Bandwidth vs. Latency

Creating real-time applications that deliver excellent user experiences hinges on the speed of page and data rendering. As a developer, you must understand how bandwidth and latency affect performance to provide better experiences for your end users.

What Is Bandwidth and Latency, and How Are They Different?

Both bandwidth and ping time limitations impact all internet-connected digital products. So, what is the difference between the two?

Bandwidth is the amount of data packets transferred from one location to another. On the other hand, latency, ping time, or ‌ping rate, is the time data travels from one location to another. Simply put, latency refers to the speed of data packet transmission, whereas bandwidth refers to the amount of data sent.

Insufficient bandwidth capacity often limits your app's performance, resulting in slower data transmission, while high bandwidth transmits data faster. 

Then again, high latency means longer delays that result in slower performance, whereas low latency signifies minimal delays and faster responses. Your users may prefer responsive apps even with the lowest ping rate because they provide more seamless communication.

If you build apps that aren't optimized to work well in different network conditions, your users may get frustrated and even uninstall your app in search of one that works better.

In fact, the retention rate of Android apps is 21% after one day following a download, 5.6% after seven days, and 2.61% after thirty days. Knowing how bandwidth and latency work can help you improve your app's usability.

How Are Bandwidth and Latency Measured?

When a computer connects to the internet, even if the bandwidth is high, a high ping rate will still result in slower loading of pages. So, how are bandwidth and latency measured?

There are four different units of measurement for bandwidth:

• Bits per second (bps)
• Kilobits per second (kbps)
• Megabits per second (Mbps)
• Gigabits per second (Gbps)

Bandwidth is the technical term for a system's maximum bitrate. For instance, a 90 Mbps bandwidth speed indicates that the maximum bandwidth for data transfers in your network doesn't exceed 90 megabits per second.

You can measure latency in milliseconds (ms) as a request's "round-trip" time. For example, when you do a Google search, your computer sends a request to the destination server. If it takes 40 ms and you get a response in 45 ms, that amounts to 85 ms of round-trip time.

Several variables affect your user's network conditions, including:

• Network infrastructure: The quality of routers, cables, and servers used can impact total throughput.
• Internet Service Providers (ISPs) network capacity: Your user's internet provider may offer different service quality and speed limits.
• Type of Internet: Users may either use a fixed broadband service, or a wireless connection such as cellular or satellite internet, which may affect network throughput.
• Distance: The physical distance between the sender and receiver can affect the ping rate.
• Amount of interference from other devices: When multiple devices are operating on the same frequency as your users' wired connections, they may end up experiencing connection problems.
• Network congestion: If your users have multiple devices connected to one network, it may affect ‌total throughput.

In January 2024, the global mobile internet download speed was 50 Mbps, and the upload speed was 11.3 Mbps. On average, if your users opt for fixed broadband services, they experience faster internet speeds, which is ideal for data-intensive activities like online gaming. Fixed broadband services include cable, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), or fiber optic.

How Do Subpar Bandwidth and Latency Affect Your Users' Internet Experience?

Total network throughput can affect your app's functionality and your users' overall online experience. Here's how.

Gaming

With low network throughput, your app users may experience lower-quality graphics and audio or even disconnections during multiplayer games. They may also experience buffering and slower sharing speeds. Then again, high application latency delays player input and in-game processing. 

The average retention rate of gaming mobile apps by day 30 of installation stands at 1.7%. The effect of network limitations on your gaming applications can easily contribute to a higher user abandonment rate. Therefore, if you are a game developer, you should optimize your games to cater to users with poor network performance.

Streaming and Browsing

Streaming high-definition (HD) videos generally requires more throughput than a standard-definition (SD) video. When your users have low network performance issues, they'll more often than not experience buffering or pixelation.

Additionally, a high ping rate may result in sluggish and unresponsive web pages during browsing and delays in video playback when streaming.

Video Calls and Meetings

Video calls have revolutionized many aspects of our lives, including remote work communications. While it may seem relatively straightforward how platforms such as Zoom or Google Meet work, call quality, choppy audio, or disconnections can affect the user experience.

When your users have low bandwidth during a video chat, they'll experience low-quality  calls, with the video appearing fuzzy and unclear. On the other hand, high application latency may result in sync issues or even freezing during video calls.

More broadly, if your app's users have high bandwidth and high latency, they get high-quality video but with freezing issues. Whereas with low bandwidth and low latency, video calls might appear blurry or choppy but with zero syncing issues.

Smart Home and IoT Devices

For remote monitoring IoT devices, low bandwidth results in slower frequency, meaning the amount of data transmitted will affect the accuracy and timeliness of data. 

Still, if there's a high ping rate, smart home devices like security cameras may experience delays in video feeds, affecting real-time monitoring. Further, users who rely on home automation IoT devices such as thermostats, smart locks, or smart lights may experience delays in executing commands.

Chats

In essence, poor service quality on your user's end can make media less clear and make a chat service feel slow. Messages may take longer to arrive, making it a major pain in contexts where time is important, like customer support chats.

