Difference between Bit Rate and Baud Rate

In telecommunication and electronics engineering, Bit Rate and Baud Rate are two commonly used terms in the context of data communication. Both these terms represent the speed of data transmission in the computer networks. The basic difference between Bit Rate and Baud Rate is that the Bit Rate is defined as the number of bits (binary 0s and 1s) transmitted over a network in unit time, whereas Baud Rate is defined as the number of signal units transmitted over a network in unit time.

Thus, bit rate and baud rate both the related terms, and the relationship between these terms is given by,

Bit Rate = Baud Rate × Number of Bits per Baud

In practice, Bit rate is more important when we are concerned about the efficiency of a computer, while the baud rate is important in data transmission.

What is Bit Rate?

In telecommunications and computing, "bit rate" is the number of bits communicated or processed per unit of time. Bit rate is measured in bits per second (symbol: bit/s) and is commonly prefixed with a SI prefix like kilo, mega, Giga, or Tera.

The non-standard term "bps" is sometimes used instead of the conventional sign "bit/s". Therefore, 1 Mbps stands for one million bits per second. One byte per second (1 B/s) equates to 8 bits per second in most computer and digital communication contexts.

What is Baud Rate?

In telecommunications and electronics, a "baud" is a standard symbol rate measuring unit. It is one of the components that determine the speed of transmission across a data channel.

In pulses per second, symbols per second, it is the unit for symbol rate or modulation rate. In a digitally modulated signal or a "baud rate line code", it is the number of unique symbol changes (signaling events) made to the transmission medium per second.

The term "baud" refers to the gross bit rate, which is measured in bits per second. If the system has only two symbols (usually 0 and 1), baud and bit per second (bit/s) are interchangeable.

Difference between Bit Rate and Baud Rate

The following table highlights the major differences between Bit rate and Baud rate −

Conclusion

From the above discussion, we can conclude that both Bit Rate and Baud rate are the terms related to the speed of data transmission. The most significant difference between these two terms is that the Bit Rate provides information about transmission of bits per unit time, while the Baud Rate gives information about transmission of the number of signal units per unit time.