Bit rate is a measure of bandwidthBandwidthThe transmission rate of a communications line or system, expressed as kilobits…//read more  which indicates how much data is traveling from one place to another on a computer network. Bit rateBit rateBit rate is a measure of bandwidth which indicates how much data is traveling…//read more  is usually expressed in kilobits per second (kbps) or megabits per second (Mbps).

The bit rate of an audio or video stream indicates how much data must be transferred concurrently in order to properly receive the stream. BufferingBufferingWhen a streaming media player temporarily stores portions of a streaming media…//read more  can help mitigate variance in available bandwidth.

Note that bit rate does not describe how long is takes to get from one part of the network to another, only how many bits can be transferred concurrently. See latencyLatencyLatency can be seen as: The time it takes for a data packet to move across…//read more  for a measurement of delay.