Baud

  Most often, used superficially (and incorrectly) to mean bits/second. Baud is the capacity unit for data transmission in communication systems, and expresses information units per second. Each information unit may contain one or more information bits. Modern communication techniques use both amplitude and phase information to code a set of bits into each information unit, like 4800 bits/s on a 1200 baud link. The bandwidth required is given by the baud rate, while the bit/s defines the quality requirements on the link. Use of the latter unit is recommended in most practical contexts.