Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line

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What Does Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line Mean?

Symmetric digital subscriber line (SDSL) is a technology based on DSL, which enables data transfer on a single line and allows symmetric bandwidth on the upstream and downstream. The working mechanism of SDSL is considered opposite to that of asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) technology, which offers much faster download than upload speeds.

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Techopedia Explains Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line

SDSL supports data rates up to 3 Mbps through a single pair of copper wires running from a telephone company. It has a maximum range of 3000 meters and uses the entire bandwidth. SDSL cannot be combined with a conventional voice service on the same channel.

SDSL was developed as a proprietary technology, but standardization never took place. Therefore, it was restricted to only connect and communicate with devices from the same vendor.

SDSL is the predecessor of single-pair high-speed digital subscriber line (SDHSL), which is a data communication technology offering faster data transmission over copper telephone wires. SDHSL was standardized in February 2001 by ITU-T with recommendation G.991.2. SDSL is a DSL variant and provides T1/E1-like data rates.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.