reason that modern cable-Internet bandwidth is asymmetric? My download rates are acceptable for

by idupree 14y ago

As a developer, I need to upload things. Is there a technical reason that modern cable-Internet bandwidth is asymmetric? My download rates are acceptable for me, and if the upload rates were the same I'd be happy.

codewright 14y ago
Start working on persistent servers or start an ISP I guess. The former is how Googlers work. I suggest GNU Screen + tramp.
madsushi 14y ago
Caching. A provider can use caching tech to eat a lot of the download requests.
tnuc 14y ago
>Is there a technical reason that modern cable-Internet bandwidth is asymmetric? There is a very good reason, so they can get more money out of you to buy the faster/larger service.
rwg 14y ago
Many reasons (very incomplete list): - There is significantly less spectrum available for upstream channel use than downstream channel use. (Something like 37 MHz vs. 500-800 MHz.) This means cable operators have to be very frugal with upstream channel allocations and can't reasonably bond together enough upstream channels w/ DOCSIS 3.0 to give everyone symmetric up/down speeds. - Upstream channels are a shared medium using TDMA (time division), which introduces overhead to prevent multiple transmitters (cable modems) from transmitting on top of one another. However, even if your cable modem was the only device on the network, it wouldn't get all of the available upstream timeslots for sending data. - Upstream channels use a less spectrally efficient modulation scheme than downstream channels in order to keep bit error rates low. (The upstream channels are noisier than the downstream channels.) Given identical channel widths, worse spectral efficiency means fewer bits per symbol means less data sent per time unit.
- Nrsolis 14y ago
  You're right about the spectrum allocations, but given the way things are going, that might not last. First, the spectrum allocations were originally driven by the need to deliver video signals that were compatible with analog TVs. Now that TV's are going digital, this might change the requirement for the traditional frequency split for upstream/downstream. There is no "physical" reason why you couldn't have a 400Mhz upstream range that matches a 400Mhz downstream frequency range. There isn't anything special about coax. It's just RF in a constrained medium.
aes256 14y ago
If you use your Internet connection for business purposes, you should not be on a residential plan in the first instance.

by idupree 14y ago

codewright 14y ago

Start working on persistent servers or start an ISP I guess. The former is how Googlers work. I suggest GNU Screen + tramp.

madsushi 14y ago

Caching. A provider can use caching tech to eat a lot of the download requests.

tnuc 14y ago

>Is there a technical reason that modern cable-Internet bandwidth is asymmetric? There is a very good reason, so they can get more money out of you to buy the faster/larger service.

rwg 14y ago

Many reasons (very incomplete list): - There is significantly less spectrum available for upstream channel use than downstream channel use. (Something like 37 MHz vs. 500-800 MHz.) This means cable operators have to be very frugal with upstream channel allocations and can't reasonably bond together enough upstream channels w/ DOCSIS 3.0 to give everyone symmetric up/down speeds. - Upstream channels are a shared medium using TDMA (time division), which introduces overhead to prevent multiple transmitters (cable modems) from transmitting on top of one another. However, even if your cable modem was the only device on the network, it wouldn't get all of the available upstream timeslots for sending data. - Upstream channels use a less spectrally efficient modulation scheme than downstream channels in order to keep bit error rates low. (The upstream channels are noisier than the downstream channels.) Given identical channel widths, worse spectral efficiency means fewer bits per symbol means less data sent per time unit.

Nrsolis 14y ago
You're right about the spectrum allocations, but given the way things are going, that might not last. First, the spectrum allocations were originally driven by the need to deliver video signals that were compatible with analog TVs. Now that TV's are going digital, this might change the requirement for the traditional frequency split for upstream/downstream. There is no "physical" reason why you couldn't have a 400Mhz upstream range that matches a 400Mhz downstream frequency range. There isn't anything special about coax. It's just RF in a constrained medium.

aes256 14y ago

If you use your Internet connection for business purposes, you should not be on a residential plan in the first instance.