kilobit per second (kbps)
Kilobit per second, kbit/s or kbps, is the dimension for transmission speed. One kilobit per second corresponds to a value of `10^3` bit/s or 1,000 bit/s.
The notation kbps is mainly used in Anglo-Saxon countries, whereas the notation kbit/s is used in Germany. Data transmission rates ofseveral kilobits per second were state of the art in the seventies. Common data rates for terminal networks and for transmission in wide- area networks at that time were 9.6 kbit/s and 19.2 kbit/s, respectively. These data rates were still valid in the eighties.
It was not until the development of local area networks( LAN) that data rates of several megabits per second (Mbit/s) were achieved. Later, with Ethernet, data transmission speeds of several gigabits per second (Gbit/s) were also achieved, and with 100 Gigabit Ethernet even those of 100 Gbit/s.