Delay Charts
Delay Charts
Delay Charts
Number of hops = M
Per-hop processing delay = P
Link propagation delay = L
Transmission speed = W bit/s
Message size = B bits
B/W
Delay
P
T
P
T
Remark
Solved Exercises
Q1: Its 1989. Alice and Bob are 4 hops apart on a datagram packet-switched network
where each link is 100 mile long. Per-hop processing delay is s. Packets are 1500
bytes long. All links have a transmission speed of 56kbit/s (original speed of Internet
backbone links in the 80s). The speed of light in the wire is approximately 125,000
miles/s. If Bob sends a 10-packet message to Alice, how long will it take Alice to
receive the message up to the last bit (measured from the time Bob starts sending)?
Delay =
ML + NT + (M-1)T + (M-1)P
Note that the total delay is dominated by the transmission delay which depends on
link speed. A link with a higher transmission speed can reduce the delay dramatically.
Solved Exercises
Q2: Alice and Bob 12 years later. All is the same, except that link transmission
speed now is 1Gbit/s. How long will it take Alice to receive the message up to
the last bit (measured from the time Bob starts sending)?
Delay = ML
3.371ms.
+ NT + (M-1)T + (M-1)P
Note that the total delay is now dominated by the propagation delay which
cannot be improved because it is constrained by the speed of light. Hence, it is
unlikely that future technologies will significantly reduce the delay of Bobs
message at this point (unless we break the speed of light)!
Solved Exercises
Q3: Repeat Q1 and Q2, assuming that the network uses circuit switching instead
of datagram packet switching. Bobs message is the same length as before.
Delay =
Note that the delay improved over the case of datagram packet switching for
the same link speed. Why?
Year 2001: Let link transmission speed be W = 1Gbit/s
Delay =
Note that the delay is worse than in the case of datagram packet switching.
Why?
Observations