Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)

Digital Subscriber Line or more generally known as DSL is a high speed internet service which connects a computer to the internet through a telephone line. DSL uses existing copper pair phone lines wiring along with special hardware at the user end. The hardware allows a continuous high speed internet access over the phone lines.

Connection speeds for DSL server ranges from 512 Kbps to 1.544 Mbps downstream and approximately 128 Kbps upstream. These high transfer rates are possible due to full broadband spectrum available on standard phone lines, where as standard modem and voice data only uses a small fraction of the transfer capacity. You can get DSL service from companies other than your phone company, even if your phone company is not providing the DSL service you can get it from other internet service providers who does.

An advantage of DSL is that you can leave your internet connection open and still can use your phone line for voice calls and it also does not require new wiring and the modem is provided by the ISP. But there are disadvantages too, connection of DSL is better when you are near in location to the broadband internet service provider, the farther you go, the weaker would be the signals and slower will be the speed. Downloading is faster than uploading and it’s right now its not available everywhere.

DSL service provider now offered in different types. Some of them are:

ADSL or Asymmetric DSL:
It is the most common type of connection offered by internet provider for home users and it has higher download speeds than upload speeds.

SDSL or Symmetric DSL:
This is a good connection for gaming and hosting a server, it has virtually same upload and download speeds. DSL provider charges more for SDSL than ADSL.

IDSL or ISDN DSL:
It is based on ISDN technology and it’s a slow connection with 144Kbps speed. It is available to farthest distances from high speed internet providers. It is also more expensive than a SDSL connection.

RADSL or Rate Adaptive DSL:
In some situation it is the only DSL service available from DSL internet service provider, but ADSL and SDSL would be preferable. Speed on RADSL depends on line conditions.

Phone lines are everywhere and DSL is a technology that allows high speed internet access on already available phone wires setup which is truly amazing. As the internet continues to grow, the role of internet service provider become more important and support for multimedia, video, audio and data demands higher bandwidth, DSL provides the capability to handle that demand.