Monday, January 24, 2011

What is contention or a contention ratio?

To provide a cost effective service - all ADSL services are contended (shared). These contention ratios are applied in the backbone and international part of the network. A commonly applied contention rate is 50 : 1. 

All customers are guaranteed the plan rate up to the local exchange or the ADSL equipment to which they are connected. On the shared part of the network a 50:1 contention ratio would mean that a 2 Mbps connection would be shared by 49 others. In reality this is very unlikely to happen and the customer would find the connection much faster than dial-up modems. 

ADSL relies on individual users not making unreasonable traffic demands on the network to provide fast access speeds for all. If you are not getting the speed you expect, it can be due to the contention ratio but also to many other factors including the congestion at the remote site you are accessing.

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