kbps to Hz Calculator

kbps or kilobits-per-second is a measure of data throughput.

Hz is a measure of Frequency Bandwidth.

The tool answers the question: How much bandwidth (in Hz) is required to transfer a user-specified number of kilobits every second in a communication system?

Enter:

  • Data rate in kbps
  • Signal-to-Noise ratio (default value is 10 dB)

🔁 Hz to kbps

Example Calculations

For a communication channel with 10 dB SNR, it takes 2900 Hz or 2.9 kHz of Bandwidth to transfer 1 kbps.

As the SNR is increased to 20 dB for instance, it takes about half the bandwidth – 1500 Hz or 1.5 kHz.

As the signal to noise ratio is increased, it improves the reliability of the communication medium. Hence a smaller amount of bandwidth (Hz) is required to transmit the same amount of data (measured in kbps).

Formula

To calculate the bandwidth we use the Shannon-Hartley formula

B = C/(Log2(1 + S/N))

where,

  • B is the bandwidth in Hz
  • C is the throughput in bits per second
  • S/N is the Signal-to-Noise ratio

Key Assumptions

The Shannon-Hartley formula makes the following assumptions:

  • The noise is white Gaussian. In other words it does not consider the effect of Fading which can cause additional signal losses.
  • The throughput in bit-per-second is an upper bound. It represents an ideal condition that can be achieved with an arbitrarily low error rate.

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