Meaning – The word Baud is used to describe the maximum oscillation rate of an electronic signal. Initially, this term was used to measure the rate of electronic pulses, but today, it is also used to measure data transmission speeds of modems.
An easy way to explain baud is if the modem transfers one bit per electronic pulse, then one baud will be equal to one bit per second. Modems today are designed to select the most appropriate baud rate automatically, thereby relieving the user from the having to adjust or select it all the time. However, if a specific baud rate is required by the user, it can be manually entered.
Example of usage – “If the duration of the unit interval is 20 milliseconds, the modulation rate is 50 baud.”