In technical terms,
every network packet must pass through a number of switches, routers, and firewalls to get from point
A to point B. Each time it stops, the packet must be disassembled, reviewed, and reassembled before it
can be passed on to the next destination. Latency is currently (at this writing) measured in milliseconds;
the smaller the number, the better.
Latency is the more common issue with networks. Rarely have I encountered networking issues
caused by bandwidth problems. In fact, bandwidth issues seem to occur only at night during batchprocessing
operations. The problem with latency is that it can be difficult to troubleshoot, and worse
yet, there??™s often nothing you can do to directly improve the situation. If your network provider has your
traffic consistently going through eight to ten hops (the network equivalent to a stop sign), your options
for lowering that number will be limited and expensive.
Understanding the difference between bandwidth and latency can save you significant time when
discussing performance issues and networking. I??™ll spend more time discussing the impact of both
bandwidth and latency in Chapter 10.
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