# Latency measurements **URL:** \ **Category:** GNU Radio\ **Created:** [September 5, 2014, 12:15pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/latency-measurements/231908 "2014-09-05T12:15:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![addis\_a](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@addis\_a](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/addis_a)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 12:15pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/latency-measurements/231908/1 "2014-09-05T12:15:47Z")
Hi guys, In simulation, sometime we need to measure the latency of a packet in terms of the duration is needed to perform some certain signal processing on the packet. Assume that we have a source which generates packets with specific lengths. I want to know how long does it take for the packet to go through blocks and receive to a particular block? Is there any solution in GNURadio? I think it’s possible with _performance counters_ but I don’t know how? Best, Mostafa ---
**Author:** ![mostafa\_a](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@mostafa\_a](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mostafa_a)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 1:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/latency-measurements/231908/2 "2014-09-05T13:04:00Z")
Hi Mostafa, I never tire to say that such measurements are often meaningless, as a) on general purpose processors and operating systems _anything_ can happen, stalling your flow graph, and b) as GNU Radio scales well on multiprocessor platforms and algorithms are steadily optimized, you can expect no two installations to exhibit the same latency. That being said, it’s still a helpful measurement when actually implementing something for a given system configuration, so here’s my advice: Just compare the nitems\_written() of an upstream block with the nitems\_read() of a downstream block at singulare times, which will give you the numbers of items “in the flow” between these two. Also, take the nitems\_read() of an upstream block, and measure the host time passing until nitems\_read() of a downstream block is greater or equal that number. Apply statistics. The easiest way to find out how long an item has been “in the flight” would be adding a stream tag containing the current host time at an upstream block, and reading that tag somewhere downstream, comparing the contained timestamp with the now current system time. Also, since I bet this ends up on the Google search results for “GNU Radio latency” sooner or later, a word to the uninitiated reader: Usually, real time doesn’t matter in DSP systems such as GNU Radio. Samples are not processed at their “signal theoretical” speed, but at the rate that they become available, limited by the speed at which the processor can process them. In the GNU Radio case, this is even more evident because normally, GNU Radio lets blocks process samples en bloc, meaning that you usually see something like 4096 samples going into a block, which then processes them, and outputs another chunk of samples (often of the same length), and then goes to sleep, until its woken up to process another chunk of samples at its input. Latency is thus strongly dependent on how big GNU Radio makes these chunks, which is a thing that as developer/user you can configure, but lowering buffer sizes usually decreases efficiency, and thus doesn’t necessarily reduce latency. Generally, if you try to optimize something for throughput, just write your blocks as efficiently as possible and use GNU Radio/volk optimized things as often as sensible; if you try to optimize for latency, you need to put in more thought, optimize individual buffer sizes, consider what optimal work chunk sizes are and if you want to go as far as breaking up GNU Radios highly modular approach. Greetings, Marcus ---
**Author:** ![mostafa\_a](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@mostafa\_a](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mostafa_a)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 5:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/latency-measurements/231908/3 "2014-09-05T17:12:34Z")
Hello Mostafa, I read this article and think you can find it interesting: [http://academic.csuohio.edu/yuc/papers/PID2932179.pdf](http://academic.csuohio.edu/yuc/papers/PID2932179.pdf) Greetings Harold Daniel Moreno Urbina 2014-09-05 4:14 GMT-06:00 Mostafa A. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid): ---
**Author:** ![mostafa\_a](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@mostafa\_a](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mostafa_a)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2014, 9:52am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/latency-measurements/231908/4 "2014-09-06T09:52:45Z")
Thank you Harold, On Fri, Sep 5, 2014 at 7:41 PM, Harold Daniel Moreno Urbina \< [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)\> wrote: > > Best, > > Mostafa > > > > * * * > > > > Discuss-gnuradio mailing list > > [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) > > [Discuss-gnuradio Info Page](https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss-gnuradio) – * * * Department of Electrical Engineering Aboureyhan Building MMWCL LAB Amirkabir University Of Technology Tehran IRAN Tel: +98 (919) 158-7730 LAB: [http://ele.aut.ac.ir/~mmwcl/?page\_id=411](http://ele.aut.ac.ir/~mmwcl/?page_id=411) Homepage: [http://ele.aut.ac.ir/~alizadeh/](http://ele.aut.ac.ir/~alizadeh/) * * * ---
