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Is DSL dedicated, while Cable modems shared bandwidth ?

A common misconception is that residential DSL is dedicated bandwidth, while Cable modems provide shared medium.

This is only partly true - for the segment between you and the ISP's central office, and that is rarely the bottleneck of the connection. From the Central Office out to the Internet, both Cable and DSL share your ISP's backbones, whatever they are. Residential broadband is oversubscribed, whether cable or DSL - usually with 20+ times as many subscribers as the maximum backbone capacity. Since the backbones are most likely the bottleneck of the Internet connection, and it is shared medium, both residential DSL and Cable may experience slowdowns at peak times.


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by bsdGuru - 2012.03.13 09:18
This is fundamentally wrong. By the logic used here, all bandwidth is "shared", unless you have a direct line to the server you're accessing. A cable modem is the same as a dedicated line. Of course it's shared at the router or at the ISP backbone, but the cable companies have such large backbones that it's effectively dedicated. DSL is shared by definition; a DSLAM is a physical multiplexor that shares by design; DSL is oversold by a factor of 30 or so. The actual bandwidth that is dedicated is undefined; providers will oversell at different levels.

Cable is vastly superior to DSL for the same advertised bandwidth.
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