Decibel
The decibel is a relative unit of measurement corresponding to one tenth of a bel. It is used to express the ratio of one value of a power or field quantity to another, on a logarithmic scale, the logarithmic quantity being called the power level or field level, respectively.
It can be used to express a change in value or an absolute value. In the latter case, it expresses the ratio of a value to a fixed reference value; when used in this way, a suffix that indicates the reference value is often appended to the decibel symbol. For example, if the reference value is 1 volt, then the suffix is "V", and if the reference value is one milliwatt, then the suffix is "m".
Two different scales are used when expressing a ratio in decibels, depending on the nature of the quantities: power and field. When expressing a power ratio, the number of decibels is ten times its logarithm to base 10. That is, a change in power by a factor of 10 corresponds to a 10 dB change in level. When expressing field quantities, a change in amplitude by a factor of 10 corresponds to a 20 dB change in level. The decibel scales differ by a factor of two so that the related power and field levels change by the same number of decibels with linear loads.
The definition of the decibel is based on the measurement of power in telephony of the early 20th century in the Bell System in the United States. One decibel is one tenth of one bel, named in honor of Alexander Graham Bell; however, the bel is seldom used. Today, the decibel is used for a wide variety of measurements in science and engineering, most prominently in acoustics, electronics, and control theory. In electronics, the gains of amplifiers, attenuation of signals, and signal-to-noise ratios are often expressed in decibels.
In the International System of Quantities, the decibel is defined as a unit of measurement for quantities of type level or level difference, which are defined as the logarithm of the ratio of power- or field-type quantities.
History
The decibel originates from methods used to quantify signal loss in telegraph and telephone circuits. The unit for loss was originally Miles of Standard Cable. 1 MSC corresponded to the loss of power over a 1 mile length of standard telephone cable at a frequency of 5000 radians per second, and matched closely the smallest attenuation detectable to the average listener. The standard telephone cable implied was "a cable having uniformly distributed resistance of 88 Ohms per loop-mile and uniformly distributed shunt capacitance of 0.054 microfarads per mile".In 1924, Bell Telephone Laboratories received favorable response to a new unit definition among members of the International Advisory Committee on Long Distance Telephony in Europe and replaced the MSC with the Transmission Unit. 1 TU was defined such that the number of TUs was ten times the base-10 logarithm of the ratio of measured power to a reference power.
The definition was conveniently chosen such that 1 TU approximated 1 MSC; specifically, 1 MSC was 1.056 TU. In 1928, the Bell system renamed the TU into the decibel, being one tenth of a newly defined unit for the base-10 logarithm of the power ratio. It was named the bel, in honor of the telecommunications pioneer Alexander Graham Bell.
The bel is seldom used, as the decibel was the proposed working unit.
The naming and early definition of the decibel is described in the NBS Standard's Yearbook of 1931:
In 1954, J. W. Horton argued that the use of the decibel as a unit for quantities other than transmission loss led to confusion, and suggested the name logit for "standard magnitudes which combine by multiplication", to contrast with the name unit for "standard magnitudes which combine by addition".
In April 2003, the International Committee for Weights and Measures considered a recommendation for the inclusion of the decibel in the International System of Units, but decided against the proposal. However, the decibel is recognized by other international bodies such as the International Electrotechnical Commission and International Organization for Standardization . The IEC permits the use of the decibel with field quantities as well as power and this recommendation is followed by many national standards bodies, such as NIST, which justifies the use of the decibel for voltage ratios. The term field quantity is deprecated by ISO 80000-1, which favors [|root-power]. In spite of their widespread use, [|suffixes] are not recognized by the IEC or ISO.
Definition
ISO 80000-3 describes definitions for quantities and units of space and time.The ISO Standard 80000-3:2006 defines the following quantities. The decibel is one-tenth of a bel:. The bel is ln nepers:. The neper is the change in the level of a field quantity when the field quantity changes by a factor of e, that is, thereby relating all of the units as nondimensional natural log of field-quantity ratios,. Finally, the level of a quantity is the logarithm of the ratio of the value of that quantity to a reference value of the same kind of quantity.
