Why is latency and bandwith separated? If latency is delay of data, and bandwith is data over time, shouldn’t one affect another? If it takes 5s for a car to start, and 10s to reach it’s destination, then the average speed would be spread out across the whole 15s. Should this not be the same?
In: Technology
Consider conventional mail (via a post office). This a high latency, high bandwidth type of communications. It takes a few days to get a shipment somewhere, but that shipment can contain almost unlimited amounts of data.
Contrast this with SMS (text messaging). This is fairly low latency – your text message arrives almost immediately – but low bandwidth (you can’t send all that much data).
Another way to consider this:
Latency is *responsiveness*. It’s how long it takes to get a reply once I send a message.
Bandwidth is *volume*. It’s how much information I can send over time.
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