In measuring data transmission speed, a terabit is one trillion binary digit s, or 1,000,000,000,000 (that is, 10 12 ) bits. A terabit is used for measuring the amount of data that is transferred in a second between two telecommunication points or within network devices. For example, several companies are building a network switch that passes incoming packets through the device and out again at a terabits-per-second speed. Terabits per second is usually shortened to Tbps.

Next Steps

Although the bit is a unit of the binary number system, bits in data communications have historically been counted using the decimal number system. For example, 28.8 kilobits per second ( Kbps ) is 28,800 bits per second. Because of computer architecture and memory address boundaries, bytes are always some multiple or exponent of two.

This was last updated in April 2005
Posted by: Margaret Rouse

Related Terms

Definitions

  • carrier network

    - A carrier network is the proprietary network infrastructure belonging to a telecommunications service provider such as Verizon, AT&T or Sprint. (WhatIs.com)

  • mean opinion score (MOS)

    - In voice communications, particularly Internet telephony, the mean opinion score (MOS) provides a numerical measure of the quality of human speech at the destination end of the circuit. (SearchNetworking.com)

  • Sequential Couleur avec Memoire (SECAM)

    - SECAM (Sequential Couleur avec Memoire) is the television display technology that is standard in France, the countries of the former Soviet Union, and certain other countries. (WhatIs.com)

Glossaries

  • Circuit switched services equipment and providers

    - Terms related to circuit switched services equipment and providers, including dedicated communications channel definitions and words and phrases about telecommunications.

  • Data transmission

    - Terms related to data transmission, including definitions about communication channels and words and phrases about point-to-point and point-to-multipoint data transfers.

  • Internet applications

    - This WhatIs.com glossary contains terms related to Internet applications, including definitions about Software as a Service (SaaS) delivery models and words and phrases about web sites, e-commerce ...

Dig Deeper

Fast References

People Who Read This Also Read...

Ask a Question About terabitPowered by ITKnowledgeExchange.com

Get answers from your peers on your most technical challenges

Tech TalkComment

Share
Comments

    Results

    Contribute to the conversation

    All fields are required. Comments will appear at the bottom of the article.
    Back to top