Therefore, the bel represents the logarithm of a ratio between two power quantities of 10:1, or the logarithm of a ratio between two field quantities of :1.
Two signals whose levels differ by one decibel have a power ratio of 101/10, which is approximately 1.25893, and an amplitude ratio of 10.
The bel is rarely used either without a prefix or with SI unit prefixes other than deci; it is preferred, for example, to use hundredths of a decibel rather than millibels. Thus, five one-thousandths of a bel would normally be written '0.05 dB', and not '5 mB'.
The method of expressing a ratio as a level in decibels depends on whether the measured property is a power quantity or a root-power quantity; see Power, root-power, and field quantities for details.
Power quantities
When referring to measurements of power quantities, a ratio can be expressed as a level in decibels by evaluating ten times the base-10 logarithm of the ratio of the measured quantity to reference value. Thus, the ratio of P to P0 is represented by LP, that ratio expressed in decibels, which is calculated using the formula:The base-10 logarithm of the ratio of the two power quantities is the number of bels. The number of decibels is ten times the number of bels. P and P0 must measure the same type of quantity, and have the same units before calculating the ratio. If in the above equation, then LP = 0. If P is greater than P0 then LP is positive; if P is less than P0 then LP is negative.
Rearranging the above equation gives the following formula for P in terms of P0 and LP:
Field quantities and root-power quantities
When referring to measurements of field quantities, it is usual to consider the ratio of the squares of F and F0. This is because in most applications power is proportional to the square of field, and historically their definitions were formulated to give the same value for relative ratios in such typical cases. Thus, the following definition is used:The formula may be rearranged to give
Similarly, in electrical circuits, dissipated power is typically proportional to the square of voltage or current when the impedance is constant. Taking voltage as an example, this leads to the equation for power gain level LG:
where [|V]out is the root-mean-square output voltage, Vin is the rms input voltage. A similar formula holds for current.
The term root-power quantity is introduced by ISO Standard 80000-1:2009 as a substitute of field quantity. The term field quantity is deprecated by that standard.
Relationship between power level and field level
Although power and field quantities are different quantities, their respective levels are historically measured in the same units, typically decibels. A factor of 2 is introduced to make changes in the respective levels match under restricted conditions such as when the medium is linear and the same waveform is under consideration with changes in amplitude, or the medium impedance is linear and independent of both frequency and time. This relies on the relationshipholding. In a nonlinear system, this relationship does not hold by the definition of linearity. However, even in a linear system in which the power quantity is the product of two linearly related quantities, if the impedance is frequency- or time-dependent, this relationship does not hold in general, for example if the energy spectrum of the waveform changes.
For differences in level, the required relationship is relaxed from that above to one of proportionality, or equivalently,
must hold to allow the power level difference to be equal to the field level difference from power P and V to P and V. An example might be an amplifier with unity voltage gain independent of load and frequency driving a load with a frequency-dependent impedance: the relative voltage gain of the amplifier is always 0 dB, but the power gain depends on the changing spectral composition of the waveform being amplified. Frequency-dependent impedances may be analyzed by considering the quantities power spectral density and the associated field quantities via the Fourier transform, which allows elimination of the frequency dependence in the analysis by analyzing the system at each frequency independently.
Conversions
Since logarithm differences measured in these units often represent power ratios and field ratios, values for both are shown below. The bel is traditionally used as a unit of logarithmic power ratio, while the neper is used for logarithmic field ratio.| Unit | In decibels | In bels | In nepers | Power ratio | Field ratio |
| 1 dB | 1 dB | 0.1 B | 0.11513 Np | 10 ≈ 1.25893 | 10 ≈ 1.12202 |
| 1 Np | 8.68589 dB | 0.868589 B | 1 Np | e2 ≈ 7.38906 | e ≈ 2.71828 |
| 1 B | 10 dB | 1 B | 1.1513 Np | 10 | 10 ≈ 3.16228 |
Examples
The unit dBW is often used to denote a ratio for which the reference is 1 W, and similarly dBm for a reference point.- Calculating the ratio in decibels of to yields:
- The ratio in decibels of to is
- The ratio in decibels of to is obtained with the formula
- The power ratio corresponding to a change in level is given by
Should it be necessary to make the distinction, the number of decibels is written with additional significant figures. 3.000 dB corresponds to a power ratio of 10, or 1.9953, about 0.24% different from exactly 2, and a voltage ratio of 1.4125, 0.12% different from exactly. Similarly, an increase of 6.000 dB corresponds to the power ratio is, about 0.5% different from 4.