Additionally, throughput limitations may affect audio and video quality in chat applications that support multimedia content. Users may find it hard to interact with your apps, impeding overall comprehension.

Also, high latency may result in network delays when sending and receiving messages. A lot of network bottlenecks can break up the flow of a conversation, making it hard for people to talk to each other. 

Cloud Usage

If your users have connection problems, sharing and downloading files to and from the cloud may take longer. As such, they may find it annoying to wait to view or store data. 

Similarly, users may have difficulty accessing cloud services in places with subpar internet connections, such as rural areas. For instance, employees on a field trip may encounter connectivity issues, hindering their ability to access or upload data to the company's systems.

Moreover, data loss or corruption can occur during file transfers to or from the cloud due to connection problems. If crucial data is compromised, this might lead to major problems for companies.

How Do You Optimize Your Apps to Account for Users With Low Bandwidth and High Latency?

As a developer, you must always consider how your apps will function in environments with poor network performance.

Follow these tips to optimize your apps for different network conditions.

Optimize Your Network

First, when deploying your applications, select servers close to where most users live. For example, if you're looking for a live-streaming API and most of your users are in the Asia-Pacific region, you should look for a vendor that deploys close to this region.

Next, ensuring that important data is sent quickly and consistently, even when network resources are limited, can help improve the overall user experience.

You can use Quality of Service (QoS) techniques to prioritize real-time communication and transfers of vital data packets over background data syncing. Additionally, you should provide options for users to test their internet and configure settings for optimal performance.

Implement Load Balancing

Distributing network traffic across numerous servers prevents one server from being overwhelmed by requests. You can also implement DNS failover to redirect traffic to other servers when one fails. When redirecting traffic, always route to servers within a small geographical distance of your customers.

Provide Offline Support

App users greatly benefit from accessing critical features even when there are traffic bottlenecks. When building offline-first applications, you need to reduce reliance on real-time server communication.

Prioritize the key features that consumers can interact with for a good user experience. Next, consider integrating data synchronization to enable users to switch between online and offline modes seamlessly.

Similarly, effective data caching and storage methods are crucial for offline functionality. Optimize offline data utilization to save space, boost speed, and secure user data on the device through encryption.

Add Lazy Loading Capabilities

Lazy loading involves slowly rendering pages, usually starting with the most important parts and adding more as the user interacts with the page or as new resources become available. A quicker initial load time and a more responsive experience overall can increase perceived app performance.

You can implement lazy loading using JavaScript frameworks, libraries, or native browser features, such as the  loading= "lazy" tag for images.

Minimize Network Requests

When loading your application, you can minimize the number of network requests by using data URIs for small images and taking advantage of browser caching. It's important to minimize redirects, as each requires an additional network request. You can also implement batch requests by combining multiple requests into a single request.

Reduce Data Usage and Optimize Assets

Start by optimizing images and videos through compression to reduce their file size. You can use the Gzip data compression algorithm, a popular file compression and decompression solution. 51.4% of websites and most modern browsers and servers already use Gzip file compression.

Further, you can implement bandwidth detection to adjust the UI based on the user's network connection. For instance, you can display low-resolution images until high-resolution versions are available and provide placeholders for content that's still loading.

Implement Data Caching

Caching improves application and website speed, especially when internet access is slow. This reduces the time and resources needed to retrieve data from servers.

When using content delivery networks (CDNs), websites can reduce the ping rate by caching content on servers with a smaller geographical distance from the end user. Additionally, with browser caching, web browsers can save resources like stylesheets, pictures, and scripts to load faster the next time someone visits your website.

Implementing server-side caching means that web servers can cache dynamically generated content, helping minimize the server load and improve turnaround times.

You can also implement database caching to store frequently used data or query results, reducing the need for repeated, expensive database queries.

Incorporate Status Feedback

Your app should include status feedback to help users cope with low network speed. For instance, you could use loading indications to inform consumers that the application is currently processing their request. You can also include other status feedback, such as progress indicators or skeleton screens.

Plus, you have the option to notify your app users if the app detects that their device has no internet connection. Status feedback will naturally reassure the end user that the software is working, even if it's taking longer.

Additionally, ensure that ‌users receive error messages that are easy to understand. Provide advice on how to fix the issue or notify ‌users to wait until later to try again.

Optimize Javascript and CSS

Minify your CSS and JavaScript files by removing white space, comments, and line breaks. Then, by merging multiple CSS and JavaScript files, you can decrease the HTTP requests required to load your application. 

Next, prioritize resources with preloading and prefetching. Start by loading the most important JavaScript and CSS files. 

One way you can optimize your application when building features requiring real-time data transmission is by using a third-party API or SDK. For instance, if you want to implement video conferencing capabilities for your app, you can leverage an API that guarantees optimal network performance.

Develop Performant Apps That Can Overcome Network Limitations

Traffic bottlenecks can impact an app’s performance, particularly those that rely on real-time data. However, users often have high expectations for app performance regardless of the quality of their internet connections.

Low-quality performance or app disruptions may cause users to lose interest and abandon your apps. As such, to keep users engaged and match their expectations, developers should optimize their apps for different network conditions.

Frequently Asked Questions