Bandwidth is one of the primary features that defines the quality of a network communication link. Bandwidth is usually specified in bits per second (bit/s) and it defines how quickly a message of a given size can be transmitted over a given link. Depending on the link medium, bandwidth varies from a few thousand bits per second for old-fashioned RS-232 serial links and telephone modems, through a few million bits per second (MBit/s) for domestic broadband connections, and on to high-speed links used in Local Area Networks (LANs) in the home (e.g. 54 Mbit/s for WiFi), the University (e.g. 100 Mbit/s for Ethernet) or the Internet backbone (a few tens of Gbit/s). In network communications which require messages to pass though many networks, the bandwidth will typically be limited to the bandwidth of the slowest link, which in the domestic environment is likely to be your broadband connection. Bandwidth will also decrease if it is being shared by multiple users. See also: Transmission Delay.

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