dBm - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBm

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

dBm (sometimes dBmW) is an abbreviation for the power ratio in decibels (dB) of the measured power referenced to one milliwatt (mW). It is used in radio, microwave and fiber optic networks as a convenient measure of absolute power because of its capability to express both very large and very small values in a short form. Compare dBW, which is referenced to one watt (1000 mW). Since it is referenced to the watt, it is an absolute unit, used when measuring absolute power. By comparison, the decibel (dB) is a dimensionless unit, used for quantifying the ratio between two values, such as signal-to-noise ratio.

A schematic showing the relationship between dBu (the voltage source) and dBm (the power dissipated as heat by the 600 resistor)

1 Unit conversions 2 See also 3 References 4 External links

Zero dBm equals one milliwatt. A 3 dB increase represents roughly doubling the power, which means that 3 dBm equals roughly 2 mW. For a 3 dB decrease, the power is reduced by about one half, making 3 dBm equal to about 0.5 milliwatt. To express an arbitrary power P as x dBm, or vice versa, the following equations may be used: or, and or, where P is the power in W and x is the power ratio in dBm. Below is a table summarizing useful cases: dBm level 80 dBm

Power 100 kW

Notes Typical transmission power of FM radio station with 50-kilometre (31 mi) range Typical combined radiated RF power of microwave oven elements

60 dBm

1 kW = 1000 W

Maximum RF output power from a ham radio transceiver allowed without special permission

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dBm - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBm

Typical thermal radiation emitted by a human body 50 dBm 40 dBm 37 dBm 36 dBm 100 W 10 W 5W 4W Typical maximum output RF power from a ham radio HF transceiver Typical PLC (Power Line Carrier) Transmit Power Typical maximum output RF power from a handheld ham radio VHF/UHF transceiver Typical maximum output power for a Citizens' band radio station (27 MHz) in many countries Maximum output from a UMTS/3G mobile phone (Power class 1 mobiles) 33 dBm 2W Maximum output from a GSM850/900 mobile phone

30 dBm

Typical RF leakage from a microwave oven - Maximum output power for DCS 1800 MHz mobile phone 1W= 1000 mW Maximum output from a GSM1800/1900 mobile phone Typical cellular phone transmission power

27 dBm 26 dBm 25 dBm 24 dBm 23 dBm 22 dBm 21 dBm

500 mW 400 mW 316 mW 250 mW 200 mW 160 mW 125 mW

Maximum output from a UMTS/3G mobile phone (Power class 2 mobiles) Access point for Wireless networking Maximum output from a UMTS/3G mobile phone (Power class 3 mobiles) Maximum output in interior environment from a WiFi 2.4Ghz antenna (802.11b/g/n). Maximum output from a UMTS/3G mobile phone (Power class 4 mobiles) Bluetooth Class 1 radio, 100 m range

20 dBm

100 mW

Maximum output power from unlicensed AM transmitter per U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules 15.219.[1] Typical wireless router transmission power. Typical WiFi transmission power in laptops.

15 dBm 10 dBm 6 dBm 5 dBm 4 dBm 3 dBm 2 dBm 1 dBm 0 dBm

32 mW 10 mW 4.0 mW 3.2 mW 2.5 mW 2.0 mW 1.6 mW 1.3 mW 1.0 mW = 1000 W

Bluetooth Class 2 radio, 10 m range More precisely (to 8 decimal places) 1.9952623 mW

Bluetooth standard (Class 3) radio, 1 m range

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dBm - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBm

1 dBm 3 dBm 5 dBm 10 dBm 20 dBm 30 dBm 40 dBm 50 dBm 60 dBm 70 dBm 73 dBm 80 dBm 100 dBm

794 W 501 W 316 W 100 W Typical maximum received signal power (10 to 30 dBm) of wireless network 10 W 1.0 W = 1000 nW 100 nW 10 nW 1.0 nW = 1000 pW 100 pW 50.12 pW 10 pW 0.1 pW Thermal noise floor for commercial GPS single channel signal bandwidth (2 MHz) Typical received signal power from a GPS satellite Thermal noise floor for 1 Hz bandwidth at room temperature (20 C) Thermal noise floor for 1 Hz bandwidth in outer space (4 kelvins) Zero power is not well-expressed in dBm (value is negative infinity) The Earth receives one nanowatt per square metre from a magnitude +3.5 star[2] Typical range (60 to 80 dBm) of wireless received signal power over a network (802.11 variants) "S9" signal strength, a strong signal, on the S-meter of a typical ham or shortwave radio receiver

111 0.008 pW = 8 dBm fW 127.5 dBm 0.178 fW = 178 aW

174 0.004 aW = 4 dBm zW 192.5 dBm dBm 0.056 zW = 56 yW 0W

The signal intensity (power per unit area) can be converted to received signal power by multiplying by the square of the wavelength and dividing by 4 (see Free-space path loss). In United States Department of Defense practice, unweighted measurement is normally understood, applicable to a certain bandwidth, which must be stated or implied. In European practice, psophometric weighting may be, as indicated by context, equivalent to dBm0p, which is preferred. The dBm is not a part of the International System of Units and therefore is discouraged from use in documents or systems that adhere to SI units (the corresponding SI unit is the watt). However the straight decibel (dB), being a unitless ratio of two numbers, is perfectly acceptable.[3]

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dBm - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBm

Expression in dBm is typically used for optical and electrical power measurements, not for other types of power (such as thermal). A listing by power levels in watts is available that includes a variety of examples not necessarily related to electrical or optical power.

dBW Decibel Transmission level point Orders of magnitude (power)

This article incorporates public domain material from the General Services Administration document "Federal Standard 1037C" (http://www.its.bldrdoc.gov/fs-1037/fs-1037c.htm) (in support of MIL-STD-188).
1. ^ http://www.hallikainen.org/FCC/FccRules/CiteFind/015219.htm 2. ^ Radiant Flux of a Magnitude +3.5 Star (http://webhome.cs.uvic.ca/~pearson/files/radiant_flux.html) 3. ^ Taylor 1995, Guide for the Use of the International System of Units (SI), NIST Special Publication SP811 (http://physics.nist.gov/Pubs/pdf.html)

The dBm calculator for impedance matching (http://www.sengpielaudio.com/calculator-volt.htm) Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=DBm&oldid=462049593" Categories: Units of measure Radio frequency propagation This page was last modified on 23 November 2011 at 03:42. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of use for details. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

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