Data rate

Data rate and data transfer rate can refer to several related and overlapping concepts in communications networks:

Achieved rate

Bit rate, the number of bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time
- Data signaling rate or gross bit rate, a bit rate that includes protocol overhead
Symbol rate or baud rate, the number of symbol changes, waveform changes, or signaling events across the transmission medium per unit of time
Data-rate units, measures of the bit rate or baud rate of a link
Data transfer rate (disk drive), a data rate specific to disk drive operations
Throughput, the rate of successful message delivery, or level of bandwidth consumption
Transfers per second

Bandwidth (computing), the maximum rate of data transfer across a given path
Channel capacity, an information-theoretic upper bound on the rate at which data can be reliably transmitted, given noise on a channel