Padding Definition

Present participle of pad.

In transmission, irrelevant material added to a data block, packet, or frame in order to fill it to a minimum size, to force certain fields of control data or user data into certain positions or sizes, or to prevent the user data from duplicating a bit pattern that has a specific control meaning. See also block, frame, and packet.

In storage, irrelevant material, usually zero (0) bits, added to a data block in order to fill it to a minimum size, to force certain fields of control data or user data into certain positions or sizes, or to prevent the user data from duplicating a bit pattern that has a specific control meaning. See also block.

In transmission, redundant, irrelevant bits, usually one (1) bits, appended to a bit stream in order to increase the bit rate or to maintain a session or connection during periods of inactivity. See also keep alive bits.

In some synchronous protocols, such as binary synchronous communications (Bisync, or BSC), one or more optional characters that alert the receiving device of the transmission of a block of data and ensure that the receiving device is in sync with the data bits. See also BSC, protocol, and synchronous.