[mrtg] Re: bits or bytes?

[Alex van den Bogaerdt]

On Thu, Oct 24, 2002 at 11:59:16AM -0500, Jerry Heidtke wrote:
> 
> By common usage,
> 
> Bytes per second = B/s, Bps, kBps, mBps, etc.
> Bits per second = b/s, bps, kbps, mbps, etc.
> 
> In other words, bits, being small, are expressed in small (lower case)
> letters. Bytes, being larger by nature, are expressed in large (upper case)
> letters.

I agree, except that you should probably use MBps in stead of mBps as you
probably mean Mega and not mili.

> I don't think there is an actual documented standard for this (someone will
> correct me if I am wrong), but this is the way most of the world understands
> it.

I found this document which shows that both "b" and "B" are already in use:

http://physics.nist.gov/Pubs/SP811/sp811sl.pdf

It seems to indicate one should use bit/s in stead of b/s.  I usually
write bps as this seems more right.  I don't think anybody will read
b/s to mean barn per second nor will anyone think of B/s to mean
Bell per second when it is viewed within mrtg.

The footnote on page 9 shows:
"The question of the byte (B) is under international consideration."
(note: capital B).

Alex

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