signal-to-noise ratio
[′sig·nəl tə ′nȯiz ‚rā·shō] (electronics)
The ratio of the amplitude of a desired signal at any point to the amplitude of noise signals at that same point; often expressed in decibels; the peak value is usually used for pulse noise, while the root-mean-square (rms) value is used for random noise. Abbreviated S/N; SNR.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Signal-to-noise ratio
The quantity that measures the relationship between the strength of an information-carrying signal in an electrical communications system and the random fluctuations in amplitude, phase, and frequency superimposed on that signal and collectively referred to as noise. For analog signals, the ratio, denoted S/N, is usually stated in terms of the relative amounts of electrical power contained in the signal and noise. For digital signals the ratio is defined as the amount of energy in the signal per bit of information carried by the signal, relative to the amount of noise power per hertz of signal bandwidth (the noise power spectral density), and is denoted Eb/N0. Since both signal and noise fluctuate randomly with time, S/N and Eb/N0 are specified in terms of statistical or time averages of these quantities.
The magnitude of the signal-to-noise ratio in a communications systems is an important factor in how well a receiver can recover the information-carrying signal from its corrupted version and hence how reliably information can be communicated. Generally speaking, for a given value of S/N the performance depends on how the information quantities are encoded into the signal parameters and on the method of recovering them from the received signal. The more complex encoding methods such as phase-shift keying or quadrature amplitude-shift keying usually result in better performance than simpler schemes such as amplitude- or frequency-shift keying. As an example, a digital communication system operating at a bit error rate of 10-5 requires as much as 7 dB less for Eb/N0 when employing binary phase-shift keying as when using binary amplitude-shift keying. See Electrical communications, Information theory
McGraw-Hill Concise Encyclopedia of Engineering. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
signal-to-noise ratio (S/N ratio)
The ratio, at a selected point in the circuit, of signal power to noise power. It measures the comprehensibility of a data source or transmission link, usually expressed as the root-mean-square signal amplitude divided by the root-mean-square noise amplitude. The higher the S/N ratio, the less the interference with reception.
An Illustrated Dictionary of Aviation Copyright © 2005 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
signal-to-noise ratio
(communications)(SNR, "s/n ratio", "s:n ratio") "Signal"
refers to useful information conveyed by some communications
medium, and "noise" to anything else on that medium. The
ratio of these is usually expressed logarithmically, in
decibels.
signal-to-noise ratio
(networking)The term is often applied to
Usenet
newsgroups though figures are never given. Here it is quite
common to have more noise (inappropriate postings which
contribute nothing) than signal (relevant, useful or
interesting postings). The signal gets
lost in the noise
when it becomes too much effort to try to find interesting
articles among all the crud. Posting "noise" is probably the
worst breach of
netiquette and is a waste of
bandwidth.
This article is provided by FOLDOC - Free Online Dictionary of Computing (foldoc.org)
signal-to-noise ratio
The ratio of the power or volume (amplitude) of a signal to the amount of disturbance (the noise) mixed in with it. Measured in decibels, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR, S/N) measures the clarity of the signal in a circuit or a wired or wireless transmission channel. See interference-to-noise ratio.
The Larger the Number, the Better
The greater the ratio (the larger number), the less noise and more easily it can be filtered out. The lowest number is an SNR of 0, which means that noise and signal levels are the same. Although signals contain non-random intelligence and can be isolated and separated, with a 0 SNR, it is more difficult to isolate the signal in real time and might be better handled in a batch process offline.
As a Metaphor (Quality vs. Junk)
The terms "signal" and "noise" are also commonly used to refer to meaningful content (signal) versus useless content (noise). For example, in a search engine result, signal refers to relevant results compared to the noise, which is information of little value. The terms can be applied to any quantity of material that is valuable versus that which is not.Copyright © 1981-2025 by The Computer Language Company Inc. All Rights reserved. THIS DEFINITION IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. All other reproduction is strictly prohibited without permission from the publisher.