What is the difference between latency and throughput?

What is the difference between latency and throughput?

• A. Latency is time to send a single packet; throughput is the amount of data transferred per unit time.
• B. Latency is the data rate; throughput is the delay.
• C. Latency is the error rate; throughput is latency.
• D. Latency is the amount of data lost; throughput is the number of packets.

Answer: (A)

Latency is the time it takes for a single packet to travel from the sender to the receiver, i.e., the end-to-end delay for that packet. Throughput is the amount of data that can be transferred per unit of time, typically measured in bits per second. So the best answer matches these definitions: latency = time for one packet to be delivered; throughput = data transferred per unit time. The other options mix up delay with data rate, or bring in concepts like error or loss that aren’t what throughput or latency describe.

Latency is the time it takes for a single packet to travel from the sender to the receiver, i.e., the end-to-end delay for that packet. Throughput is the amount of data that can be transferred per unit of time, typically measured in bits per second.

So the best answer matches these definitions: latency = time for one packet to be delivered; throughput = data transferred per unit time. The other options mix up delay with data rate, or bring in concepts like error or loss that aren’t what throughput or latency describe.