Megabit per second

Encyclopedia : M : ME : MEG : Megabit per second

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A megabit per second (Mbps or Mbit/s) is a unit of data transfer rate equal to 1,000,000 bits per second or 1,000 kilobits per second.

The bandwidth of consumer broadband internet services are often rated in Mbit/s.

Data streams representing compressed video are often measured in Mbit/s:

• 32 kbit/s — videophone quality (minimum necessary for a recognizable talking head)
• 2 Mbit/s — VHS quality
• 8 Mbit/s — DVD quality
• 55 Mbit/s — HDTV quality

Related units

One megabit per second should not be confused with one mebibit per second:

10⁶ bit/s = 1,000,000 bit/s = 1 Mbit/s (one megabit, or one million bits, per second)

2²⁰ bit/s = 1,048,576 bit/s = 1 Mibit/s (one mebibit per second)

However, the mebibit per second is almost never used, and there is no ambiguity in telecommunications speed as a result (see Binary prefix for the corresponding ambiguous definition when measuring computer storage). This is because the mebibit has no significance in raw bit rate terms — where storage size is constrained by the binary number system, no such limitation exists when sending electrical pulses or flashes of light.

See also

• Megabit, a unit of information storage (as opposed to transmission).
• List of device bandwidths.

 

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