andlag

Andlag refers to a concept in system dynamics used to describe a combined delay affecting the output of a process, arising from both external propagation delays and internal processing lags. It is not a standardized term across disciplines and tends to appear in informal discussions, lecture notes, and some online glossaries. The notion emphasizes that overall response time can reflect multiple, interacting sources of delay rather than a single bottleneck.

Etymology and interpretation: The word is not widely standardized; some accounts treat it as a portmanteau of "and" and "lag" to highlight the interaction of two delay components. In practice, researchers distinguish "propagation lag" (channel latency) from "processing lag" (computational or decision-making delay), and andlag serves as a shorthand for their combined effect. The concept is often used to motivate analyses that do not attribute all delay to a single source.

Measurement and applications: In engineering contexts, andlag is analyzed by measuring the system's step or impulse response and decomposing delays via system identification methods. It is relevant to control systems, distributed computing, and data pipelines where end-to-end latency is affected by multiple stages. Critics note that the lack of formal definition can hinder precise communication, so many prefer to specify the individual delay components (latency, processing time, queueing delay). See also: latency, delay, jitter, throughput.