Data transmission speed is the number of bits per second that can be transmitted
Bit rates (data-rate units)
In telecommunications, data-transfer rate is the average number of bits (bitrate), characters or symbols (baudrate), or data blocks per unit time passing through a communication link in a data-transmission system. Common data rate units are multiples of bits per second (bit/s) and bytes per second (B/s). For example, the data rates of modern residential high-speed Internet connections are commonly expressed in megabits per second (Mbit/s). Show
Standards for unit symbols and prefixes[edit]Unit symbol[edit]The ISQ symbols for the bit and byte are bit and B, respectively. In the context of data-rate units, one byte consists of 8 bits, and is synonymous with the unit octet. The abbreviation bps is often used to mean bit/s, so that when a 1 Mbps connection is advertised, it usually means that the maximum achievable bandwidth is 1 Mbit/s (one million bits per second), which is 0.125 MB/s (megabyte per second), or about 0.1192 MiB/s (mebibyte per second). The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) uses the symbol b for bit. Unit prefixes[edit]In both the SI and ISQ, the prefix k stands for kilo, meaning 1,000, while Ki is the symbol for the binary prefix kibi-, meaning 1,024. The binary prefixes were introduced in 1998 by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and in IEEE 1541-2002 which was reaffirmed on 27 March 2008. The letter K is often used as a non-standard abbreviation for 1,024, especially in "KB" to mean KiB, the kilobyte in its binary sense. In the context of data rates, however, typically only decimal prefixes are used, and they have their standard SI interpretation. Variations[edit]In 1999, the IEC published Amendment 2 to "IEC 60027-2: Letter symbols to be used in electrical technology – Part 2: Telecommunications and electronics". This standard, approved in 1998, introduced the prefixes kibi-, mebi-, gibi-, tebi-, pebi-, and exbi- to be used in specifying binary multiples of a quantity. The name is derived from the first two letters of the original SI prefixes followed by bi (short for binary). It also clarifies that the SI prefixes are used only to mean powers of 10 and never powers of 2. Decimal multiples of bits[edit]These units are often used in a manner inconsistent with the IEC standard. Kilobit per second[edit]Kilobit per second (symbol kbit/s or kb/s, often abbreviated "kbps") is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:
Megabit per second[edit]Megabit per second (symbol Mbit/s or Mb/s, often abbreviated "Mbps") is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:
Gigabit per second[edit]Gigabit per second (symbol Gbit/s or Gb/s, often abbreviated "Gbps") is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:
Terabit per second[edit]Terabit per second (symbol Tbit/s or Tb/s, sometimes abbreviated "Tbps") is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:
Decimal multiples of bytes[edit]These units are often not used in the suggested ways; see above section titled "variations". Kilobyte per second[edit]kilobyte per second (kB/s) (can be abbreviated as kBps) is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:
Megabyte per second[edit]megabyte per second (MB/s) (can be abbreviated as MBps) is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:
Gigabyte per second[edit]gigabyte per second (GB/s) (can be abbreviated as GBps) is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:
Terabyte per second[edit]terabyte per second (TB/s) (can be abbreviated as TBps) is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:
Conversion table[edit]
Examples of bit rates[edit]
See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
References[edit]
External links[edit]
What is the number of bits transmitted per second?Bit rate is a measure of the number of data bits (that's 0's and 1's) transmitted in one second. A figure of 2400 bits per second means 2400 zeros or ones can be transmitted in one second, hence the abbreviation 'bps'. Baud rate by definition means the number of times a signal in a communications channel changes state.
How is data transmission speed measured?Calculate the transfer speed by dividing the amount of data by the transfer time. Plug the amount of data (A) and transfer time (T) to solve for the rate, or speed (S), into the equation S = A ÷ T. For example, you might have transferred 25 MB in 2 minutes.
Is measured in bits per second and Mbps?Megabits per second (Mbps) are units of measurement for network bandwidth and throughput. They are used to show how fast a network or internet connection is. Each Mbps represents the capacity to transfer 1 million bits each second, or roughly one small photo per second. It may also be expressed as Mbit/s or Mb/s.
Is bit rate same as transmission rate?Bit rate is often used to measure the information rate, since information is measured in bits. Sometimes it is used to measure the number of actual 1s and 0s transmitted per second. When the information is compressed (source-coded), the two definitions are equal. Data rate can be used to mean the same as bit rate.
|