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SNR – signal-to-noise ratio

Webopedia Staff
Last Updated May 24, 2021 7:55 am

Short for signal-to-noise ratio, the ratio of the amplitude of a desired analog or digital data signal to the amplitude of noise in a transmission channel at a specific point in time. SNR is typically expressed logarithmically in decibels (dB).

SNR measures the quality of a transmission channel or an audio signal over a networkchannel. The greater the ratio, the easier it is to identify and subsequently isolate and eliminate the source of noise. A SNR of zero indicates that the desired signal is virtually indistinguishable from the unwanted noise.

SNR also is abbreviated as S/N.