Dedicated or Shared ???

by Hamidur on Wednesday, April 08, 2009

There are different types of packages offered by ISPs according to the user type and their requirements. Packages can be categorized as

• Dedicated Bandwidth
• Shared Bandwidth

Dedicated Bandwidth
Dedicated bandwidth opens up a new multimedia world in which all kinds of information -- text, graphics, audio and video -- can be delivered to a PC and other devices. This type of bandwidth is dedicatedly assigned for a user according to the SLA signed by ISP and the respective user. Bandwidth can be symmetric or asymmetric. CIR is ensured by the ISP that’s why this package is expensive. Normally corporate office uses this type of package.

Shared Bandwidth
As dedicated bandwidth is not affordable for home user as well as many corporate users, shared packages are offered. A single package can be shared by a number of users. In some shared package, users are ensured CIR and also MIR by the ISP. Example: 64 CIR; 128 MIR. Some times packages are advertised by their contention ratio, such as 1:4, means the package will be shared by four users. But it is very rare in Bangladesh about such advertisements. Even if ISPs themselves are maintaining the contention ratio, most of them are not eager to share that information with consumers. Some packages offer no CIR. Users depend on the mercy of ISP. They might get different amount of throughput along the day.
As no dedicated bandwidth is offered to a particular client, price is quite affordable.