Which statement about fiber optic cables and latency is true?

Which statement about fiber optic cables and latency is true?

• A. Fiber optic cables have high latency.
• B. Latency is not affected by the transmission medium.
• C. Fiber optic cables have low latency, contributing to fast connections.
• D. Latency measures bandwidth.

Answer: (C)

Latency is the time it takes for a signal to travel from the sender to the receiver. The speed of that signal depends on the transmission medium. In fiber optic cables, information travels as light through glass, which moves much faster than electrical signals in copper. Because the signal can propagate more quickly, the propagation delay over a given distance is smaller, so fiber optic links typically have lower latency and contribute to faster connections, especially over long distances. But total latency isn’t just about propagation speed; it also includes delays from devices like routers and switches, as well as any queuing or processing that happens along the path. The other statements miss this relationship: fiber optic cables don’t inherently have high latency, latency is indeed affected by the transmission medium, and latency is about time, not bandwidth.

Latency is the time it takes for a signal to travel from the sender to the receiver. The speed of that signal depends on the transmission medium. In fiber optic cables, information travels as light through glass, which moves much faster than electrical signals in copper. Because the signal can propagate more quickly, the propagation delay over a given distance is smaller, so fiber optic links typically have lower latency and contribute to faster connections, especially over long distances.

But total latency isn’t just about propagation speed; it also includes delays from devices like routers and switches, as well as any queuing or processing that happens along the path. The other statements miss this relationship: fiber optic cables don’t inherently have high latency, latency is indeed affected by the transmission medium, and latency is about time, not bandwidth.