Round Trip Times (RTT)

Round Trip Times (RTT) is a performance metric for networks that measure the amount of time taken for a data packet to travel to a destination from its source and back. RTT is usually expressed in milliseconds (ms) and is an indicator of responsiveness and latency of a network. RTT is essential in assessing the data transmission efficiency over networks.

Round trip times consist of two primary components, the first being propagation delay, which is the time it takes for a data packet to travel from the source to it’s destination. Propagation delay is affected by physical distance and the speed it can propagate through the medium, such as a wireless connection or fiber optic cable.

The second component, transmission delay, is the time it takes to send all of the data packets through the network medium. Transmission delay is dependent on bandwidth and the size of the packet.

RTT is a critical metric in networking and can be used in conjunction with other performance metrics to evaluate and improve network performance. It is extremely impactful to the responsiveness of applications, user experience, and efficiency of data transmission.

Lower RTT typically indicate faster and more responsive networks, whereas higher TT values lead to slowdowns in performance and delays typically seen in real-time applications such as video conferences and VoIP communication.