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packet loss

The share of packets that never arrive.

Packet loss is the fraction of packets dropped on the way, from interference, congestion or errors; protocols either repair it (TCP) or leave it to the application (UDP).

Examples

  • A link that answers in 2 ms but loses one packet in ten has 10% packet loss.

  • If each packet is lost with probability p, a reading and its ACK both survive with probability (1 − p)².

See also

latency throughput retransmission
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