latency on networks

[carl_townshend]

hi

can anyone tell me why latency has more effect on a network than for example low bandwidth, why does it perform so bad with high latency?

cheers

Carl

[Giuseppe Larosa]

Hello Carl,

most of communications use TCP sessions.

TCP requires that the sender receives acks from receiver before moving on and sending other data.

So delay influences the capability to transfer data.
see

http://www.psc.edu/networking/projects/tcptune/

to overcome problems with high delay high speed links the extended TCP window has been introduced

see

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1323.txt

Hope to help

Giuseppe