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latency
[′lat·ən·sē](computer science)
The waiting time between the order to read/write some information from/to a specified place and the beginning of the data-read/write operation.
(medicine)
The stage of an infectious disease, other than the incubation period, in which there are neither clinical signs nor symptoms.
(physiology)
The period between the introduction of and the response to a stimulus.
(psychology)
The phase between the Oedipal period and adolescence, characterized by an apparent cessation of psychosexual development.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
latency
(communications)1. The time it takes for a packet to cross a network connection, from sender to receiver.
2. The period of time that a frame is held by a network device before it is forwarded.
Two of the most important parameters of a communications channel are its latency, which should be low, and its bandwidth, which should be high. Latency is particularly important for a synchronous protocol where each packet must be acknowledged before the next can be transmitted.
This article is provided by FOLDOC - Free Online Dictionary of Computing (foldoc.org)