Properties
The decibel is useful for representing large ratios and for simplifying representation of multiplied effects such as attenuation from multiple sources along a signal chain. Its application in systems with additive effects is less intuitive.Reporting large ratios
The logarithmic scale nature of the decibel means that a very large range of ratios can be represented by a convenient number, in a manner similar to scientific notation. This allows one to clearly visualize huge changes of some quantity. See Bode plot and Semi-log plot. For example, 120 dB SPL may be clearer than "a trillion times more intense than the threshold of hearing".Representation of multiplication operations
Level values in decibels can be added instead of multiplying the underlying power values, which means that the overall gain of a multi-component system, such as a series of amplifier stages, can be calculated by summing the gains in decibels of the individual components, rather than multiply the amplification factors; that is, = log + log + log. Practically, this means that, armed only with the knowledge that 1 dB is a power gain of approximately 26%, 3 dB is approximately 2× power gain, and 10 dB is 10× power gain, it is possible to determine the power ratio of a system from the gain in dB with only simple addition and multiplication. For example:- :A system consists of 3 amplifiers in series, with gains of 10 dB, 8 dB, and 7 dB respectively, for a total gain of 25 dB. Broken into combinations of 10, 3, and 1 dB, this is:
- :: 25 dB = 10 dB + 10 dB + 3 dB + 1 dB + 1 dB
- :With an input of 1 watt, the output is approximately
- :: 1 W × 10 × 10 × 2 × 1.26 × 1.26 ≈ 317.5 W
- : Calculated precisely, the output is 1 W × 10 ≈ 316.2 W. The approximate value has an error of only +0.4% with respect to the actual value, which is negligible given the precision of the values supplied and the accuracy of most measurement instrumentation.
Representation of addition operations
According to Mitschke, "The advantage of using a logarithmic measure is that in a transmission chain, there are many elements concatenated, and each has its own gain or attenuation. To obtain the total, addition of decibel values is much more convenient than multiplication of the individual factors." However, for the same reason that humans excel at additive operation over multiplication, decibels are awkward in inherently additive operations: "if two machines each individually produce a sound pressure level of, say, 90 dB at a certain point, then when both are operating together we should expect the combined sound pressure level to increase to 93 dB, but certainly not to 180 dB!"; "suppose that the noise from a machine is measured and found to be 87 dBA but when the machine is switched off the background noise alone is measured as 83 dBA. the machine noise may be obtained by 'subtracting' the 83 dBA background noise from the combined level of 87 dBA; i.e., 84.8 dBA."; "in order to find a representative value of the sound level in a room a number of measurements are taken at different positions within the room, and an average value is calculated. Compare the logarithmic and arithmetic averages of 70 dB and 90 dB: logarithmic average = 87 dB; arithmetic average = 80 dB."Addition on a logarithmic scale is called logarithmic addition, and can be defined by taking exponentials to convert to a linear scale, adding there, and then taking logarithms to return. For example, where operations on decibels are logarithmic addition/subtraction and logarithmic multiplication/division, while operations on the linear scale are the usual operations:
Note that the logarithmic mean is obtained from the logarithmic sum by subtracting, since logarithmic division is linear subtraction.
Quantities in decibels are not necessarily additive, thus being "of unacceptable form for use in dimensional analysis".
Uses
Perception
The human perception of the intensity of sound and light approximates the logarithm of intensity rather than a linear relationship, making the dB scale a useful measure.Acoustics
The decibel is commonly used in acoustics as a unit of sound pressure level. The reference pressure for sound in air is set at the typical threshold of perception of an average human and there are common comparisons used to illustrate different levels of sound pressure. Sound pressure is a field quantity, therefore the field version of the unit definition is used:where prms is the root mean square of the measured sound pressure and pref is the standard reference sound pressure of 20 micropascals in air or 1 micropascal in water.
