throughputlatency

Throughputlatency is a term used to describe the relationship between system throughput and end-to-end latency. Throughput is the rate at which work is completed, while latency is the time required for an individual operation. There is no universally standardized metric named throughputlatency; rather, it is a framing that analysts use to examine how increasing throughput affects latency and how latency constraints limit achievable throughput. Some use it to denote the latency observed at a given throughput or the overall trade-off curve.

Trade-offs arise because many systems exhibit queueing behavior: adding parallelism or faster components can raise throughput but also introduces processing or queue delays that increase latency, especially under saturation. Conversely, methods to reduce latency—smaller buffers, tighter backoff, or serial processing—can lower latency at the cost of reduced throughput. The result is a balance between speed and responsiveness.

Measurement and modeling typically involve benchmarking across load levels and recording latency distributions alongside throughput. Little's Law (average number in system equals throughput times average latency) provides a simple framework for understanding the interdependence of the two. Practical analysis often uses plots of throughput versus latency and tail latency metrics to guide capacity planning, scheduling, and resource allocation.

Applications span networks, databases, storage systems, and distributed services. By analyzing throughputlatency, engineers set performance targets, choose queuing and backpressure strategies, and manage resource contention to achieve desired responsiveness without sacrificing excessive throughput.

See also: Latency, Throughput, Queueing theory, Little's Law, Quality of service, Backpressure, Congestion control.