[icecast] bit/bytes

[Geoff Shang]

On Sun, 29 Feb 2004, MacSym wrote:

> A 128K stream is a 128 KiloBITS (NOT kiloBYTES) per second stream; am I
> right?

Right.

> Is a 512k internet connection a 512 kiloBITS or 512 kiloBYTES
> connection?

Internet connections are also expressed in bits, or kilobits, not
kilobytes.  In this sense, calling it a 512k connection is actually wrong,
as this implies kilobytes, not kilobits.  But everyone seems to do it.

> 128 KiloBITS = 16 KiloBYTES (8 bits = 1 byte). I am wondering if a 512k
> connection (upload and download) could THEORITICALLY handle 4 (512/128) or
> 32 (512/16) 128k streams?

Unfortunately it's 4, not 32.

> I am confused because I often read that to calculate the potential number of
> listeners with a given connection; you just divide the connection speed by
> the stream bit rate... is it true? In this case, how is doing SomaFM to
> handle 4000 listeners at 128k?? Do they have a 512 MB connection???

I guess they must.

Geoff.

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