Think it through together · A little story
A girl calls, “Did you hear me?” and the robot answers a little later. Waiting time and how much data can be sent at once are different questions.
Lay out the process
- Send a requestStart the timer
- Travel across the networkPass along links
- Wait and processThere may be a delay
- Receive a replyMeasure the round-trip time
Network latency describes how long data takes to travel and is commonly measured in milliseconds.
When measuring, distinguish one-way time from round-trip time. Propagation, transmission, queuing, and processing can all add delay, so a nearby destination does not always mean low latency.
How much data can be moved at once is more closely related to bandwidth or throughput; it is not the same as how long a round trip takes.
Your turn to try
If a large truck can carry lots of goods, does that mean it will always get from home to school faster?
Have you thought it through? Open for an explanation
No. Capacity and travel time are different, just as high throughput does not guarantee low latency.
Take away one discovery
Network latency describes how long data takes to travel and is commonly measured in milliseconds.
Try covering the diagram above and explaining each step to someone in your family. If one step is hard to explain, go back and look at that card again.