[TAG] Wireless networking

[Ben Okopnik]

On Sun, Apr 04, 2004 at 04:08:06PM -0400, Jay R. Ashworth wrote:
> On Sat, Apr 03, 2004 at 11:50:02PM -0500, Ben Okopnik wrote:
> >  
> > For the issue that Chris and I were talking about - how DNS might affect
> > connection speed - DNS would _definitely_ go into the latency bin rather
> > than anything related to the transfer rate. We were not discussing
> > specifics of TCP 3-way handshaking, or "packet latency"; I noted that
> > DNS delays would not affect that rate, but would create an initial
> > (=latency) delay.
> 
> To me, latency is the name for something that affects bandwidth.
 
To me, it's the time between the first request and the reception of the
first response. That's the way most people (even psychologists, to whom
it's the time between a stimulus and the appearance of a response)
understand it, in many fields including computing.

I make an explicit effort to avoid using common terms to mean something
different, at least without denoting the special usage. It confuses the
hell out of people, and I don't see any percentage in it.

> > > Or for that matter, me, using ssh over a CDMA link to do my mail in a
> > > remote copy of vim.
> > > 
> > > Or, for *that* matter, yourself.  :-)
> >  
> > Ye ghods, you're not kidding. Packet latency in this stuff can be
> > measured with a stopwatch.
> 
> MTR is *fun* over a CDMA link.

Can't say I've ever played with it. I've got to run off and meet a
client now, but I've at least done an "apt-get" on it and will play when
I get back.

> > I don't see that any of the hits contradict my usage for the above
> > scenario. I think it's pretty obvious that DNS lies squarely within the
> > "time between initiating a request for data and the beginning of the
> > actual data transfer" definition.
> 
> I guess it just depends on whether you're looking at the forest or the
> trees.  

I've been talking about the forest all along.

> I've never heard it used, to any appreciable extent, to
> describe anything *but* stream packet latency.

Try "dict latency". :)


* Ben Okopnik * okopnik.freeshell.org * Technical Editor, Linux Gazette *
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