Number of signal elements transmitted per second is called ____.

Concept: In data communication, the signal rate (baud rate) is the number of signal elements (symbols) sent per second, measured in baud. A signal element is the smallest unit of a transmitted signal — one constant level of voltage, phase, or frequency. This is separate from the data rate (bit rate), which counts bits per second.

Application: The phrase “number of signal elements transmitted per second” is the exact textbook definition of the baud rate, so the term being defined here is the baud rate.

Contrast with the other terms:

• Bit rate — bits per second, i.e. data volume, not symbols. If each symbol carries n bits, bit rate = baud rate × n.

• Data rate — another name for bit rate; it measures information (bits) per second, not signal elements.

• Byte rate — bytes processed per second, a data-volume measure, unrelated to the count of physical signal changes.

Cross-check: When a system uses two symbols with one bit per symbol, baud rate and bit rate are numerically equal — but they remain different quantities, one counting signal elements and the other counting bits.