Comparing T1 Bandwidth To DSL

I was recently asked the following question comparing T1 bandwidth to DSL.

"...isn't a T1 a better value per achieved throughput than DSL?"

My answer ... not necessarily. It depends on what you are trying to accomplish. If you are dealing with pure throughput, DSL has the advantage because you can get higher speeds on DSL than with T1. But, there are pros and cons to each that should also be weighed.

DSL is distance sensitive. If you can't see your local CO, then your speeds could be reduced below that of a T1. T1 speed is constant and not distance sensitive.

DSL is considered "shared" bandwidth in that you merge your traffic at the DSLAM with other DSL users. T1 is dedicated bandwidth.

DSL can be synchronous (SDSL) or asynchronous (ADSL). T1 is synchronous.

DSL usually has a much lower service level agreement with regard to uptime and repair time vs. T1.

DSL is usually much less expensive than T1.

T1 is a bigger line capable of sending larger amounts of data than the DSL line; therefore, the amount of data transfer on a T1 is faster and throughput is increased from better productivity and resource.

Beware comparing T1 and DSL purely on cost and throughput. Last time I checked, US regulations required the owner of "the last mile" of wire to respond to failures within 4 hours for T1, but allowed a much longer response window (I think 24 hours ... maybe longer) for DSL.

Find out what the response window currently is for each. Then consider how much it would hurt your business to lose its broadband (and telephone if you use VOIP) for that long. You may decide cost per megabyte of throughput is not as important as potential downtime.

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Why Businesses Should NOT Choose Cable

Cable is basically a one way street, most of the bandwidth goes TO the customer, uploads are slow. That includes outbound email, web servers, VPN to home users, VoIP to home users or other business sites, backup files, DFS replications, and so on.

A more problematic thing with cable though, is it’s a consumer business. From the way it bills to the way it’s supported; its roots and operating procedures are for home users. They sell to business because most of the users are at work during the day and they have reserve capacity. They view business customers as pure gravy; they can use contracts and get additional markup for providing the same service.

They often bill by location, not by account (a home user billing system). Cable companies shut off service if they THINK the bill hasn’t been paid, and then it is the customer's responsibility to figure out what happened (home user mentality). There isn’t a LEC on the face of the earth that will shut off service on a billing error, there isn’t a cable company on the face of the earth that doesn’t. LEC’s have a more experienced workforce, and more available solutions.

If a business calls their support team or the repair center for their LEC operator, a truck is rolling when they hang up the phone - cable is next business day at best. When you call the services center, you are talking to someone in Brazil – or worse – Houston, and their first job is to tell you to fix your stuff because theirs never breaks.

Remember too that cable is usually shared bandwidth. That means if you have a 1 Gbps connection, that is the most you can achieve. Other traffic on the network will cause your effective throughput to be lower. However, fiber is dedicated bandwidth, meaning you have that bandwidth available all of the time. One of the other keys with fiber is scalability. For those who manage a network, in an emergency you may need to quickly scale your bandwidth .... a more difficult feat with cable obviously.

I use cable for home, it has a place because it’s cheap – but I'd never recommend cable to any business as a primary service without backup.

For any business needing bandwidth solutions for their network I always recommend dedicated bandwidth. Your choices usually start with T1 bandwidth but may better fit DS3 bandwidth, business ethernet, or fiber solutions depending on your applications.

For no cost help finding the right dedicated bandwidth solution for your business, including free rate quote comparisons from multiple providers, simply request assistance here:

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What Factors Are Most Critical In Deciding Bandwidth Requirements For A Voice/Data Network Solution?

Generally speaking ... to answer the question you'd likely need to at least consider the business oriented, technology parameters, and application specific components requiring emphasis for the specific location(s) involved.

A good answer to the question requires a detailed understanding of the kinds of traffic the proposed network is intended to handle. For example, streaming video often requires high net bandwidth, but can use packet aggregation and may be able to accept the latency inherent in e.g. an asymmetrical satellite downlink.

In contrast, heavy multi-user VOIP might require symmetrical up and downlinks, in which per-user latency and the ability to handle many packets-per-second are much more important to performance than net bandwidth.

Or, you may have hybrid requirements in which part or all of the network has to handle multiple data types and amounts with varying latency requirements.

Once you understand the various network use scenarios, planning becomes largely a matter of understanding peak vs average use per node, as well as local vs pass-through data flows per node, ..... and designing node capacity, queuing, bandwidth shaping and limiting, and overall system requirements accordingly.

Yes .... every company is different hence every network is unique.

Sometimes, network requirements are driven by the applications, sometimes it is the other way around - applications are engineered to cope with certain network realities.

