Network2/Concept/Latency

The latency of a node is the amount of time that it takes the node to respond to messages.

The unicast latency of a link is the amount of time that it takes the link to propagate a message from a source interface to a single destination interface. The broadcast latency of a link is the amount of time that it takes for the link to propagate a message to all interfaces attached to the link. (Likewise for multicast latency.)

Latency is additive, which permits the concept of node and unicast link latency to be aggregated to define the latency of the network path traversed by messages that are being routed through an internetwork.