What causes latency?

What causes latency?

• A. Propagation delay, queuing delay, and processing delays.
• B. Only propagation delay.
• C. Only queuing delay.
• D. Only processing delays.

Answer: (A)

Latency is the total time it takes for a packet to travel from sender to receiver, and it comes from several delay components that add up along the route. Propagation delay is the time the signal takes to traverse the physical distance of the link. Queuing delay occurs when packets wait in buffers at routers due to congestion. Processing delay is the time routers spend inspecting packets and making forwarding decisions. When you sum these delays across all hops, you get the total latency. The other options each cover only a single delay type, which misses parts of the total time; latency isn’t caused by just propagation, or just queuing, or just processing, but by their combination.

Latency is the total time it takes for a packet to travel from sender to receiver, and it comes from several delay components that add up along the route. Propagation delay is the time the signal takes to traverse the physical distance of the link. Queuing delay occurs when packets wait in buffers at routers due to congestion. Processing delay is the time routers spend inspecting packets and making forwarding decisions. When you sum these delays across all hops, you get the total latency. The other options each cover only a single delay type, which misses parts of the total time; latency isn’t caused by just propagation, or just queuing, or just processing, but by their combination.