Which of the following statements about latency is correct?

The statement that latency directly affects the speed of network access is correct because latency refers to the time it takes for data to travel from the source to its destination across a network. This delay can significantly impact user experience and the performance of applications, especially those requiring real-time communication such as video conferencing or online gaming.

When latency is high, the time taken for a user’s action to be registered or for data to be requested and received increases, affecting the perceived speed of the network. Conversely, lower latency leads to quicker responses and a smoother experience, making this aspect critical for any network-related tasks.

Understanding latency is vital for troubleshooting performance issues and optimizing network configurations, especially in environments where timely data transmission is essential. The other statements do not accurately describe latency: being synonymous with bandwidth overlooks the distinct roles these metrics play, while stating that latency does not influence real-time applications is misleading, and claiming that higher latency improves performance contradicts established principles of network performance.