Transfer Rate

Transfer Rate

What Does Transfer Rate Mean?

Transfer rate is a standard metric that isused to measure the speed at which data or information travels from onelocation to another. It is often expressed in bits or bytes per second, withthe prefix changing to accommodate the variable size of the data beingtransferred such as "kilo," "mega" or "giga."Transfer rate often depends on the technology being used for the transfer.

Transfer rate isoften related to data, as in data transfer rate (DTR), which is often tied to aspecific technology such as the kind of network and communicationinfrastructure being used. Newer technologies such as 4G and LTE have betterdata transfer rates compared to older ones (e.g., 3G and 2G).

This metric isalso used for technologies that deal with storing data exclusively, such asdisks and disk arrays and clusters. The transfer rate for disks is dependent onthe speed of the disk rotation and on the accuracy of the read/write head,whereas for solid state drives, the transfer rate depends on the efficiency ofthe flash technology. For storage arrays and clusters, the transfer rate takesinto consideration the network connectivity between each node of the cluster,so the transfer rate serves as the throughput of the system.

Transfer ratecan be calculated with the following formula:

TR = D ÷ T

Where:

TR = TransferRate
D = Amount of Data
T = Time (usually seconds)