Latency is the time delay between a request being sent and the response being received in a network or system. It measures how long data takes to travel from one point to another and is usually measured in milliseconds (ms).
In networking and web performance, latency is an important factor that affects the speed and responsiveness of applications, especially in real-time systems like gaming, video calls, and streaming.
For example:
- In online gaming, high latency causes lag between player actions and server response.
- A video call may freeze or delay due to poor network latency.
- A website takes longer to load if server response time is high.
- Cloud applications feel slow when data has to travel long distances between servers and users.
Common technologies and concepts related to latency include:
- Network Speed
- Ping
- Bandwidth
- Throughput
- CDN (Content Delivery Network)
- Server Response Time
- Internet Routing
- Jitter
- Real-time Systems