2. Bandwidth

The speed of a network is measured in bits per second which are normally grouped up for convenience. These groups are:-

Kilobits per second (Kbps), a thousand bits per second.
Megabits per second (Mbps), a million bits per second.
Gigabits per second (Gbps), a thousand million bits per second.

The term for this is the 'bandwidth' of the network. It describes how much data can be transferred over a connection in a given time.

The table below shows the bandwidth of various networks

You do not have to memorise all these numbers, it is just to show that networks come in a range of bandwidths:

Network bandwidths
Bandwidth	Decription
56Kbps	Bandwidth of a non-broadband dial-up modem
2 to 10 Mbps	Basic copper wire based broadband (download bandwidth)
10 to 75 Mbps	Fibre-Optic based broadband (download bandwidth)
10 - 100 Mbps	Ethernet wired network using Cat-5 cable
1 Gbps - 10 Gbps	Ethernet wired network using Cat-6 cable
54 - 150 Mbps	Standard Wi-Fi connection
900 Mbps	Fast Wi-Fi

As you would expect, the higher the bandwidth, the more expensive it becomes because of the cost of the cables and equipment. So choosing a network connection is a matter of balancing cost and performance.

Challenge see if you can find out one extra fact on this topic that we haven't already told you

Click on this link: Typical Ethernet speeds