Here is a good example:

If a company has operations all across the world, round-trip delay will be at the top of my concerns. Since realistically the delay between US and China or India will be in the range of 300ms round-trip (or more), the applications will have to be designed with this in mind. For example interactivity across-the-pond is not going to work very well no matter how much bandwidth you throw at it.

To over simplify ..... some common factors will be number of users, criticality of time sensitive information, geographical spread/locations, types of applications, data only or data and voice. You also have to think about whether you are incorporating hubs or data centres. Last but certainly not least at present is what budget do you have to work with because knowing that might simplify some of your decision making.

The two countervening issues are cost and organizational applications demand/expectations.

Depending on an organizations priorities, start with one of the two issues above (i.e. if they're driven by cost start there since any application driven model will be unappreciated or ignored).

If starting with cost - you'll likely be building a network model that forces application needs through priority based networking filters to ensure applications are treated with the correct priority based on organizational need and priority.

If starting with applications, be sure to include anything needed during the future 12 months (i.e. don't use historical demand for anything but a starting point). Needs beyond the 12 month period should be considered to ensure the equipment and services choosen will allow future growth.

To start the process, meeting and discussing needs and expectation with all key stakeholders is critical. This includes IT, Finance, Sales, Marketing and Operations. Anyone left out of this early discovery will likely create gaps in the analysis that will come back to bite you later.

Bandwidth should also be segmented on need across the WAN, internal backbone, distribution network and access network. Also method of delivery is important (i.e. DSL, T1, DS3, OCx, Optical, copper, Wi-Fi). Breaking things out this way will also ensure you have the right technology, enough redundancy, and user flexibility to have a tight fit with the end user and organizational needs and expectations.

Equipment decisions flow from the earlier points and should be defined towards the end of the process. Adjustments to the plan can be made at this stage dependant on equipement capability - assumptions about equipment capability early on are a sure way to have your plan driven by the equipement vendors (not a good thing). For instance, a vendor I know of has some very powerful systems for using wireless at the primary access network ..... but many customer's made assumptions early on that this was not possible - the results being they over spend on wired technology.

Once a draft plan is created, this should be presented back to the same set of stakeholders you met early on to ensure you've captured everything and have one last chance to integrate any changes required since the 1st discussion. Also, this gives you a chance to explain options to the plan and gain buy in to the prefered options.

A common practice is to "find the bottleneck". In designing a bandwidth solution, you can only be as fast as the slowest component.

In practice it is best to map out two things:

1. Current data rate and maximum capacity
2. Desired data rate

From there you can look at the whole chain and make decisions around what you will do.

Do I need to change network service providers? How much throughput do I need to design in? There is no sense building a ferrari if you only have local driving at low speeds.

But to the other extreme, there is no use designing a small 4 cylinder engine to drive local streets if changing over to the expressway could get you there faster.

The bottom line is that you need to look at your resources from end to end in order to determine the best solution. If you need help you can get it at no cost via ..... Bandwidth Solution.

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Common Questions on T1 Bandwidth - With Practical Answers

Confused about T1 bandwidth? No need to be any longer. Here's some of the most commonly asked questions .... with practical answers to set you straight and on your way to confidently utilizing this backbone of business voice and data networks.

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Common Questions on T1 Bandwidth - With Practical Answers

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How A T1 Line Works

When trying to convince your boss that your company needs T1 bandwidth to help solve a network issue and meet business function requirements …. it comes in handy to know just how a T1 line works. Without that understanding you’re more likely to lose the argument and remain stuck with whatever dinosaur set-up you’re trying to move away from. As your company’s go-to IT person … you can’t afford to lose those battles.

You already know that there are many flavors of T1. But you need not go into that with your boss. If necessary you can adequately describe in simple terms the difference between fractional, full, and bonded … as well as the general aspects of point-to-point and MPLS architecture. For the purposes of making your main point … just stick with describing the basic single point-to-point T1 line.

For a generic point-to-point T1 circuit, part by part, generically speaking it works like this from the premises back.

Your router CSU/DSU DS1 signal connects to a SmartJack aka a Highcap Remote Unit (HRU) mounted in the Network Customer Terminating Equipment (NCTE) also known as the mounting which converts the DS1 signal to a T1 for transport.

From there it is connected by either a single pair or two depending on the technology utilized to the central office repeater shelf where a Highcap Line Unit (HLU) is installed which converts the T1 signal back to a DS1 and also provides 186 or 130 volts over the copper pair(s) to power the HRU.

