What is Throughput and Latency

List of Topics

1) What is Throughput

2) What is Latency

3) Example for Throughput and Latency

1) What is Throughput

In Simple terms, Throughput is the maximum rate of production or the maximum rate at which something can be processed. Data transfer rates for disk drives and networks are measured in terms of throughput. Typically, throughput is measured in kbps, Mbps and Gbps.

Network throughput is the rate of successful message delivery over a communication channel

2) What is Latency 

Latency, therefore, is wasted time. For example, in accessing data on a disk, latency is defined as the time it takes to position the proper sector under the read/write head. In networking, the amount of time it takes a packet to travel from source to destination. Together, latency and bandwidth define the speed and capacity of a network

3) Example for Throughput and Latency

Eg 1), To Understand in laymen way. Let us take speed as the parameter of throughput. There is Source and destination and the car is allowed to run at a speed of 80 KM/h. So the throughput at this point is 80 Km/H. Normally car will reach the destination in 1 hour but in case of any delay due to traffic that delay is named as Latency. 

Eg 2), Throughput is basically how long it takes for a company to get a product from the beginning to the end. The objective of throughput is to minimize the amount of time needed to get a product, or good, through the entire production process so that a company can ultimately increase their profitability. The faster a company can move a product, the more they can produce per day, and the more money they will make