Network latency
Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2025 5:31 am
The biggest challenge in networking is also its least known: latency. Latency refers to the time it takes for data to travel from one point to another and back. Latency is often considered the least important KPI compared to network bandwidth and reliability. That’s because most internet traffic is one-way, or asynchronous. It doesn’t matter if there’s a 100ms, 200ms, or even two-second delay between sending a WhatsApp message and receiving a read receipt. It also doesn’t matter if it takes 20ms, 150ms, or 300ms from clicking YouTube’s pause button until the video stops. When watching Netflix, it’s more important for the stream to play continuously than for it to play instantly. To do this, Netflix artificially delays the start of the video stream so that your device can download it before the moment you watch.
Even video calls with synchronous and persistent connections austria mobile database have a relatively high tolerance for latency. Video is the least important element of the call, so audio is the "lightest" data and video calling software will usually prioritize it if there are network issues. If your latency temporarily increases - even to seconds instead of milliseconds - the software can save you time by increasing the playback speed of the audio backlog and quickly editing out pauses. What's more, delays are easily manageable by participants - you just learn to wait a little while.
Yet the most immersive AAA online multiplayer games require low latency. That's because latency determines how quickly players receive information e. where they are, whether a grenade or football has been thrown and how quickly their responses are transmitted to other players. In other words, latency determines whether you win or lose, make a kill or end up getting killed. That's why most modern games run at 2-4 times the average frame rate of video, and why we quickly embrace these increases even as we reject higher frame rates for traditional video. It's necessary for performance.
Even video calls with synchronous and persistent connections austria mobile database have a relatively high tolerance for latency. Video is the least important element of the call, so audio is the "lightest" data and video calling software will usually prioritize it if there are network issues. If your latency temporarily increases - even to seconds instead of milliseconds - the software can save you time by increasing the playback speed of the audio backlog and quickly editing out pauses. What's more, delays are easily manageable by participants - you just learn to wait a little while.
Yet the most immersive AAA online multiplayer games require low latency. That's because latency determines how quickly players receive information e. where they are, whether a grenade or football has been thrown and how quickly their responses are transmitted to other players. In other words, latency determines whether you win or lose, make a kill or end up getting killed. That's why most modern games run at 2-4 times the average frame rate of video, and why we quickly embrace these increases even as we reject higher frame rates for traditional video. It's necessary for performance.