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Latency W
Latency W
Latency
The impact of latency
on application performance
Contents
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Executive summary
1
Latency and the end user
1.1
What is latency?
1.2
Low latency keeps users happy
1.2.1 Web browsing vulnerable to latency
1.2.1.1 Web page sizes and traffic going up
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2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
2.5
2.6
3
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
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Executive summary
With the introduction of flat rate tariffs and the
evolution of technology that is able to provide an
acceptable user experience, mobile broadband
is experiencing a boom. Mobile broadband
also provides a key additional revenue source
for communications service providers (CSP)
suffering from declining voice revenues. The
spread of mobile broadband is also evidenced by
the fact that in many developed markets, users
get a mobile broadband connection instead of,
or in addition to, a fixed broadband connection,
meaning that a decent user experience is needed
fast, responsive, always on and available
for use.
One of the key ingredients for a good user
experience is latency. While the focus in user
experience so far has been on maximum
bitrates, we show that after a certain level of
throughput has been achieved, actually latency
- the time from a user sending a piece of data,
e.g. requesting a download or a Web page to
load, to the time when the user gets a response
- is sometimes even more important than the
throughput, or bit rate, offered.
1. Latency and
the end user
1.1 What is latency?
2. Latency in
mobile broadband
Previously, we discussed how latency can affect
end-user experience and applications. How can
we lower the latency to improve the end user
experience and provide our customers with the
advantage of low latency? Reducing latency in the
radio access network makes it possible to provide
services which are sensitive to it.
Conversely, if the latency in
a network was reduced by a
third then the maximum data
rate that the network could
deliver would actually triple
without making any other
changes to the network (eg the
introduction of MIMO, higher
modulation schemes, etc.)
Source: Signals Ahead Vol.5,
No 4, Signals Research
Group, 2009
100
90
80
RNC + core
BTS + Iub
Retransmissions downlink
Retransmissions uplink
Air interface
Scheduling request + grant
UE
ms
Commercial
70
60
41 ms
measured
50
40
Evolution
LTE <20 ms
HSPA+ <25
ms
30
20
10
0
HSDPA/R99
HSPA R6
HSPA R7
LTE scheduled
LTE pre-allocated
HSPA
(3GPP R6)
I-HSPA
(3GPP R7)
LTE
(3GPP R8)
Node B with
RNC functions
eNode B
Standard
HSPA
terminals
Node B
Node B
Access
transport
network
RNC
RNC
SGSN
SGSN
SGSN
MME
GGSN
GGSN
GGSN
SAE GW
data path
control path
Setup time
Download
HSPA
HSPA
evolution
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3. Real-life latency
measurements
This chapter presents some Nokia Siemens
Networks real-life latency measurement results.
3.1 Latency in HSPA networks today
In a latency measurement done with major
European CSPs in commercial HSPA networks,
Nokia Siemens Networks has 40% lower latency
than other vendors.
140
120
ms
Best latency in
Nokia Siemens
Networks network
VENDOR B
VENDOR C
4500
100
ms
4000
80
VENDOR C
3500
60
3000
2500
40
2000
20
1500
Ping 32 B
Figure 4: Measured HSPA latency. All networks had 7.2 Mbps HSDPA and
HSUPA enabled.
1000
500
Pic text 512kB
11
30
ms
25
Perfect match
with expectations
20
Measured end-to-end
RNC + core
BTS + Iub
Retransmissions downlink
Retransmissions uplink
Air interface
Scheduling request + grant
UE
15
10
5
0
LTE scheduled
LTE scheduled
(
(measured)
)
LTE - pre-allocated
Figure 6: LTE bringing latency further down- Nokia Siemens Networks LTE latency measurements
3.3 LTE
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4. Conclusion
Reducing latency in the radio access network makes
it possible to provide delay sensitive services,
offering CSPs new revenue possibilities. Through
optimizing the network end-to-end and reducing
network element latency, it is possible to get good
results, as is shown by some real-life measurement
results in the HSPA networks of today. Optimizing
transport networks is also a key to decreasing
latency.
Evolution to LTE is decreasing latency still further,
with measurement results showing a perfect match
with expectations.
We can say that latency is relatively more important
to the consumer mobile broadband experience than
data rates. With low latency, a CSP can increase
end-user satisfaction and thus reduce churn.
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Glossary
References
[1] Lian Guo& Ibrahim Matta: The War between
http://www.google.co.uk/enterprise/end_user_
experience.html
article2/0,2817,2330507,00.asp
article2/0,2817,2339966,00.asp
3GPP
ADSL
BTS
CP
Control Plane
CSP
DSL
DWDM
GGSN
GPRS
HSDPA
I-HSPA
IP
Internet Protocol
LTE
MPLS
MIMO
Multiple-input multiple-output
MMOG
PS
Packet switched
QoS
Quality of Service
RAN
RNC
RTT
SGSN
TCP
TWT
UP
User plane
VoIP
WCDMA
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