A signaling event or state change on a communications channel that represents one or more bits of data. Depending on the modulation scheme, a symbol might be a specific frequency, phase shift, or voltage level. The rate at which these symbols are transmitted is the baud rate, which can differ from the bitrate if each symbol encodes multiple bits.
Heard on the job
We're using 64-QAM, so each symbol carries six bits of data across the link.
Related terms
Baud
A measure of signaling rate representing the number of state changes per second on a communications channel.
Bitrate
The speed at which digital information travels across a network or interface.
Signal
An electrical or electromagnetic variation that transmits data or voice from one point to another.