Bandwidth is a common term used to describe a rate of electronic signals traveling through a medium in the form of a wire, cable or channel. Bandwidth can be imagined as a “tunnel” through which the data is transmitted. As you can imagine, the wider it is, the more data can be transferred from one point to another. A bandwidth provides the information about the width of the frequency band and thus the amount of data that can be transmitted using a band and to compare bands.
Basically, we can distinguish two ways of understanding bandwidth: one for electronic communication and one for computer networks.
In the first case, bandwidth means a set of frequencies which can be used by an electronic signal while passing through a certain medium. Here bandwidth is recognized as a difference between the highest and lowest frequency in a continuous set of frequencies within a given band, the range between them. Remember that bands of the same width are able to pass exactly the same amount of information. Their location in the frequency spectrum does not affect their work.
Bandwidth in a computer network is connected with the data transfer rate. It defines the amount of data that can be transferred between the transmitter and receiver in a predefined period of time, which is usually one second.
For analog transmission, bandwidth is measured in Hertz or cycles per second. It can be illustrated by a phone talk, which requires about 4,000 Hertz. More advanced digital transmission is used for communicating between two devices such as computers. In this situation, units of bandwidth are bits per second (bps). For some modern designs such as modems it can be many thousands (Kbps) or even millions of bps (Mbps) when it is measured for advanced full motion video.
The term usually plays an important role in different analog and digital devices used for telephone and radio communication.
Basically, we can distinguish two ways of understanding bandwidth: one for electronic communication and one for computer networks.
In the first case, bandwidth means a set of frequencies which can be used by an electronic signal while passing through a certain medium. Here bandwidth is recognized as a difference between the highest and lowest frequency in a continuous set of frequencies within a given band, the range between them. Remember that bands of the same width are able to pass exactly the same amount of information. Their location in the frequency spectrum does not affect their work.
Bandwidth in a computer network is connected with the data transfer rate. It defines the amount of data that can be transferred between the transmitter and receiver in a predefined period of time, which is usually one second.
For analog transmission, bandwidth is measured in Hertz or cycles per second. It can be illustrated by a phone talk, which requires about 4,000 Hertz. More advanced digital transmission is used for communicating between two devices such as computers. In this situation, units of bandwidth are bits per second (bps). For some modern designs such as modems it can be many thousands (Kbps) or even millions of bps (Mbps) when it is measured for advanced full motion video.
The term usually plays an important role in different analog and digital devices used for telephone and radio communication.