From the CO repeater shelf the DS1 signal along with 27 others are passed to a Digital Access Crossconnect System (DACS) or muxed up to a DS3 and then to the DACS which provides mapping of the DS1 signals and remote testing capabilities.

Out of the DACS the signal is most commonly a DS3 or higher and passed to another MUX along with other DS3’s for conversion to an OCx for interoffice transport.

At the other end the process is reversed.

As far as a T1 switching device at the provider end … depending on the type of circuit, there are fast packet switches, frame relay switches and routers.

Now your boss may turn glassy eyed halfway through your technical diatribe above …. but that’s alright. You have shown a thorough knowledge of the workings behind what you want … a T1 line based network. That should be enough to impress upon him or her that you know what you’re talking about from the technical side. From there … all you need to do is address the cost benefit. For that simply show the impact of your current poor performing network on the core functions of the business …. compared to the improvement(s) gained with the network architecture you’re recommending.

If you need assistance with setting up the right solution for your voice/data network applications …. take advantage of the free help available at DS3 Bandwidth. They can guide you through the process whether it’s T1 line based, DS3 circuit, SONET, Business Ethernet, or wireless …. including MPLS, Point-to-Point, bonded, burstable, and more.

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What is a Bonded T1?

Understanding what a bonded T1 is, and what it brings to the table, is not as complicated as some people make it out to be. For T1 bandwidth specifically, your choices are fractional T1, T1, and bonded T1. In other words.... part of a T1, a full T1 line, or X number of T1s connected to deliver whatever bandwidth capacity you need met.

The benefit of a bonding T1's is that it eliminates overtaxing of a single T1. If your required bandwidth is more than what a full T1 delivers.... but less than a DS3 line.... then a bonding T1 lines is a smart choice.

Bonded T1's are basically 2 or more T1's that are connected to make a fatter pipe. This does confuse a lot of people so let me try and explain with a few examples.

Lets assume you have 2 T1's bonded together.....

If you have to download a file from the web that is 300Mbits in size then it would take 100 seconds to down load that file (300Mbit file/3Mbits per second bandwidth). This is because the bonded T1's appear to be one large pipe.

Taking the same example but now you have 2 unbonded T1's.

You still have a total of 3Mbits per second bandwidth, however if you have to download one file that's 300Mbits in size it will take 200 seconds. This is because you only have 1.5Mbits per second bandwidth available as the file cannot be split and sent down both T1's at the same time. The other T1 is not used for this transfer but is available for other traffic.

If you had two 300Mbit files to download then it would take 200 seconds to download in either scenario.

Bonded T1's only help if you transfer large data files and time is critical. If time is not an issue and the data transfer is not large then bonded T1's won't help much. In that case stick with a full T1 line or look at the availability of Business Ethernet. Please note tt some point you'll reach a point of diminishing return with a bonded T1 solution. For both capacity and cost. If that is a concern than fractional or full DS3 bandwidth is a better option.

The key is to understand first what your typical use load will be. Also consider what your peak load parameters would look like. Then design your solution around those two analyzed scenarios.

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When Does T1 Bandwidth Make Sense For Your Business Voice / Data Network?

When would you choose T1 Bandwidth for your network solution over say DSL or DS3 Bandwidth .... and why/why not? What are the pros and cons for and against?

T1 is dedicated bandwidth speed. DSL is not dedicated and can fluctuate .... and also speed varies based on your distance to the Central Office. T1's for data or voice are expensive. If you have the option, I'd go cable for data. Although cable isn't dedicated either, you could get about 10megs with cable for the same price you'd pay for a 1.5meg data T1. I guarantee that even if cable fluctuates, you'll still have more that 1.5megs of bandwidth.

One of the issues with fluctuating bandwidth is that users get spoiled when speed is quick, and when it gets slower your IT department starts getting help desk calls from users complaining about speed.

Cable isn't necessarily an enterprise solution and therefore isn't quite as reliable as a T1. If reliability is your #1 concern... then go T1. If you're willing to take speed and price over reliability, then cable is great.

As a large enterprise, I'd even look at MetroE (Metro Ethernet) which is a new delivery method for data and provides lightning speeds. I have a client with MetroE, they pay less than a DS3 and get 100megs of data speed. A MPLS (Multi Protocol Label Switching) MetroE can transmit data and voice. If you have this same type of circuit from the same carrier delivered to another location, you'll have yourself a WAN (Wide Area Network).

A DS3 is nothing more than 28 T1's. A lot of capability if you need it.

I personally dislike DSL because it's not a reliable business product for most companies over 10 users. So choose carefully.

For help in finding the best voice/data network solution .... with consideration for T1 Bandwidth .... take advantage of the free help from here: T1 Bandwidth

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