Use of the decibel in underwater acoustics leads to confusion, in part because of this difference in reference value.
The human ear has a large dynamic range in sound reception. The ratio of the sound intensity that causes permanent damage during short exposure to that of the quietest sound that the ear can hear is greater than or equal to 1 trillion. Such large measurement ranges are conveniently expressed in logarithmic scale: the base-10 logarithm of 1012 is 12, which is expressed as a sound pressure level of 120 dB re 20 μPa.
Electronics
In electronics, the decibel is often used to express power or amplitude ratios in preference to arithmetic ratios or percentages. One advantage is that the total decibel gain of a series of components can be calculated simply by summing the decibel gains of the individual components. Similarly, in telecommunications, decibels denote signal gain or loss from a transmitter to a receiver through some medium using a link budget.The decibel unit can also be combined with a reference level, often indicated via a suffix, to create an absolute unit of electric power. For example, it can be combined with "m" for "milliwatt" to produce the "dBm". A power level of 0 dBm corresponds to one milliwatt, and 1 dBm is one decibel greater.
In professional audio specifications, a popular unit is the dBu. This is relative to the root mean square voltage which delivers 1 mW into a 600-ohm resistor, or ≈ 0.775 VRMS. When used in a 600-ohm circuit, dBu and dBm are [|identical].
Optics
In an optical link, if a known amount of optical power, in dBm, is launched into a fiber, and the losses, in dB, of each component are known, the overall link loss may be quickly calculated by addition and subtraction of decibel quantities.In spectrometry and optics, the blocking unit used to measure optical density is equivalent to −1 B.
Video and digital imaging
In connection with video and digital image sensors, decibels generally represent ratios of video voltages or digitized light intensities, using 20 log of the ratio, even when the represented intensity is directly proportional to the voltage generated by the sensor, not to its square, as in a CCD imager where response voltage is linear in intensity.Thus, a camera signal-to-noise ratio or dynamic range quoted as 40 dB represents a ratio of 100:1 between optical signal intensity and optical-equivalent dark-noise intensity, not a 10,000:1 intensity ratio as 40 dB might suggest.
Sometimes the 20 log ratio definition is applied to electron counts or photon counts directly, which are proportional to sensor signal amplitude without the need to consider whether the voltage response to intensity is linear.
However, as mentioned above, the 10 log intensity convention prevails more generally in physical optics, including fiber optics, so the terminology can become murky between the conventions of digital photographic technology and physics. Most commonly, quantities called "dynamic range" or "signal-to-noise" would be specified in 20 log dB, but in related contexts the term should be interpreted cautiously, as confusion of the two units can result in very large misunderstandings of the value.
Photographers typically use an alternative base-2 log unit, the stop, to describe light intensity ratios or dynamic range.
Suffixes and reference values
Suffixes are commonly attached to the basic dB unit in order to indicate the reference value by which the ratio is calculated. For example, dBm indicates power measurement relative to 1 milliwatt.In cases where the unit value of the reference is stated, the decibel value is known as "absolute". If the unit value of the reference is not explicitly stated, as in the dB gain of an amplifier, then the decibel value is considered relative.
The SI does not permit attaching qualifiers to units, whether as suffix or prefix, other than standard SI prefixes. Therefore, even though the decibel is accepted for use alongside SI units, the practice of attaching a suffix to the basic dB unit, forming compound units such as dBm, dBu, dBA, etc., is not. The proper way, according to the IEC 60027-3, is either as Lx or as Lx/xref, where x is the quantity symbol and xref is the value of the reference quantity, e.g., LE = LE/ for the electric field strength E relative to 1 μV/m reference value.
Outside of documents adhering to SI units, the practice is very common as illustrated by the following examples. There is no general rule, with various discipline-specific practices. Sometimes the suffix is a unit symbol, sometimes it is a transliteration of a unit symbol, sometimes it is an acronym for the unit's name, other times it is a mnemonic for the type of quantity being calculated, or otherwise a general attribute or identifier about the nature of the quantity. The suffix is often connected with a hyphen, as in "dBHz", or with a space, as in "dB HL", or with no intervening character, as in "dBm", or enclosed in parentheses, as in "dB".
