What Is Network Latency? How to Fix It?

What is network latency, and what causes it? Latency in network communication, also known as lag, refers to delays in communications over a network. Latency in networking can be described as the time taken for a packet to be captured, transmitted, and processed by multiple devices before it reaches its destination.

It’s called a low-latency (desirable) if there are no delays in transmission, and longer delays are known as a high-latency (not so desirable).

High-latency networks can cause long delays, which can lead to communication bottlenecks. It can be like traffic trying to merge onto a single lane on a four-lane highway. High latency reduces communication bandwidth and can be temporary or permanent depending on the source.

Latency can be measured in milliseconds or during network latency tests. It’s also known as a “ping rate.” Performance is better if the ping rate is lower than 100ms. While a ping rate below 100ms can be considered acceptable, optimal performance calls for latency between 30-40ms. We all desire communication that is as fast and reliable as possible. The standard latency of a network can be explained in different contexts. Latency issues may also differ from one network.

What Are the Causes of Network Latency?

1. Distance

Distance is one of the major causes of network latency. This refers to how far the requester is from the servers that respond to it.

Network latency is a problem between cities. For instance, if a website’s data center is in Trenton (New Jersey), it will respond quickly to requests from Farmingdale, NY (100miles away), or most likely in 10-15 milliseconds. Users in Denver, Colorado, which is approximately 1,800 miles away, will experience delays up to 50 milliseconds.

Round Trip Time (RTT) is the time it takes for a request from a client to reach a client’s device. Although a delay of just a few milliseconds may seem insignificant, there are other factors that can cause latency to increase.

• The client and server must communicate to establish that connection
• The page’s total size and loading time
• Network hardware problems that the data travels through

Many data that travel back and forth over the internet must cross multiple Internet Exchange Points. (IXPs) are where routers process and route data packets. Sometimes, they must break them into smaller packets. This additional activity can add a few milliseconds of RTT.

2. Construction of Websites

Latency can be affected by how web pages are built. Websites with heavy content, large images, or loads from multiple third-party websites can perform slower because browsers must download larger files in order to display them.

3. End-user Questions

Although network problems may appear to cause latency, sometimes RTT latency can be caused by the end-user device running out of memory or not having enough CPU cycles to respond within a reasonable timeframe.

4. Problems with the Body

Common network latency is caused by components that transfer data from one place to another. Physical cabling, such as switches and routers, can cause latency. Other network devices, such as application load balancers or security devices, can also influence latency, such as firewalls and Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) systems.

Latency vs. Bandwidth

All factors contribute equally to the quality and quantity of communications. These factors are interrelated, but they all have different meanings. It is possible to visualize data packets flowing through a pipe to better understand the concept.

Bandwidth refers to the pipe’s width. The pipe is narrower, which means that data can travel less distance back and forth. The greater the communication band, it allows for more data flow simultaneously.

Latency refers to how fast data packets within pipe travel from client-server and back. The physical distance the data must travel through cables, networks, and other means to reach its destination determines packet latency.

Throughput refers to the amount of data that can easily be transferred in each time frame.

Throughput will be lower if there is low latency and bandwidth. While data packets should be delivered immediately, there may still be congestion due to low bandwidth. High bandwidth means that there will be less latency and more throughput. This will make the connection faster.

What Are the Typical Latency Values?

These are some examples of approximate latency values that you might encounter:

• Satellites: 800ms
• 120ms to get 3G cellular data
• 60ms for 4G data, which is used often for 4G or internet connections
• 20ms for an Mpls network such as BT IP Connect. Class of Service is used to prioritize traffic.
• 10ms to get a modern Carrier Ethernet network like BT Ethernet Connect in the UK or BT Wholesale Ethernet in Europe

How to Fix Network Latency?

Optimizing the network infrastructure is key to minimizing latency. Even when you’ve deployed ultra-high-performance hardware, optimizing software and protocols is the key, and Application Delivery Controllers (ADCs) provide a range of features that deliver optimizations, including:

• HTTP Acceleration & Optimization, including HTTP Connection Multiplexing (also known as TCP Connection Reuse), RAM Caching, and HTTP Compression
• SSL Offloading includes SSL Termination, SSL Bridging, and SSL Proxying.
• TCP optimization includes Client Keep-Alive and Selective Acknowledgment.
• HTTP Pipelining support
• Support for HTTP/2 and SPDY protocols
• Best VPS server hosting

Often if you buy a VPS server close to the location that you are trying to reach, it will reduce the network latency by so much. Therefore, we recommend one of the best VPS server hosting that is available to you to get rid of the Network Latency problem once and for all.

The Best Practices for Improving Network Latency Monitoring

In a business world where time is so precious, slowing down your network can cause serious problems. Your network will grow, which means that there are more places where problems and delays can occur.

As more companies connect to cloud servers and use more applications, the potential for problems can increase.

Latency can affect the timelines, expected outcomes, and, ultimately, ROI. Comprehensive network monitoring and troubleshooting are essential. Network monitoring and troubleshooting can quickly and accurately identify and fix the root cause of latency and provide solutions that will reduce or improve the problem.

You must be able to calculate and measure your network latency before you can do anything about it. You’ll be able to identify and fix any problems faster if you are familiar with your latency.

How to Check Network Latency

You can use Windows to check the latency of your network if it feels slow. Type tracert followed with the destination you want to query in a command prompt, such as cloud.google.com.

How to Measure Network Latency

This information will be automatically gathered by network monitoring and management tools. Here’s how you can manually obtain it. After you enter the tracert command, you will see a list of all routers that are on the path to the website address. Then you will see a time measurement in milliseconds. Add all of these measurements together, and you get the quantity. Keep in mind that this information can also be used if you choose to buy a VPS server.

The Round Trip Time (RTT), or the Time to First Byte, can be used to measure latency.

• The time it takes for a packet from the client to reach the server.
• The time is taken by the server to get the first byte of data from a client when they send a request.

How To Troubleshoot Network Latency Problems

It can be difficult to troubleshoot issues in a large network manually. This highlights the importance of network monitoring tools and troubleshooting tools.

You can disconnect computers and network devices to see if they are causing problems. Then, restart all hardware. Network monitoring must be enabled.

Latency issues that persist after you have checked all your devices locally could indicate that the problem is coming from the destination to which you are trying to connect.

How To Test Network Latency

You can use traceroute (tracert) or ping to test network latency. However, network monitoring systems and performance managers can do more precise testing and check for latency.

A reliable network is essential for the smooth operation of your business. If network issues aren’t managed well, they can lead to more serious problems.

Conclusion

This comprehensive guide was created to help you understand network latency and identify and fix common issues and problems in computer networks. Additionally, the best option to avoid Network Latency is to buy a VPS server that you can connect to and fix all of your latency issues.

It is important to remember that network latency, packet loss, and jitter can all severely impact clear communication and negatively affect user experience.