Many factors can contribute to network latency. Speed of light, Buffer length, and physical barriers are some factors to consider. Similar to speed, latency is influenced by more than simply your Internet connection. Your network’s hardware, the location and connectivity of the distant server, and the router all have an impact. Read on to learn more.
Speed of light
What happens when you try to get a network to respond in seconds? Unfortunately, the network is slow because the speed of light is much lower than the speed of your signal. As a result, the internet providers route your data on the shortest path and sometimes backtrack to save money. But what can you do about this? How can you get a low latency? First, you must understand that light travels at a lower speed when it passes through different mediums, such as silica glass or a vacuum.
Network latency is dependent on many factors. One of the biggest factors is the propagation delay, which is the time it takes for light to travel a certain distance. Most source/destination pairs have an RTT of around 100 ms.
Queuing delay
The process of packet processing takes time, and queuing delays can affect the speed of network traffic. Queuing delay depends on the rate at which incoming packets arrive and the transmission capacity of outgoing links. The nature of network traffic may also cause latency. This article will discuss how to solve the issue.
It is possible to decrease the queuing delay by minimizing the number of packets in flight. However, in some cases, the sender cannot reduce the number of in-flight packets. In such cases, the network may be notified of the overshoots and can handle the overshoot by employing AQM schemes, such as BoDe. These methods would eliminate self-inflicted queue buildups.
Buffer length
High latency and jitter are symptoms of bufferbloat, a problem often caused by excessively large buffers. Too-large buffers are so slow that they make high-speed networks unusable for interactive applications. You can configure the buffer length to a lower value to fix this problem. However, this method may cause significant network latency and jitter.
During low-latency situations, the buffer length of a packet should be shorter than the packet size. The latency is due to the buffering of data in flight. This data may disappear between the sender and receiver. The longer the buffer length, the more time it takes to detect a loss event. In addition, buffers tend to be slower than a single-line connection, making them less effective for streaming video and audio.
Physical barriers
The two main physical barriers to a low network latency are geographic distance and technical issues. Geographic distance prevents two-way communication and makes it impossible to conduct personal meetings. While technology has essentially removed distance and time barriers, technical barriers still exist. For example, a malfunctioning fax machine can lead to a slow connection and the transmission of messages. A faulty printer can also cause the transmission of hard copies, delaying communication.