Voltage
Since the decibel is defined with respect to power, not amplitude, conversions of voltage ratios to decibels must square the amplitude, or use the factor of 20 instead of 10, as discussed above.and dBm
;dBV: dB – voltage relative to 1 volt, regardless of impedance. This is used to measure microphone sensitivity, and also to specify the consumer line-level of, in order to reduce manufacturing costs relative to equipment using a line-level signal.
;dBu or dBv: RMS voltage relative to . An RMS voltage of 1 V therefore corresponds to Originally dBv, it was changed to dBu to avoid confusion with dBV. The "v" comes from "volt", while "u" comes from the volume unit used in the VU meter.dBu can be used as a measure of voltage, regardless of impedance, but is derived from a 600 Ω load dissipating 0 dBm. The reference voltage comes from the computation In professional audio, equipment may be calibrated to indicate a "0" on the VU meters some finite time after a signal has been applied at an amplitude of. Consumer equipment typically uses a lower "nominal" signal level of. Therefore, many devices offer dual voltage operation for interoperability reasons. A switch or adjustment that covers at least the range between and is common in professional equipment.
;dBm0s
;dBμV or dBuV: dB – voltage relative to 1 microvolt. Widely used in television and aerial amplifier specifications. 60 dBμV = 0 dBmV.
Acoustics
Probably the most common usage of "decibels" in reference to sound level is dB SPL, sound pressure level referenced to the nominal threshold of human hearing: The measures of pressure use the factor of 20, and the measures of power use the factor of 10.;dB SPL: dB SPL – for sound in air and other gases, relative to 20 micropascals, or, approximately the quietest sound a human can hear. For sound in water and other liquids, a reference pressure of 1 μPa is used. An RMS sound pressure of one pascal corresponds to a level of 94 dB SPL.
;dB SIL: dB sound intensity level – relative to 10−12 W/m², which is roughly the threshold of human hearing in air.
;dB SWL: dB sound power level – relative to 10−12 W.
;dBA, dBB, and dBC: These symbols are often used to denote the use of different weighting filters, used to approximate the human ear's response to sound, although the measurement is still in dB . These measurements usually refer to noise and its effects on humans and other animals, and they are widely used in industry while discussing noise control issues, regulations and environmental standards. Other variations that may be seen are dBA or dB. According to standards from the International Electro-technical Committee and the American National Standards Institute, ANSI S1.4, the preferred usage is to write LA = x dB. Nevertheless, the units dBA and dB are still commonly used as a shorthand for Aweighted measurements. Compare dBc, used in telecommunications.
;dB HL: dB hearing level is used in audiograms as a measure of hearing loss. The reference level varies with frequency according to a minimum audibility curve as defined in ANSI and other standards, such that the resulting audiogram shows deviation from what is regarded as 'normal' hearing.
;dB Q: sometimes used to denote weighted noise level, commonly using the ITU-R 468 noise weighting
;dBpp: relative to the peak to peak sound pressure.
;dBG: Gweighted spectrum
Audio electronics
See also dBV and dBu above.;dBm: dB – power relative to 1 milliwatt. In audio and telephony, dBm is typically referenced relative to a 600 Ω impedance, which corresponds to a voltage level of 0.775 volts or 775 millivolts.
;dBm0: Power in dBm measured at a zero transmission level point.
;dBFS: dB – the amplitude of a signal compared with the maximum which a device can handle before clipping occurs. Full-scale may be defined as the power level of a full-scale sinusoid or alternatively a full-scale square wave. A signal measured with reference to a full-scale sine-wave appears 3 dB weaker when referenced to a full-scale square wave, thus: 0 dBFS = −3 dBFS.
;dBVU: dB volume unit
;dBTP: dB – peak amplitude of a signal compared with the maximum which a device can handle before clipping occurs. In digital systems, 0 dBTP would equal the highest level the processor is capable of representing. Measured values are always negative or zero, since they are less than or equal to full-scale.
