An Introduction to Baud Rate

Baud rate, or also known as symbol rate or modulation rate, is a technical term related to electronic devices. This term refers to the number of times in a second where the serial communication would change its state of voltage, frequency, or frequency phase angle. Its unit, baud or the abbreviated version, Bd, stems from French inventor and telegraph engineer, Jean Maurice Emile Baudot. He is famed for creating the Baudot code, as well as the system that enables telegraphs to be printed, which both had helped change telecommunications for the better.

One thing you should definitely note about these formulas is that baud rates that are higher will mean that there is a larger amount of data that can be transferred, so long the bits per symbol compared is the same. Thus, 4800 baud modems of 4 bits per second as compared to 9600 baud modems of 4 bits per second, would transfer much less data in a second. Hence, higher baud modems were desirable, as they could speed the process of transferring data.

The time when baud rate was most referred to was at the end of the 20th century during the days of dial-up modems which used phone lines for their connections. As baud would be the unit used to describe the capacity of transmitting data within a second; hence, it was natural for modems to face technological advances from the 2400 baud modem, to the 4800 baud to the 9600 baud modem. Especially when the advances took place with other technologies as well, prices dropped to allow the boom of the modernized versions of a lot of electronic items. Devices that transmitted data had become even more powerful and even served for different purposes, eventually leading people to using bit rate instead of baud when describing the speed of their devices.




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