Lets first start with bandwidth is NOT a good measurement network speed. Bandwidth is the measurement of how many bits at one moment may be transmitted, but not how long it will take to get from Point A to Point Z. Latency is the the delay before a transfer of data begins following an instruction for its transfer. We need to start with looking at those two words before getting into the difference between Broadband Network Access Providers that have “asynchronous transfer rates” indirectly to the Internet and Dedicated Internet Access Providers have “synchronous transfer rates” directly to the “Internet.”
- Broadband Network Access Providers that have an asynchronous transfer rates normally have large download bandwidth (at varying latencies due to congestion) and much smaller upload bandwidth.
- Direct Internet Access Providers that have synchronous transfer rates normally have the same download bandwidth (with consistent lower latency) as upload bandwidth making download and upload consistent in both directions.
Asynchronous transfer rates pose big issues in Corporate networks that need to transmit large amounts of data to the cloud, because the time it takes for something to leave the network and travel up to the cloud is “jittery” with less amounts of available network access than when receiving data from the Internet. This makes cloud backups, offsite disaster recovery processes, and employees accessing corporate information inefficient and slow.
Synchronous transfer rates alleviate the strain by cutting out the middle network access provider and supplying your network users with the same amount of bandwidth in both download and upload directions. Transferring large speeds in both directions allows cloud access and employee remote access more stable and much faster than from a broadband network access provider.
When employees are at home, they are typically also connected to broadband data networks. When a request is made from the home user through the Internet to the Corporate network, the upload bandwidth is capped by the home Internet provider as well as the corporate broadband provider. This bandwidth limitation causes very slow data rates in both directions to the Corporate network. Broadband Network Access operates as an “onramp” to a highway bypass that eventually connects you to the superhighway where a Dedicated Internet Access Provider skips the Bypass and onramps your data directly to the superhighway. If the home network has a 100mb/s download and 5mb/s upload and the corporate network has a 100mb/s download and 5mb/s upload, the maximum transmission speed will be locked to the limited upload bandwidth of both sites which is 5mb/s.
Synchronous and Asynchronous both have their legitimate applications, where the asynchronous is a low-cost solution for a home user and a synchronous dedicated Internet pathway is requirement for reliable upload from corporate WANs.
When your corporate data is mission-critical and a requirement is necessary for employees to access that mission-critical data offsite, Dedicated Internet Access is the only the solution. Dedicated Internet Access Providers also have the ability to scale their network speeds across fiber in near real-time. If your network access needs to be scaled from 50mb/s to 100mb/s in both directions, it is often achieved through your account portal. The same cannot be said with broadband network providers that are limited in scalability and reliability.
“What the corporate IT departments are finding as they start troubleshooting is that home connections are mostly asymmetric and that’s creating a strain, because a lot of these business applications require symmetrical connectivity.” #FierceTelecom
(Stealth CEO: Aysmmetric broadband speeds cause strain during work from home efforts; May 6th, 2020; Mike Robuck)
Essentially, what the work from home requirement during any crisis has demonstrated is a need to have scalable and synchronous networks that allow for reliable and sustainable network access from employee to corporate access with as much bandwidth as feasible. At this point Coaxial cable and legacy copper based technologies are no longer contenders for a primary path to the Internet for corporate networks, because access is no longer just about the download. Synchronous and Asynchronous are of significant importance when planning your remote worker policies to guarantee productivity and accessibility.
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3LRT, LLC. d/b/a TIER4 Technical Support assists in the deployment of Fiber WAN, Switched Ethernet Across Fiber, and numerous Work From Home (WFH) Technologies, including Workforce Management systems to ensure access and productivity of your remote workers. For more information about Work From Home Technologies, Workforce Management systems, or Fiber, contact sales@3lrt.com or via telephone at 989-569-6655. Visit our website at http://www.tier4ts.com for more information. Link to this article.
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