Data transmission rates

 An important characteristic of any communications medium is the rate at which it can transmit
data.
 People become frustrated when they have to wait more than a second or two for a file to
download from a server or the internet.
 The main factors that determine transmission rates are the devices such as network interface
cards, modems and routers along with transmission medium being used-copper wire, optical
fibre or wireless.
 Three of the main terms used to describe transmission rates are bits per second (bps), baud
and bandwidth.

In the most common definition, there are 8 bits in one byte.

One bit is either a flow of electricity or no electricity. This written as 0 or 1. There are four bits in a
nibble and two nibbles in a byte.

8 bits = 1 byte.

1024 bytes = 1KB

1024 KB = 1 MB

1024 MB = 1 GB

Bits per second

The smallest symbol of digital data is the bit (binary digit), which has a value of either 0 or 1. Each bit is
transmitted across a section of wire by a change in voltage or a change in characteristic of a light beam
(for example, frequency or phase) in an optical fibre. Modern communications media allows very fast
transfers of data and are measured in megabits per second (Mbps) and gigabits per second (Gbps). This
means that a 10-megabyte (MB) file transmitted at 10 Mbps would take eight seconds to download.
Recall that there eight bits in a byte.

Baud
Baud rate is the number of signal(s) for example voltage changes that can be handled each second by
the transmitting hardware. Originally a transmission protocol or device used one signal or voltage
change to send one bit of data, so a transmission rate of 300bps meant that the device would need to
have 300 voltage changes every second. However, this can be modified to two or more bits per signal
change.

Eventually descriptions of devices using baud rates became less relevant as most computer users were
more interested in how fast their data was being sent than how many signals were actually used to
transmit the data. The number of bits per second that a network or medium can support is considered
to be a better performance measure.
Bandwidth
We often express broadband connections to the internet in terms of the bandwidth available. This is a
measure of the maximum possible data transfer. Bandwidth indicates the range of frequencies that can
be transmitted on. Broad bandwidth or broadband indicates a wide range of frequencies, which in turn
means the ability to transmit data at a faster rate. FIG 13.13 compares the speeds of some of the
common connection modes. Although new technologies are constantly improving these rates. From day
to day and place to place these actual speeds of transmission may vary based on factors such as line
quality, distance from exchange, hardware capabilities, server route and network congestion.

You can test your own connection speed for free by connecting to one of the websites designed for this
purpose. The terms ping, jitter and packet loss are often used to measure quality of an internet
connection.

A ping measurement tells you how long it takes a packet of data to travel from your computer to a
server on the internet and back. A result below 100 milliseconds should be expected from any decent
broadband connection. Jitter is the difference in successive ping measurements and should be just a
fraction of the actual ping value. So, if one ping takes 0.10 seconds and the next one takes 0.11 seconds
the jitter value is 0.01 seconds.

However, the quality of your broadband connection does not just rely on speed. Streaming media,
voice, video communications and online gaming need to have the quality of the transmitted data
preserved. Loss of data packets can mean much slower download and upload speeds, poor quality VoIP
audio, pauses with streaming media such as video and what seems to be time warping in games.
Identify Answers
1. It is important to measure data transmission rates as it’s an important characteristic of any
communications as it may establish the speed and quality of data-transmitting capabilities of a
system/mode of ‘transportation’.

2. The main factors that determine data transmission rates across a network are related devices such as
the network interface card and modems, as well as the transmission medium used such as copper wire,
optical fibre, wireless cables etc.

3. The smallest symbol of digital data is a bit and it has a value of either 0 or 1.

4. Bits can be transmitted across a cable by a change of voltage/signal or a change in characteristic of a

light beam.

5. We usually use megabits per second/Mbps or gigabits per second/Gbps to measure the transfer of
data.

6. The difference between bps and baud is that BPS tell us how many bits can be transferred in a second
or seconds while Baud tell us the number of signal or voltage changes that can be handled in a second.

7. Bandwidth is a measure of the maximum possible data transfer between 2 devices and it may also
refer to the available broadband connections to the internet.

8. We use the terms…

1. Ping- Measurement for the time a data packet takes to travel from your computer to server in the
internet and then back.

2. Jitter- Measurement of the difference in successive ping measurements.

3. Packet Loss- Measurement for amount of data packets lost during their transmission between 2
endpoints, usually during the TCP/IP process.

…To measure the quality of an internet connection.