Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)

What is Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)?

Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) is a technology that transports high-bandwidth data such as multimedia over ordinary twisted pair copper wire telephone lines.

DSL technology assumes that digital data does not require change into analog form and back, so it transmits the data directly in digital form, allowing for wider bandwidth transmission. The signal can also be separated to allow some of the bandwidth to be used to transmit an analog signal, allowing users to use their telephones and computers simultaneously on the same line.

DSL was originally part of the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISD) specification introduced in 1984. In the beginning, ISDN was used for point-to-point connections for different kinds of data sharing. With the passage of time and the increasing size of networks, ISDN gave a low data speed because of various issues, from interruptions in telephone lines to natural factors like fog and rain. After the failure of ISDN, DSL emerged and started providing broadband connections over an analog medium with an efficient network environment. DSL mainly uses copper wires and fiber optic cables as its transmission medium.