An uplink is the transmission path from an edge device, such as a mobile phone, satellite dish, or local switch, back to the central network infrastructure. In cellular and satellite networks, the uplink usually operates on a different frequency than the downlink to prevent interference. In enterprise networking, an uplink port connects an edge switch to a core router, aggregating traffic from multiple users.
Heard on the job
The downlink is showing 500 megabits, but our uplink is saturated because everyone is pushing video to the server.
Also heard as
- TX
Do not mix it up with
- Downlink: The downlink carries data from the core network to the end user, while the uplink carries data from the user to the network.