data transfer rate
(foldoc) | data transfer rate
data rate
transfer rate
(Or "throughput, data rate", "transmission
rate") The amount of data transferred in one direction over
a link divided by the time taken to transfer it, usually
expressed in bits per second (bps), bytes per second (Bps) or
baud. The link may be anything from an interface to a {hard
disk} to a radio transmission from a satellite.
Where data transfer is not continuous throughout the given
time interval, the data transfer rate is thus an average rate
that will be lower than the peak rate. The peak or maximum
possible rate may itself be lower than the capacity of the
communication channel if the channel is shared, or part of the
signal is not considered as data, e.g. checksum or routing
information.
When applied to data rate, the multiplier prefixes "kilo-",
"mega-", "giga-", etc. (and their abbreviations, "k", "M",
"G", etc.) always denote powers of 1000. For example, 64 kbps
is 64,000 bits per second. This contrasts with units of
storage where they stand for powers of 1024, e.g. 1 KB =
1024 bytes.
The other important characteristic of a channel is its
latency.
The bandwidth of a channel determines the data transfer rate
but is a different characteristic, measured in Hertz.
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(2008-02-08)
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