Radar
;dBZ: dB – decibel relative to Z = 1 mm6⋅m−3: energy of reflectivity, related to the amount of transmitted power returned to the radar receiver. Values above 20 dBZ usually indicate falling precipitation.;dBsm: dB – decibel relative to one square meter: measure of the radar cross section of a target. The power reflected by the target is proportional to its RCS. "Stealth" aircraft and insects have negative RCS measured in dBsm, large flat plates or non-stealthy aircraft have positive values.
Radio power, energy, and field strength
;dBc: relative to carrier – in telecommunications, this indicates the relative levels of noise or sideband power, compared with the carrier power. Compare dBC, used in acoustics.;dBpp: relative to the maximum value of the peak power.
;dBJ: energy relative to 1 joule. 1 joule = 1 watt second = 1 watt per hertz, so power spectral density can be expressed in dBJ.
;dBm: dB – power relative to 1 milliwatt. In the radio field, dBm is usually referenced to a 50 Ω load, with the resultant voltage being 0.224 volts.
;dBμV/m, dBuV/m, or dBμ: dB – electric field strength relative to 1 microvolt per meter. The unit is often used to specify the signal strength of a television broadcast at a receiving site.
;dBf: dB – power relative to 1 femtowatt.
;dBW: dB – power relative to 1 watt.
;dBk: dB – power relative to 1 kilowatt.
;dBe: dB electrical.
;dBo: dB optical. A change of 1 dBo in optical power can result in a change of up to 2 dBe in electrical signal power in a system that is thermal noise limited.
Antenna measurements
;dBi: dB – the forward gain of an antenna compared with the hypothetical isotropic antenna, which uniformly distributes energy in all directions. Linear polarization of the EM field is assumed unless noted otherwise.;dBd: dB – the forward gain of an antenna compared with a half-wave dipole antenna. 0 dBd = 2.15 dBi
;dBiC: dB – the forward gain of an antenna compared to a circularly polarized isotropic antenna. There is no fixed conversion rule between dBiC and dBi, as it depends on the receiving antenna and the field polarization.
;dBq: dB – the forward gain of an antenna compared to a quarter wavelength whip. Rarely used, except in some marketing material. 0 dBq = −0.85 dBi
;dBsm: dB – decibel relative to one square meter: measure of the antenna effective area.
;dBm−1: dB – decibel relative to reciprocal of meter: measure of the antenna factor.
Other measurements
;dBHz: dB – bandwidth relative to one hertz. E.g., 20 dBHz corresponds to a bandwidth of 100 Hz. Commonly used in link budget calculations. Also used in carrier-to-noise-density ratio.;dBov or dBO: dB – the amplitude of a signal compared with the maximum which a device can handle before clipping occurs. Similar to dBFS, but also applicable to analog systems. According to ITU-T Rec. G.100.1 the level in dBov of a digital system is defined as:
;dBr: dB – simply a relative difference from something else, which is made apparent in context. The difference of a filter's response to nominal levels, for instance.
;dBrn: dB above reference noise. See also dBrnC
;dBrnC: dBrnC represents an audio level measurement, typically in a telephone circuit, relative to the circuit noise level, with the measurement of this level frequency-weighted by a standard C-message weighting filter. The C-message weighting filter was chiefly used in North America. The Psophometric filter is used for this purpose on international circuits. See Psophometric weighting to see a comparison of frequency response curves for the C-message weighting and Psophometric weighting filters.
;dBK:dB – decibels relative to 1 K; used to express noise temperature.
;dB/K: dB – decibels relative to 1 K−1. — not decibels per kelvin: Used for the G/T factor, a figure of merit utilized in satellite communications, relating the antenna gain G to the receiver system noise equivalent temperature T.
List of suffixes in alphabetical order
Unpunctuated suffixes
;dBA: see dB.;dBB: see dB.
;dBc: relative to carrier – in telecommunications, this indicates the relative levels of noise or sideband power, compared with the carrier power.
;dBC: see dB.
;dBd: dB – the forward gain of an antenna compared with a half-wave dipole antenna. 0 dBd = 2.15 dBi
;dBe: dB electrical.
;dBf: dB – power relative to 1 femtowatt.
;dBFS: dB – the amplitude of a signal compared with the maximum which a device can handle before clipping occurs. Full-scale may be defined as the power level of a full-scale sinusoid or alternatively a full-scale square wave. A signal measured with reference to a full-scale sine-wave appears 3 dB weaker when referenced to a full-scale square wave, thus: 0 dBFS = −3 dBFS.
