Latency Vs Throughput :Key Differences

Latency and bandwidth are crucial factors impacting how efficient and responsive digital applications are. Video consumption is rising and The number of digital video viewers is estimated to reach nearly 3.5 billion by 2023. Understanding the difference between Latency Vs Throughput, which are two key aspects of network performance, will help build applications that can function well, especially when they need real-time communication. 

Latency Vs Throughput  

Latency refers to network communication delays. It represents the time data takes to travel across the network. The longer the delay or lag, the higher the latency. On the other hand, a network with lower latency means response times are faster.  

Throughput refers to the number of data packets that can transfer through the network at a specific time. Latency is the time those packets take to arrive at the destination. 

Simply put, having a high throughput and low latency is ideal. 

Why are Throughput and Latency Important?

Users have little patience for applications that are not responsive and the need for speed is real. Enterprises are adopting cloud technologies and other innovations to meet user expectations. Real-time communications platforms and high-definition video solutions will take advantage of the multi-access edge enabled by 5G and Wi-Fi 6.

Latency shows the network delay users experience when they send or receive data. Throughput shows the number of users that can use the network at any given time. 

When a network has a low throughput and high latency, there is congestion, and applications perform poorly. The network will not be able to send and process a large number of data packets. Contrarily, a high throughput and low latency network is more responsive, and application performance is better. 

Networks with excellent performance can significantly improve efficiency and revenues. For real-time communication applications such as video, a high latency causes freezing and audio/video sync issues, resulting in poor performance. Therefore, throughput and latency are significant factors affecting the overall user experience.