Delay (telecom)

The delay (in English and more commonly, lag) is a delay that occurs in a telecommunication since it Information is sent from an origin until it reaches its destination. Although this delay can be caused by high network latency, it can also occur due to insufficient processing power on the destination server or client to communicate with, or on the local client in the form of input delays., image jumps or audio and video cuts.

The lag generally produces a terrible experience at the communication level, both in the sending of data and in the user or users who are using the Internet at the moment it occurs, since it greatly slows down the applications that are running.

The delay in the networks can be caused by different reasons, and it is one of the determining factors in the quantification of the performance of a network. All remote communication implies a certain delay in the arrival of messages, so this term is applied when this delay is long enough to hinder interaction between users and make evident the lack of simultaneity between them.

One of the problems in streaming videos is that the download is delayed for viewing and its image worsens. In music it is frustrating since it can be heard choppy. In calls, the deferred time of the message tends to increase and its quality is lousy. In video games there is a delay in the image and sounds of it, some objects are out of place or in two places at the same time.

Devices that can experience delays

• Delays are especially noted in satellite telephone communications, where the signal may take more than 250 ms to arrive. The sensation that occurs is that the interlocutor takes time to answer, so the conversation is annoying.
• It also occurs on the internet when a website takes a load.
• Also when you are viewing a live content (line TV channel, online radio, broadcasting) that transmits at speeds less than the bandwidth, it stops or loses the quality.
• It also happens in the chats of some programs that are only intended for communication via instant messages; and others for file exchange, such as P2Ps, for example. It happens that the messages of the other users in the chat room are frozen and if the problem is temporary the messages suddenly come out at great speed.
• Another modern case occurs in the massive online games, in which sometimes a character stays for a few seconds or moves to jumps, which causes a bad playability for all those involved.
• The former CD Audio portable players best known by Discman, when walking or playing sport were also prone to suffer alterations in the correct linear enjoyment of the sound content, which is why the manufacturers included a storage data buffer to try to keep the sound content as linear as possible and so the user did not notice the interruptions.

Causes of delays in computer networks and online games

Poor network performance

Packages are interrupted on their way by bugs in routers, the network cannot support the amount of packages required (see bandwidth) or packages pass through an unusually large amount of rhuters before reaching their destination.

Insufficient server processing power

The delay can also be experienced when the user makes an order that is not in the cache and the response requires a lot of processing before being sent. This affects multiplayer games generally in the most active hours where the server is required to process the information of a huge amount of connected users.

Insufficient client processing power

This is caused by lack of RAM or virtual memory, which is insufficient and even with the fastest connection, a slow computer may have difficulties in processing the information being transmitted if several applications are running at the same time. In addition, P2P spywares and programs reduce system and connection efficiency.

Slow computers can be easily updated on both hardware and software to improve their efficiency. It also helps to eliminate spywares, Trojans and viruses, and stop P2P programs that are running simultaneously or set up the pair network program so you don't upload files to the internet, just download.

Lag in online games

All online games, especially real-time games, may experience delays due to a combination of local processing delay and communication latency. This depends on tolerance lag the user and the upload and download of Internet data.