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Data rate units

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bit/s
  
1

kbit/s
  
10

Gbit/s
  
10

1
  
1

Mbit/s
  
10

Tbit/s
  
10

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).

Contents

Unit symbol

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.

Prefix

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.

Variations

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 be used only to mean powers of 10 and never powers of 2.

Decimal multiples of bits

These units are often used in a manner inconsistent with the IEC standard.

Kilobit per second

kilobit per second (symbol kbit/s or kb/s, often abbreviated "kbps") is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:

  • 1,000 bits per second
  • 125 bytes per second

    • Megabit per second

    megabit per second (symbol mbit/s or mb/s, often abbreviated "mbps") is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:

  • 1,000,000 bits per second
  • 1,000 kilobits per second
  • 125,000 bytes per second
  • 125 kilobytes per second

    • Gigabit per second

    gigabit per second (symbol Gbit/s or Gb/s, often abbreviated "Gbps") is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:

  • 1,000 megabits per second
  • 1,000,000 kilobits per second
  • 1,000,000,000 bits per second
  • 125,000,000 bytes per second

    • Terabit per second

    terabit per second (symbol Tbit/s or Tb/s, sometimes abbreviated "Tbps") is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:

  • 1,000 gigabits per second
  • 1,000,000 megabits per second
  • 1,000,000,000 kilobits per second
  • 1,000,000,000,000 bits per second
  • 125,000,000,000 bytes per second

    • Binary multiples of bits

    The prefix name for binary prefixes (e.g., "kibi") is not capitalized, but the prefix symbol (e.g. "Ki") is.

    Kibibit per second

    The kibibit per second (Kibit/s) is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:

  • 1,024 bits per second

    • Mebibit per second

    The mebibit per second (Mibit/s) is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:

  • 1,048,576 bits per second
  • 1,024 kibibits per second

    • Gibibit per second

    The gibibit per second (Gibit/s) is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:

  • 1,073,741,824 bits per second
  • 1,048,576 kibibits per second
  • 1,024 mebibits per second

    • Tebibit per second

    The tebibit per second (Tibit/s) is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:

  • 1,099,511,627,776 bits per second
  • 1,073,741,824 kibibits per second
  • 1,048,576 mebibits per second
  • 1,024 gibibits per second

    • Decimal multiples of bytes

    These units are often not used in the suggested ways! See above section titled "variations".

    Kilobyte per second

    kilobyte per second (kB/s) is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:

  • 8,000 bits per second
  • 1,000 bytes per second
  • 8 kilobits per second

    • Megabyte per second

    megabyte per second (MB/s) is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:

  • 8,000,000 bits per second
  • 1,000,000 bytes per second
  • 1,000 kilobytes per second
  • 8 megabits per second

    • Gigabyte per second

    gigabyte per second (GB/s) is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:

  • 8,000,000,000 bits per second
  • 1,000,000,000 bytes per second
  • 1,000,000 kilobytes per second
  • 1,000 megabytes per second
  • 8 gigabits per second

    • Terabyte per second

    terabyte per second (TB/s) is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:

  • 8,000,000,000,000 bits per second
  • 1,000,000,000,000 bytes per second
  • 1,000,000,000 kilobytes per second
  • 1,000,000 megabytes per second
  • 1,000 gigabytes per second
  • 8 terabits per second

    • Kibibyte per second

    The kibibyte per second (KiB/s) is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:

  • 1,024 bytes per second
  • 8 kibibits per second
  • 8192 bits per second

    • Mebibyte per second

    The mebibyte per second (MiB/s) is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:

  • 1,048,576 bytes per second
  • 1,024 kibibytes per second
  • 8 mebibits per second
  • 8192 kibibits per second
  • 8,388,608 bits per second

    • Gibibyte per second

    The gibibyte per second (GiB/s) is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:

  • 1,073,741,824 bytes per second
  • 1,048,576 kibibytes per second
  • 1,024 mebibytes per second
  • 8 gibibits per second
  • 8192 mebibits per second
  • 8,388,608 kibibits per second
  • 8,589,934,592 bits per second

    • Tebibyte per second

    The tebibyte per second (TiB/s) is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:

  • 1,099,511,627,776 bytes per second
  • 1,073,741,824 kibibytes per second
  • 1,048,576 mebibytes per second
  • 1,024 gibibytes per second
  • 8 tebibits per second
  • 8192 gibibits per second
  • 8,388,608 mebibits per second
  • 8,589,934,592 kibibits per second
  • 8,796,093,022,208 bits per second

    • References

    Data rate units Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA