MBps is an abbreviation for Megabytes per second, whereas mbps and Mbps are abbreviations for megabits per second.
Eight megabits equal one Megabyte. These abbreviations are commonly
used to specify how much data can be transferred per second between two
points.
To put megabits and Megabytes
in perspective, lets back up for just a moment. One bit of data is a
single “on” or “off” digit, a one or zero. It takes eight bits to
represent a single character, or one byte of data.
- 8 bits = 1 byte
- 1000 bytes = 8 kilobits (kb) = 1 Kilobyte (KB)
- 1000 Kilobytes (KB) = 8 megabits (mb) = 1 Megabyte (MB)
As a point of possible confusion it should be mentioned
that there are two different systems for calculating multiples of data:
the decimal system as noted above, and the binary system.
According
to the binary system, used in relation to computer storage and memory,
it takes not 1000 bytes to equal a KB, but 1024 bytes. This is because
24 extra bytes are used to store indexing or mapping information about
the 1000 bytes of data. Technically, the designations in this case are
Kibibyte (KiB) and Mebibyte (MiB), but these haven’t caught on in the
public sector, leading many uses of “MB” to mean 1024 kilobytes, and
others to mean 1000 kilobytes. When considering MBps or mbps, however, the decimal system applies, as the reference is to data transfer rates and not data storage.
Data transfer rates are quite handy for gauging performance levels of
various hardware devices. Everything from USB and Firewire® ports to
memory card readers and mobile devices are associated with corresponding
transfer rates, often measured in megabits or Megabytes per second.
We must also translate speed to value when considering Internet service plans, advertised by download and upload speeds expressed in kilobits per second (kbps) or megabits per second. For example, a typical Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)
plan might have an upper transfer limit of 1,500 kbps, which can also
be expressed as 1.5 mbps. A cable plan might be advertised with speeds
up to 5,000 kbps or 5 mbps; and fiber optic Internet can reach speeds of
50 mbps or more.
The wireless G network (802.11g) has a maximum transfer rate of 54
mbps, making it much faster than all but the fastest fiber optic
Internet plans. Thankfully, going wireless won’t slow your surfing. The
more current wireless N standard (802.11n) can’t speed up your Internet
connection, but will allow faster data transfer rates between local
networked computers of up to 100 mbps, or about twice the data transfer rate of G networks.
As if the abbreviations aren’t close enough to cause confusion, it
doesn’t help that they are often expressed in the wrong case. When in
doubt look for translations such as the kilobit or Kilobyte equivalent,
or simply ask someone if the specification is indeed megabits per second
or Megabytes per second.
