Glossary

B

Bandwidth
The maximum capacity of a network channel. Usually expressed in bits per second (bps). Ethernet channels have bandwidths of 10, 100, or 1000 Mbps.

Baud
A unit of signaling speed representing the number of discrete signal events per second and, depending upon the encoding, can differ from the bit rate.

Bit
A binary digit. The smallest unit of data, either a zero or a one.

Bit Rate
The amount of bits that can be sent per second. Usually described in units of kbps or Mbps and frequently referred to as the data rate.

Block Encoding
Block encoding is a system whereby a group of data bits are encoded into a larger set of code bits. Block encoding is used in Fast Ethernet.

Bridge
A device that connects two or more networks at the data link layer (layer 2 of the OSI model).

Broadcast
A transmission initiated by one station and sent to all stations on the network.

Bus
A shared connection for multiple devices over a cable or backplane.