RF Velocity of Propagation

The Velocity of Propagation calculator computes the speed of signal transmission through a medium relative to the speed of light in a vacuum.

INSTRUCTIONS: Enter the following:

• (ε_r)  Permittivity of Material.

Velocity of Propagation (v_p): The calculator returns the velocity in kilometers per second.  However, this can be automatically converted to other velocity units via the pull-down menu.

General Information

In computer technology, the velocity of propagation of an electrical or electromagnetic signal is the speed of transmission through a physical medium such as a coaxial cable or optical fiber.  The formula for Velocity of Propagation is:

  `v_p = c/sqrt(ε_r)`

where:

• v_p = Velocity of Propagation
• c = Speed of Light
• ε = Permittivity of Material

Velocity factor, another name for Velocity of Propagation,  equals the reciprocal of the square root of the dielectric constant (relative permittivity) of the material through which the signal passes

Time Dependent Calculators

• Time required to process an amount of data at a specific data processing rate
• Amount of time required to transfer an amount of data over a different types of networks
• Number of items (unit-less) produced over time
• Length or distance processed (produce or consume) over time
• Area processed (produced, covered or consumed) over time
• Volume processed (produced or consumed) over time
• Weight or mass processed (produced or consumed) over time
• Speedup Factor (aka Amdahl's Law)
• Compute Data Storage Needed
• Network Propagation Delay

Telecommunications Calculators

• Propagation Delay Computes the delay between two routers based on their positions and a transfer rate.
• Nodal Delay: Computes the nodal delay based on the queuing, processing, transmission and propagation delay.
• End to End Delay Computes the end to end delay based on the number of nodes and the processing, transmission, and propagation delay.
• RF Velocity of  Propagation:  Computes the RF velocity based on the medium permittivity
• Transmission Delay: Computes the delay based on length of packet and transmission rate.
• Data Transfer Time Calculator Computes the time to transfer an amount of data based on the data transfer rate.
• Simplified Propagation Delay: Computes the delay between two router based on the distance and the transfer rate.
• Surge Impedance Loading: Computes the power loading of a transmission line.
• Amdahl's Law: Computes the total system speedup time based on the improvement of one portion.
• Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) calculator: Computes a relative measure of the strength of the received signal (i.e., the information being transmitted) compared to the noise.
• Compute Data Storage Needed: Computes the approximate amount of data storage needed based on a period of time and a data rate.
• Network Propagation Delay  Computes the propagation delay based on the positions of two routers and the propagation speed.
• Shannon-Hartley Theorem: Computes the theoretical upper limit data rate of a channel based on the bandwidth, receiver strength and channel noise.
• Cable dB Loss Budget Computes db loss based on length of fiber run and number of connectors.
• Voltage Resolution (Analog to Digital) Computes the Voltage Resolution of a measured analog signal over the nominal range [VL , VH] with a specified number of conversion bits.
• Effective Isotropically Radiated Power (EIRP): Converts an EIRP measured in mw (milliwatt) to the unitless ratio of dBm (ratio of decibel to 1 milli-unit).
• Length of Cable with Sag: Computes the length of cable between pole accounting for the sag.