In this post we explain how to convert from Data throughput in terms of Bits per second (bps/kbps/Mbps/Gbps) to Bandwidth (Hz/kHz/MHz/GHz) to
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
In the calculator below, enter the bandwidth and the SNR (dB)
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.
Example Calculations
5G Throughput vs Bandwidth
5G has a target throughput of 1000 Mb/s. 5G FR1 frequencies (below 6 GHz) have a maximum bandwidth of 100 MHz.
To achieve 1000 Mb/s with a 10 dB signal-to-noise ratio requires a bandwidth of about 290 MHz. Using the calculator, increase the SNR and we find that at 30 dB SNR, the bandwidth requirement is relaxed to 100 MHz.
It’s important to note that this doesn’t consider a multi-user scenario nor does it consider fading or any real-world propagation effects. It will be easier to achieve this throughput in the mmWave FR2 frequency range where the bandwidths can be 400 MHz.