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.
