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bandwidth

Measurement of the capacity of a communications signal. For digital signals, the bandwidth is the data speed or rate, measured in bits per second (bps). For analog signals, it is the difference between the highest and lowest frequency components, measured in hertz (cycles per second). For example, a modem with a bandwidth of 56 kilobits per second (Kbps) can transmit a maximum of about 56,000 bits of digital data in one second. The human voice, which produces analog sound waves, has a typical bandwidth of three kilohertz between the highest and lowest frequency sounds it can generate.



(1) Capacity or time. Computer people sometimes use the term very broadly. For example, "there's not enough bandwidth around here to get the job done" means there's not enough extra time or people. Its true meaning follows.

(2) The transmission capacity of an electronic pathway such as a communications line, computer bus or computer channel. In a digital line, it is measured in bits per second or bytes per second (see Mb/sec). In an analog channel or in a digital channel that is wrapped in a carrier frequency, bandwidth is the difference between the highest and lowest frequencies and is measured in Hertz (kHz, MHz, GHz). See traffic shaping, video bandwidth and bandwidth junkie.

(communications) bandwidth - The difference between the highest and lowest frequencies of a transmission channel (the width of its allocated band of frequencies).

.The term is often used erroneously to mean data rate or capacity - the amount of data that is, or can be, sent through a given communications circuit per second