What is the time it takes for a packet to travel from its source to its destination, measured in milliseconds; high latency causes lag and slow response times?

What is the time it takes for a packet to travel from its source to its destination, measured in milliseconds; high latency causes lag and slow response times?

• A. Latency
• B. Bandwidth
• C. Throughput
• D. NetFlow

Answer: (A)

Latency is the time it takes for a single packet to travel from its source to its destination, typically measured in milliseconds. It encompasses all delays the packet experiences along the way, including propagation delay (distance and signal speed), transmission delay (packet size relative to link speed), plus any processing and queuing delays at routers and switches. When latency is high, you feel lag and slow response times because packets take longer to arrive. Bandwidth is about how much data can be carried per second, not how long a single packet takes to reach its destination. Throughput measures the actual rate of successful data delivery, which can be affected by latency but is not the time per packet. NetFlow is a traffic data collection mechanism, not a timing metric.

Latency is the time it takes for a single packet to travel from its source to its destination, typically measured in milliseconds. It encompasses all delays the packet experiences along the way, including propagation delay (distance and signal speed), transmission delay (packet size relative to link speed), plus any processing and queuing delays at routers and switches. When latency is high, you feel lag and slow response times because packets take longer to arrive. Bandwidth is about how much data can be carried per second, not how long a single packet takes to reach its destination. Throughput measures the actual rate of successful data delivery, which can be affected by latency but is not the time per packet. NetFlow is a traffic data collection mechanism, not a timing metric.