About Latency Lens
Latency Lens is a tool designed to help network professionals estimate and analyze network latency. It allows users to build virtual network designs and calculate the total latency based on various network components.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I use this calculator?
Add multiple network components (switch, firewall, WAN, fibre, etc.) to represent your network or a network design. The tool will then calculate the latency of these components using vendor documentation and industry standards.
How accurate is this calculator?
This calculator provides an estimated latency based on vendor documentation and known constants (e.g., 5ns per meter of fibre). For a more accurate estimate, consider factors such as transceiver delay, speed changes, packet size, cut-through vs store-and-forward switching, and additional firewall features. A caveat is provided along with manufacturer documentation for your review using the info button on each component, most of the time the latency the vendor provides is the minimum latency.
Who is this tool meant for?
This tool is designed for network professionals who use enterprise equipment and prioritize latency. Examples include trading firms, exchanges, certain scientific applications, and high-performance computing (HPC) environments.
How can I accurately determine my network latency?
The method depends on the precision of latency you want to measure. For milliseconds, simple ICMP ping can suffice. For microseconds, more accurate traffic recording using an FPGA appliance (non-CPU bound) with precise timestamping is recommended. Measuring nanosecond latency is significantly more complex and requires specialized equipment.
When was Latency Lens last updated?
Latency Lens was last updated in September 2026. Equipment latency figures come from manufacturer documentation; check the linked source for the specific model, configuration and test conditions.
Can I add custom network components?
Yes, you can add custom fibre/WAN components as well as a static latency component to your network configuration. For fibre, you can specify custom lengths(Meters), and for WAN, you can input custom distances(KMs). The calculator will use standard latency values for these custom components. For other component types, you can use the static latency component to add any additional latency to your network configuration in ns,us,ms.
Does this tool collect my network configuration?
Calculator inputs and network configurations stay in your browser. They are cleared when you refresh, leave the page or close the tab. We collect basic visit statistics to help improve the site; see the privacy section below.
Who created this tool?
This tool was created by Tom. You can email me at 'tom' at this domain.
Privacy and analytics
We collect basic, cookie-free visit statistics, such as which pages are used and how people find the site. These statistics do not include your calculator inputs, device selections or custom descriptions.
Your calculations run in your browser. Navigating to another page or refreshing clears the current calculation.
Return to the network calculator.