What is the difference between dedicated and shared bandwidth?
When considering the cost of designing, building, launching, and operating a satellite it is easy to understand that it would be cost prohibitive to permit exclusive access to all or even part of its resource through a service profile described as ‘dedicated bandwidth’.
To achieve a balance between service and financial viability, a common technique used by broadband providers is to ‘share’ available capacity, creating defined grades of service profiles to meet the varying price points of their audience. These service profiles will typically be defined by headline data rates (the maximum download and upload speeds achievable by the link) along with a monthly data quota. ‘Unlimited’ data plans are also marketed and are often associated with a contention ratio (a reference to the number of subscribers sharing the link), alternatively they may be subject to additional controls described within the terms of supply.
Should a predefined data quota threshold be reached (or exceeded) within a month then the headline rates applied will reduce or ‘throttle’ to the nominal levels specified by the subscription; this would be evident to affected customers by an experience of a slower service performance. Data quotas typically reset on the same day of every month, mirroring when the subscription was activated. On this anniversary date a fresh data quota is applied and any subscribers who have had their service ‘throttled’ are returned to a non-restricted state.
It is normally the case that subscriptions that have an attributed data usage allowance will evidence average speeds at a higher level than those with ‘unlimited’ data plans. This is intuitive within a finite resource, as you would expect customers with data usage constraints to be more considered regarding their access; releasing their allocated bandwidth resource back into the network which allows other subscribers to complete their online tasks quicker, thus creating a positive network gain loop.
Actual service performance within a shared bandwidth pool will vary depending on the number (plus how bandwidth intensive the applications being used by them) of subscribers accessing the resource at the point of use; this is typically advised by the network operator as periods of peak and off-peak network loading.
Dedicated bandwidth or Committed Information Rate (CIR) service plans supply 100% of the bandwidth subscribed to and they are not subject to data quotas or bandwidth management controls. In addition to the freedom offered by dedicated bandwidth service plans, service providers tend to offer additional features such as bespoke routing options and Point of Presence (POP) customisation. Due to the premium price associated with dedicated bandwidth it is typically a service profile that is only financially viable for broadcasters, corporations, governments, and militaries when supporting requirements of an operationally critical nature.
Our Freedomsat service is capable of supplying both shared and dedicated bandwidth services to meet the wide range of requirements of our customer base. If you have any questions around which is most appropriate to your needs, then please complete and submit the below form and our team will be happy to advise.