the frequency range within which the amplitude-frequency characteristic of an acoustic, radio-engineering, or optical device is sufficiently uniform to assure the transmission of a signal without substantial distortion of the signal’s shape.

The basic parameters of a passband are the width of the band and the nonuniformity of the amplitude-frequency characteristic within the band. The bandwidth is usually defined as the difference between the upper and the lower limiting frequencies of the section of the amplitude-frequency curve where the minimum amplitude of the oscillations is not less than 0.707, or , of the maximum amplitude. The nonuniformity of the amplitude-frequency curve quantitatively characterizes the degree to which the curve deviates from a straight line parallel to the frequency axis. The bandwidth is expressed in frequency units, such as hertz (Hz), and nonuniformity is expressed in relative units or in decibels.

The passband required for a particular device depends on the device’s purpose. For example, telephone systems require band-widths of 300 to 3400 Hz, high-quality reproduction of musical performances requires 30 to 16,000 Hz, and television broadcasting uses bandwidths of up to 8 MHz. The widening of a passband permits the transmission of a greater amount of information; by reducing the nonuniformity of the amplitude-frequency characteristic within the passband, the reproduction of the shape of the transmitted signal can be improved. Passbands are sometimes defined also in terms of the device’s phase-frequency characteristic.