Meaning – The abbreviation ‘bps’ stands for bits per second, and is defined as the measure of data transmission speeds, the amount of bits transferred in a single second. Typically, speeds are measured in kbps (1000 bits per second).
Usually, the bandwidth of a signal depends on the speed in bits per second. The higher the bps number, the greater is the nominal signal bandwidth. (Speed and bandwidth are, however, not the same thing.) Bandwidth is measured in standard frequency units of kHz or MHz.
It is important to note, that in order to represent bits per second, the letter ‘b’ is used. This is because, the ‘B’ letter is used to denote Bytes, which then takes on a completely different meaning and value.
Example of usage – “Bits per second is the standard measure of bit rate speed. However, millions of bits can be transferred in a second and measuring in single bit units can be cumbersome.”