Latency

In a network, latency is the time it takes for a packet of data to travel from the sender to the receiver.

We usually measure it in milliseconds (ms) - one thousandth of a second.

When you send a packet over the internet, it has to go through a bunch of different devices and networks before it reaches its destination. Each of those devices and networks adds some latency to the packet, so the total latency is the sum of all the latencies of the devices and networks that the packet has to go through before it reaches its destination.

Types of latency

The main three things that can contribute to latency are:

• Propagation latency
• Transmission latency
• Processing latency