Scenario

Example

Water Pipe Analogy

Imagine you have a water pipe that carries water from a tank (sender) to a bucket (receiver).

• Latency → The time it takes for the first drop of water to reach the bucket once the tap is turned on.

• Bandwidth → The maximum amount of water the pipe can carry per second (pipe width).

• Throughput → The actual amount of water flowing through the pipe at any given time, considering real-world inefficiencies.

Ways to Change Performance:

1️. Making the Pipe Wider (Increasing Bandwidth)

• More water can flow through at the same time.

• This does not reduce the time taken for the first drop to arrive (latency remains the same).

2️. Using a Shorter Pipe (Reducing Latency)

• Water takes less time to reach the bucket.

• Bandwidth and throughput stay the same unless other factors are changed.

3️. Increasing Water Pressure (Increasing Speed)

• Water reaches the bucket faster, reducing latency.

• More water can also flow through at a higher rate, increasing throughput.

4️. Leaks and Blockages (Network Congestion & Packet Loss)

• If there are leaks (packet loss) or blockages (network congestion), throughput is reduced even if bandwidth is high.

• A wider pipe increases bandwidth but doesn’t change latency.

• A shorter pipe reduces latency but doesn’t change bandwidth.

• Faster water flow reduces latency and increases throughput.

• Blockages and leaks reduce throughput below the available bandwidt

Web Page Load Time

Assume a web page request travels 4000 km via fiber optic cable, passing through 3 routers, with a 1 MB page size on a 100 Mbps connection.

Delay Type	Value
Transmission Delay	80 ms
Propagation Delay	20 ms
Processing Delay	5 ms × 3 routers = 15 ms
Queuing Delay	10 ms
Total Latency	125 ms