Essay1996
It's the Latency, Stupid
Stuart Cheshire
Argues that many performance problems blamed on insufficient bandwidth are actually caused by latency, which no amount of added bandwidth can fix.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeEntry
Computer Science · Computer Networks
Network Performance & Latency
A topic within Computer Networks, itself one of 11 topics in that field and part of Computer Science.
Reading on Network Performance & Latency
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It's the Latency, Stupid
Stuart Cheshire · 1996
Argues that many performance problems blamed on insufficient bandwidth are actually caused by latency, which no amount of added bandwidth can fix.
Then
Assumes you know the vocabulary.
The Tail at Scale
Jeffrey Dean & Luiz André Barroso · 2013
Argues that once a single request touches thousands of servers, tail latency rather than average latency determines what a user actually experiences,…
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Primary sources and full treatments.
End-to-End Arguments in System Design
Jerome H. Saltzer, David P. Reed & David D. Clark · 1984
Argues a function should be implemented at the network's endpoints rather than inside the network itself whenever the endpoints must check it anyway,…
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Paper2013
The Tail at Scale
Jeffrey Dean & Luiz André Barroso
Argues that once a single request touches thousands of servers, tail latency rather than average latency determines what a user actually experiences, and shows techniques such as hedged requests that tame it.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeIntermediate
Paper1984
End-to-End Arguments in System Design
Jerome H. Saltzer, David P. Reed & David D. Clark
Argues a function should be implemented at the network's endpoints rather than inside the network itself whenever the endpoints must check it anyway, since duplicating it lower down only adds cost.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeAdvanced