A network in which all devices can send and receive data at the same rates. Symmetric networks support more bandwidth in one direction as compared to the other, and symmetric DSL offers clients the same bandwidth for both downloads and uploads. A lesser used definition for symmetric network involves resource access—in particular, the equal sharing of resource access. In contrast, asymmetric networks divide at least part of the resources unequally between devices. Pure P2P (Peer-to-Peer) networks such as Gnutella use “perfect” symmetry, meaning that all computers on the network have equal opportunities to discover, publish, and receive content.

See Also: DSL; Gnutella; Peer-to-Peer (P2P).