MY ONE BLOGby Manishdai
Cloud & DevOps

What is Latency?

Quick answer

The time delay between a request being sent and a response beginning to arrive, usually measured in milliseconds.

Latency, explained

Latency is the waiting time in any system. In networking, it is how long data takes to travel from your device to a server and back, often measured as round-trip time with a ping test. In software, it can refer to how long a database query or API call takes to respond.

Latency is affected by physical distance, the number of network hops, congestion, and processing time on servers. Light in fiber is fast but not instant, so a server on another continent always adds delay. Low latency is critical for video calls, online gaming, financial trading, and voice assistants. Common ways to reduce it include content delivery networks, edge computing, caching, and efficient code.

Related terms

Bandwidth

The maximum amount of data that can be transmitted over a network connection in a given time, usually measured in bits per second.

Content Delivery Network

A geographically distributed network of servers that delivers web content from locations close to each user to improve speed.

Edge Computing

Processing data close to where it is generated, such as on devices or local servers, instead of sending everything to a distant data center.

Low Earth Orbit

The region of space roughly 160 to 2,000 km above Earth, home to the International Space Station and many communication satellites.

Satellite Constellation

A group of satellites working together as a system to provide coverage, such as global internet, navigation, or Earth imaging.

Throughput

The actual amount of data or work a system successfully processes in a given period of time.

VoIP

Voice over Internet Protocol, technology that carries phone calls over the internet instead of traditional telephone lines.

Wi-Fi 7

The wireless networking standard based on IEEE 802.11be, designed for faster speeds, lower latency, and more reliable connections.

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