Latency

Definition

Latency is the delay between sending data and its arrival at the destination.

How it works

High end-to-end latency makes natural conversation difficult: speakers may interrupt one another because replies arrive late. One-way latency and round-trip time (RTT) are different measurements and should not be used interchangeably. Codec processing and buffering also contribute to perceived delay.

Business example

Before launching a remote contact centre, an engineer measures network delay between agents and the hosted telephony platform.

What to consider

Assess end-to-end delay rather than relying only on ping to one server. Examine latency together with jitter, packet loss and media-processing delays.

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