Digital & Data

Latency

Definition

Latency is the time delay between a data packet being sent from a source and received at its destination, typically measured in milliseconds (ms).

Explanation

Transatlantic fiber latency is roughly 70–80 ms due to the physical speed of light in glass (~200,000 km/s). Satellite internet adds ~600 ms for geostationary orbits, making real-time gaming impractical. For interactive applications, latency below 20 ms feels instantaneous; above 150 ms, users notice delays. Latency is distinct from bandwidth: a high-bandwidth pipe can still have high latency.

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RELATED TERMS

Bit and Byte

A bit is the smallest unit of digital information, representing a 0 or 1; a byte is a group of 8 bits, capable of representing 256 distinct values.

Binary Prefix

Binary prefixes (KiB, MiB, GiB) denote powers of 1024, in contrast to metric SI prefixes (KB, MB, GB) which denote powers of 1000.

Bandwidth

Bandwidth is the maximum data transfer capacity of a communication channel, typically measured in bits per second (bps, Mbps, Gbps).

Throughput

Throughput is the actual rate at which data is successfully transferred over a network or system in a given time period, measured in bits or bytes per second.

Clock Speed

Clock speed is the frequency at which a processor executes cycles, measured in hertz (Hz), with modern CPUs operating in the gigahertz (GHz) range.