Slotlag

Slotlag refers to the delay observed in systems that operate on discrete time slots. It is the time difference between the start of a scheduled slot and the actual moment at which the corresponding action occurs, such as transmission, processing, or decision making. Slotlag can be caused by propagation delay, hardware and software processing time, queuing, scheduling overhead, and clock synchronization errors. In practice, slotlag is often expressed as a time value or as a fraction of a slot, and may vary between slots, contributing to jitter in the system.

In telecommunications and networks, slotlag affects the performance of time-division multiple access (TDMA) and other slot-based protocols. In digital circuits and embedded systems, slotlag can influence the timing of synchronized operations across components. In distributed ledgers and blockchains that use slot-based consensus mechanisms, slotlag describes how network latency and processing delays translate into deviations from the ideal slot schedule, potentially delaying block proposals or validations.

Measurement and management: Slotlag can be characterized by its average value and variance, sometimes referred to as delay variance or jitter. Mitigation strategies include reducing processing time, increasing bandwidth, tightening clock synchronization, implementing jitter buffers, and using adaptive slot durations or predictive scheduling to compensate for expected delays.

See also: latency, jitter, clock synchronization, TDMA, slot-based consensus.