Broadband Contention, can anyone explain??

ShadowFax

Can anyone explain contention of 48:1

or

20:1

dub45

ShadowFax wrote:

Can anyone explain contention of 48:1

or

20:1

ADSL Contention Ratio

Broadband contention ratio means "How many people are fighting for the same internet connection line as you?". The more people there are fighting for the same internet access line, then the slower your connection to the internet will be.

If there are 20 people to one line, then the contention ratio will be 20:1
If there are 50 people to one line, then the contention ratio will be 50:1

This means that the higher the contention ratio, the slower your internet access will be. A contention ratio of 20:1 will give you faster access than a 50:1 contention ratio.

Explanation from google.

MickFarr

ShadowFax wrote:

Can anyone explain contention of 48:1

or

20:1

Most broadband access services share a single connection path between many customers - this is referred to as contention. A contention ratio of 48:1 means that up to 48 customers are sharing the same connection. When usage is light, contention does not pose a problem. However, the quality of the connection can deteriorate if many customers use the connection at the same time. For example, if all 48 users are using a 512kbps broadband service at the same time, your access speed is reduced to about 11ksps.

512 / 48 = 10.6kbps
512 / 20 = 25kbps

my NTL 1500 / 17 = 88kbps (I've yet to see that happen)

So the lower the contention ratio is the better

In reality, this rarely occurs and is unlikely to significantly impact on your home and internet use, but you should be aware that peak usage times can seem slower because of network congestion. Most of the time, you should be able to connect to 75% - 90% of the top speed available at your location.

For example
Your house has one main water pipe that connects to your sink/dishwasher/washing machine/3 toilets/3 wash hand basins/1 bath and 2 showers. You get up nice and early and have a nice shower.

You will get full pressure from your water supply to your shower but try having a shower with everything on and the water will just trickle out.

ShadowFax

Cheers Lads :d

rogue.goofball

Perhaps some dumb questions, but I'll ak them anyway:
How do you figure out what the contention ratio is for you?
Do Eircom/UTV etc each have a set contention ratio for all their customers on a given contract?
Regardless if they do, could you be lucky have have relatively few other users sharing your connection?

secret_squirrel

rogue.goofball wrote:

Perhaps some dumb questions, but I'll ak them anyway:
How do you figure out what the contention ratio is for you?

What will the nature of your internet use be. If its general use then 48:1 is probably fine. If you are doing something extremely bandwidth heavy and which needs to be running at full speed then go for a lower contention.

rogue.goofball wrote:

Do Eircom/UTV etc each have a set contention ratio for all their customers on a given contract?

Esat/Iol have 2 contention rates depending on whether you get their cheaper or more expensive product 48:1 and 20something:1 if I remember rightly.

There was a post on here a while back which asked if anyone had seen much contention in the cheaper product and the answer was no.

rogue.goofball wrote:

Regardless if they do, could you be lucky have have relatively few other users sharing your connection?

Yep you could be the only one on that line connected to the exchange! But in practise you will probably be sharing with a few others.

Another good question is how do I tell what contention I am getting - to which the reply is - only the telecoms companies know that, and they arent telling.
You can take a guess by looking at your download/upload speeds but that can fluctuate becuase of many other factors too. If you are experiencing sustained periods where your 512/128 ADSL download speed is *much* less than 45-55Kbps then you could be experiencing contention - or any other type of network issue.