reason for assymetricity of upload vs download speeds

I've noticed that my upload speeds over DSL are always lower than download
speeds. Is there a tchnological reason for this assymetricity? Or is this
artificial throttling of bandwidth imposed by the ISP's as a effective way
to introduce price-discrimination based pricing stratgies that make the
guys who value uploads pay more.(a minority of their target customers)

Is the net bandwidth of a medium constant; in the sense that can throttling
uploads cause a commensurate increase in download performance for other
users? If ethernet is one-person-talks-at-a-time medium maybe this might
hold? But wht about DSL or dialups? Just curious...Perhaps this is not the
best list for this question (sorry!) but I couldn't find another more
suitable. Besides, this list has one of the most knowledgable set of people
I know!

--
Rahul

In comp.os.linux.misc, Rahul wrote:

> I've noticed that my upload speeds over DSL are always lower than download
> speeds. Is there a tchnological reason for this assymetricity?

Tell me, when you say "DSL", are you referring to ADSL or SDSL?

If you really mean "ADSL", then you already have an explanation for the
asymmetry: ADSL stands for "Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line", where the
technology itself limits the network speed outbound from your node to a
value lower than the network speed inbound to your node.

OTOH, if you mean "SDSL" (Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line), the inbound
and outbound speeds should be the same (symmetric). SDSL is often more
expensive than ADSL, and usually only offered as a business solution.


> Or is this
> artificial throttling of bandwidth imposed by the ISP's as a effective way
> to introduce price-discrimination based pricing stratgies that make the
> guys who value uploads pay more.(a minority of their target customers)

This may be the case with either ADSL or SDSL.

[snip]

--
Lew Pitcher

Master Codewright & JOAT-in-training | Registered Linux User #112576
http://pitcher.digitalfreehold.ca/ | GPG public key available by request
---------- Slackware - Because I know what I'm doing. ------

Lew Pitcher <lpitcher@teksavvy.com> wrote in
news:538e5$48690cc7$cef8b59e$23866@TEKSAVVY.COM-Free:

> Tell me, when you say "DSL", are you referring to ADSL or SDSL?

My bad! I'm ignorant actually. Charter (my ISP) sold the plan to me as
"broadband DSL"! I haven't been able to figure out yet if that means SDSL
or ADSL....

> OTOH, if you mean "SDSL" (Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line), the
> inbound and outbound speeds should be the same (symmetric). SDSL is
> often more expensive than ADSL, and usually only offered as a business
> solution.

OK; so I guess I'm on ADSL. Didn't realize till now that this medium was
inherently assymetric by design. Thanks Lew!


--
Rahul