bandwidth \band"width`\ n.
   The maximum rate of information transfer (measured in
   bits/second) that can be carried by a communication channel.
   "The bandwidth of an analog telephone line is less than 100
   kilobits per second."
   [WordNet 1.5]

	

	bandwidth
    n 1: a data transmission rate; the maximum amount of information
         (bits/second) that can be transmitted along a channel

	

	bandwidth
 n.

    1. [common] Used by hackers (in a generalization of its technical meaning)
    as the volume of information per unit time that a computer, person, or
    transmission medium can handle. ?Those are amazing graphics, but I missed
    some of the detail ? not enough bandwidth, I guess.? Compare
    low-bandwidth; see also brainwidth. This generalized usage began to go
    mainstream after the Internet population explosion of 1993-1994.

    2. Attention span.

    3. On Usenet, a measure of network capacity that is often wasted by
    people complaining about how items posted by others are a waste of
    bandwidth.

	

	bandwidth

    The difference between the highest and lowest
   frequencies of a transmission channel (the width of its
   allocated band of frequencies).

   The term is often used erroneously to mean data rate or
   capacity - the amount of data that is, or can be, sent
   through a given communications circuit per second.

   [How is data capacity related to bandwidth?]

   [Jargon File]

   (2001-04-24)