Network Latency Calculator

Estimate round-trip latency based on physical distance, transmission medium, and network equipment delays.

Server processing, serialization, DNS, TLS handshake, etc.

Estimated Round-Trip Time
--
milliseconds
Propagation Delay (one-way)
--
ms
Hop Delay (total)
--
ms
One-Way Latency
--
ms
Speed of Light Limit
--
ms RTT

Understanding Network Latency

Network latency is the time it takes for data to travel between two points. Round-trip time (RTT) includes the time for a packet to reach the destination and for the response to come back.

RTT = 2 x (Distance / Speed_in_medium) + Hop_delays + Processing_delay

Light travels through fiber optic cable at approximately two-thirds the speed of light in vacuum due to the refractive index of glass. This sets a physical lower bound on latency.

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