[ih] capacity v bandwidth

[vinton cerf]

Yes, I left Stanford in July or August and started at ARPA in Sept 1976.

V

On Sun, May 31, 2026, 11:39 Lawrence Stewart via Internet-history <
internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:

> … Rummages around for information theory hat.
>
> I don’t think I am alone in holding that things with digital interfaces
> should say “bandwidth” and things with analog interfaces should say
> “capacity”.
>
> The Shannon-Hartley theorem is about the analog part of this.
>
> In the digital domain, I think almost everyone uses “bandwidth” to talk
> about peak available bits-per-second and “capacity” to talk about usable
> bits-per-second under certain loads, queuing policies, and the like.
>
> In the above, bandwidth is absolutely misused for digital circuits as
> compared to its analog meaning.  Capacity, unfortunately, has two meanings
> and they get muddled all the time.
>
> Language evolves and non of this offends me.
>
> Regarding Vint at Stanford I arrived there in September 1976, and by the
> time I was corresponding with Vint about using Ron Crane’s VDH line driver
> to get SU-ISL connected to the SUMEX IMP, he was back in Washington I think.
>
> -L
>
>
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