BIT RATE: In telecommunications and computing, bit rate (sometimes written bitrate or as a variable R[1]) is the number of bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time. The bit rate is quantified using the bits per second (bit/s or bps) unit, often in conjunction with an SI prefix such as kilo- (kbit/s or kbps), mega- (Mbit/s or Mbps), giga- (Gbit/s or Gbps) or tera- (Tbit/s or Tbps). Note that, unlike many other computer-related units, 1 kbit/s is traditionally defined as 1,000-bit/s, not 1,024-bit/s, etc., also before 1999 when SI prefixes were introduced for units of information in the standard IEC 60027-2. Uppercase K as in Kbit/s or Kbps should never be used. The symbol for bits per second is bit/s (not bits/s, see writing style for SI units). In less formal contexts the abbreviations b/s or bps are sometimes used, though this risks confusion with bytes per second (B/s, Bps), and the use of the abbreviation ps is also inconsistent with the SI symbol for picosecond. One byte per second (1 B/s) corresponds to 8 bit/s.
Posted on: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 07:01:23 +0000