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Baud rate

The baud rate is the number of signal changes that occur per second.

For example, if we have a baud rate of 9600, that means that there are 9600 signal changes per second (the number of times that the signal changes its state / value per second).

This isn’t always the same as the bit rate, because a single signal change can sometimes represent multiple bits of data, depending on the way we encode the data. For example, if we use a modulation scheme that allows us to encode 4 bits per signal change, then a baud rate of 9600 would correspond to a bit rate of 38400 bits per second (9600 signal changes per second * 4 bits per signal change = 38400 bits per second).

If we know the bit rate and the number of bits per signal change, we can calculate the baud rate using the formula: