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latency

How long a message takes to get from sender to receiver.

Latency is the delay a message experiences on the network, from propagation, transmission, queuing and processing; round-trip time measures it there and back.

Examples

  • A 1,500-byte packet at 1 Mbit/s takes 12 ms just to send, before any travel time is added.

  • Light in fibre needs about 10 ms to cover 2,000 km, so a distant server adds latency no faster link can remove.

See also

round-trip time throughput packet loss
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