What does the term "latency" refer to in networking?

Latency in networking specifically refers to the time delay experienced between a request for data and the actual receipt of that data. This delay can occur due to various factors, including the physical distance the data must travel, the processing time required by devices along the data path, and any queuing delays in network devices.

Understanding latency is crucial for network performance because it affects how quickly applications respond to user inputs. High latency can result in slow load times and a laggy experience for users, particularly in real-time applications such as online gaming, video conferencing, or VoIP communications.

In contrast to other terms like speed of data transmission or network signal strength, which address different aspects of network performance, latency focuses specifically on the delay aspect of communication between devices in a network. This is why identifying latency as the time delay between request and response is a fundamental concept in networking.