Baud
symbol rate measurement in telecommunications
In telecommunications and electronics, baud (; symbol: Bd) is a common unit of measurement of symbol rate, which is one of the components that determine the speed of communication over a data channel.
It is the unit for symbol rate or modulation rate in symbols per second or pulses per second. It is the number of distinct symbol changes (signalling events) made to the transmission medium per second in a digitally modulated signal or a bd rate line code.
Baud is related to gross bit rate, which can be expressed in bits per second (bit/s). If there are precisely two symbols in the system (typically 0 and 1), then baud and bits per second are equivalent.
Naming
The baud unit is named after Émile Baudot, the inventor of the Baudot code for telegraphy, and is represented according to the rules for SI units.
That is, the first letter of its symbol is uppercase (Bd), but when the unit is spelled out, it should be written in lowercase (baud) except when it begins a sentence or is capitalized for another reason, such as in title case.
It was defined by the CCITT (now the ITU-T) in November 1926. The earlier standard had been the number of words per minute, which was a less robust measure since word length can vary.
Definitions
The symbol duration time, also known as the unit interval, can be directly measured as the time between transitions by looking at an eye diagram of the signal on an oscilloscope.
“Baud” enters the record as symbol rate measurement in telecommunications. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Baud, symbol and rate can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q192027. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1926.
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This entry incorporates text from “Baud” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.