In
telecommunications,
data transfer rate is the average number of
bits (
bitrate), characters or symbols (
baudrate), or blocks per unit time passing between equipment in a data transmission system. Most commonly, measurements of data transfer rate are reported in multiples of
unit bits per second (bit/s) or occasionally in
bytes per second (B/s). The data rates of modern residential high-speed Internet connections are most commonly expressed in multiples of bits per second, such as megabits per second (Mbit/s) or kilobits per second (kbit/s).