;dBG: G-weighted spectrum
;dBi: dB – the forward gain of an antenna compared with the hypothetical isotropic antenna, which uniformly distributes energy in all directions. Linear polarization of the EM field is assumed unless noted otherwise.
;dBiC: dB – the forward gain of an antenna compared to a circularly polarized isotropic antenna. There is no fixed conversion rule between dBiC and dBi, as it depends on the receiving antenna and the field polarization.
;dBJ: energy relative to 1 joule. 1 joule = 1 watt second = 1 watt per hertz, so power spectral density can be expressed in dBJ.
;dBk: dB – power relative to 1 kilowatt.
;dBK:dB – decibels relative to kelvin: Used to express noise temperature.
;dBm: dB – power relative to 1 milliwatt.
;dBm0: Power in dBm measured at a zero transmission level point.
;dBm0s: Defined by Recommendation ITU-R V.574.
;dBmV: dB – voltage relative to 1 millivolt across 75 Ω.
;dBo: dB optical. A change of 1 dBo in optical power can result in a change of up to 2 dBe in electrical signal power in system that is thermal noise limited.
;dBO: see dBov
;dBov or dBO: dB – the amplitude of a signal compared with the maximum which a device can handle before clipping occurs.
;dBpp: relative to the peak to peak sound pressure.
;dBpp: relative to the maximum value of the peak power.
;dBq: dB – the forward gain of an antenna compared to a quarter wavelength whip. Rarely used, except in some marketing material. 0 dBq = −0.85 dBi
;dBr: dB – simply a relative difference from something else, which is made apparent in context. The difference of a filter's response to nominal levels, for instance.
;dBrn: dB above reference noise. See also dBrnC
;dBrnC: dBrnC represents an audio level measurement, typically in a telephone circuit, relative to the circuit noise level, with the measurement of this level frequency-weighted by a standard C-message weighting filter. The C-message weighting filter was chiefly used in North America.
;dBsm: dB – decibel relative to one square meter
;dBTP: dB – peak amplitude of a signal compared with the maximum which a device can handle before clipping occurs.
;dBu or dBv: RMS voltage relative to.
;dBu0s: Defined by Recommendation ITU-R V.574.
;dBuV: see dBμV
;dBuV/m: see dBμV/m
;dBv: see dBu
;dBV: dB – voltage relative to 1 volt, regardless of impedance.
;dBVU: dB volume unit
;dBW: dB – power relative to 1 watt.
;dBZ: dB – decibel relative to Z = 1 mm6⋅m−3
;dBμ: see dBμV/m
;dBμV or dBuV: dB – voltage relative to 1 microvolt.
;dBμV/m, dBuV/m, or dBμ: dB – electric field strength relative to 1 microvolt per meter.
Suffixes preceded by a space
;dB HL: dB hearing level is used in audiograms as a measure of hearing loss.;dB Q: sometimes used to denote weighted noise level
;dB SIL: dB sound intensity level – relative to 10−12 W/m²
;dB SPL: dB SPL – for sound in air and other gases, relative to 20 μPa in air or 1 μPa in water
;dB SWL: dB sound power level – relative to 10−12 W.
Suffixes within parentheses
;dB, dB, and dB: These symbols are often used to denote the use of different weighting filters, used to approximate the human ear's response to sound, although the measurement is still in dB. These measurements usually refer to noise and its effects on humans and other animals, and they are widely used in industry while discussing noise control issues, regulations and environmental standards. Other variations that may be seen are dBA or dBA.Other suffixes
;dB-Hz: dB – bandwidth relative to one hertz.;dB/K: dB – decibels relative to reciprocal of kelvin
;dBm−1: dB – decibel relative to reciprocal of meter: measure of the antenna factor.
Related units
;mBm: mB – power relative to 1 milliwatt, in millibels. 100 mBm = 1 dBm. This unit is in the Wi-Fi drivers of the Linux kernel and the regulatory domain sections.;Np: Another closely related unit is the neper. Like the decibel, the neper is a unit of level.