What is bandwidth in a computer network?

What is bandwidth in a computer network?

• A. The capacity of data transfer in a system, measured by bitrate.
• B. The time delay between sending and receiving data.
• C. The physical medium's color.
• D. The strength of the wireless signal.

Answer: (A)

Bandwidth is the capacity of a network connection to carry data per unit of time. Think of it as the width of a highway: the wider the channel, the more data can travel each second. It’s usually measured in bits per second (bps), with common scales like Kbps, Mbps, or Gbps. This concept describes how much data could be transmitted, not how long a single packet takes to arrive. That delay idea is latency. It’s also not about the physical appearance of the link, like cable color, or about how strong the signal is; signal strength can affect quality but doesn’t define how much data could be sent per second. In real networks, the actual data rate you experience (throughput) can be lower than the bandwidth due to overhead, congestion, or noise.

Bandwidth is the capacity of a network connection to carry data per unit of time. Think of it as the width of a highway: the wider the channel, the more data can travel each second. It’s usually measured in bits per second (bps), with common scales like Kbps, Mbps, or Gbps. This concept describes how much data could be transmitted, not how long a single packet takes to arrive. That delay idea is latency. It’s also not about the physical appearance of the link, like cable color, or about how strong the signal is; signal strength can affect quality but doesn’t define how much data could be sent per second. In real networks, the actual data rate you experience (throughput) can be lower than the bandwidth due to overhead, congestion, or noise.