Business

What is Network Latency and How Does It Improves Performance?

Smart contacts concept. Illustration of wifi icon with electronic connections, woman's hands using laptop on background.

Launching your service worldwide is a massive step that anyone takes. The next thing you will witness is thousands of people flocking your website from across the world with only one expectation of receiving a world-class user experience. This is where the management is going to get tricky. You need to have an infrastructure which will help and support you with the service expansion across the globe and won’t compromise on the user experience, which is very tough. The distance will introduce latency, and here we are going to discuss it.

What is network latency?

Network latency is commonly known as network lag, and it is the time that is normally taken for a request to travel to the receiver from the sender and for the receiver to process that request. In simpler terms, latency refers to the time it takes for any request which is sent from the browser to be processed and then returned by the server. 

If the communication delays are small, it is known as a low-latency network, and if the delays are higher, it is known as a high-latency network. And, these delays can affect a website’s performance.

How does network latency affect website performance?

The app developed by the companies will react differently based on the location of the user, and it is known as server latency. The experience of the users across different parts of the world will be different as compared to what is appearing in your tests. So, it is important that you take in as much possible data from everywhere in order to be well-equipped with solutions to fix these issues.

What causes network latency?

There are multiple little variables that make up your network latency and they are mainly categorized under the following:

  • Transmission mediums- The data travel across large distances and in multiple forms, either through electrical signals or through light waves. Every time the medium is switched with the other one, a few extra milliseconds are added to the transmission time.
  • Payload- The more is the data getting transferred, the slower will be the communication between the server and the client.
  • Routers- The header information of a packet must be analyzed, and in some cases, more information can also be added. Each time an information packet takes a hop, the router increases the latency time. 
  • Storage delays: When a packet is stored or accessed, it can lead to delays. 

To resolve all the latency-related issues and to gain good latency, work with Orthogone ultra low latency network.