Throughput is a term used in various contexts to describe the rate at which a system can process or deliver something within a given amount of time. Here are some examples of how throughput is defined and used:

• Network Throughput: In the context of communication networks, network throughput refers to the rate of message delivery over a communication channel, such as Ethernet or packet radio. It can be determined numerically by applying the queueing theory, where the load in packets per time unit is denoted as the arrival rate, and the drop in packets per unit time is denoted as the departure rate.

• Storage Throughput: In storage systems, throughput refers to the amount of data that can be received and written to the storage medium. It can be measured in bytes per second.

• Business Throughput: In business, throughput refers to the amount of a product or service that a company can produce and deliver to a client within a specified period of time. It is often used in the context of a companys rate of production or the speed at which something is processed. Businesses with high throughput levels can produce a product or service more efficiently than their competitors.

• Performance Testing Throughput: In performance testing, throughput is the number of transactions produced over time during a test. Its also expressed as the amount of required capacity that a website or application can handle. Before starting a performance test run, it is common to have a throughput goal that the application needs to be able to handle a specific number of requests per hour.

Throughput can be measured in various units, such as bits per second, transactions per second, or bytes per second, depending on the context. It is affected by various factors, such as the limitations of the underlying physical medium, available processing power of the system components, end-user behavior, etc. It is important to note that throughput is not the same as bandwidth or latency, which are related but distinct concepts.