**Author:** ![mostafa\_a](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@mostafa\_a](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mostafa_a)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2014, 5:35pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/latency-measurements/231908/5 "2014-09-07T17:35:32Z")
Hi Marcus, I did what you recommended for measuring latency which is defined as followed: “the traveling duration of a packet through blocks until some specified processing in one block is done”. However, there are obstacles again. Firstly, how can optimize I/O buffers of my blocks to obtain a minimum latency. I tried to use “set\_alignment” for output buffers. When I change them a little, the latency will change within a hundred of milliseconds. Although, the input buffers must be determined in an efficient manner but how to do so? This is important to mention that the latency here is just accounted for GNURadio latency which is not included other delays such as hardware and UHD delays. Thanks in advance, Mostafa On Fri, Sep 5, 2014 at 3:32 PM, Marcus M. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Just compare the nitems\_written() of an upstream block with the > Also, since I bet this ends up on the Google search results for "GNU Radio > these chunks, which is a thing that as developer/user you can configure, > Marcus > Is there any solution in GNURadio? I think it’s possible with \*performance > > * * * > > Discuss-gnuradio mailing list > [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) > [Discuss-gnuradio Info Page](https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss-gnuradio) – * * * Department of Electrical Engineering Aboureyhan Building MMWCL LAB Amirkabir University Of Technology Tehran IRAN Tel: +98 (919) 158-7730 LAB: [http://ele.aut.ac.ir/~mmwcl/?page\_id=411](http://ele.aut.ac.ir/~mmwcl/?page_id=411) Homepage: [http://ele.aut.ac.ir/~alizadeh/](http://ele.aut.ac.ir/~alizadeh/) * * * ---
**Author:** ![mostafa\_a](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@mostafa\_a](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mostafa_a)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2014, 9:58am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/latency-measurements/231908/6 "2014-09-06T09:58:18Z")
Thank you very much Marcus, As always you explain in details 🙂 . I knew that the latency is architecture dependent, however, I’m looking for a measurement as a role of thumb. You’re idea was great which is tagging the stream with time stamp and reading the tag and comparing it with the received time. Best, Mostafa On Fri, Sep 5, 2014 at 3:32 PM, Marcus M. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Just compare the nitems\_written() of an upstream block with the > Also, since I bet this ends up on the Google search results for "GNU Radio > these chunks, which is a thing that as developer/user you can configure, > Marcus > Is there any solution in GNURadio? I think it’s possible with \*performance > > * * * > > Discuss-gnuradio mailing list > [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) > [Discuss-gnuradio Info Page](https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss-gnuradio) – * * * Department of Electrical Engineering Aboureyhan Building MMWCL LAB Amirkabir University Of Technology Tehran IRAN Tel: +98 (919) 158-7730 LAB: [http://ele.aut.ac.ir/~mmwcl/?page\_id=411](http://ele.aut.ac.ir/~mmwcl/?page_id=411) Homepage: [http://ele.aut.ac.ir/~alizadeh/](http://ele.aut.ac.ir/~alizadeh/) * * * ---
**Author:** ![mostafa\_a](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@mostafa\_a](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mostafa_a)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2014, 7:21pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/latency-measurements/231908/7 "2014-09-07T19:21:01Z")
Hello, There is a mathematical relationship in the latency time? May be there is something related to Ethernet protocol to handle collicollisions. El 07/09/2014 09:39, “Mostafa A.” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) escribió: ---
**Author:** ![mostafa\_a](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@mostafa\_a](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mostafa_a)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2014, 5:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/latency-measurements/231908/8 "2014-09-07T17:41:06Z")
The second problem I encountered that I forgot to mention is: when I send multiple of packets from a source block to a sink block and I measure the latency for each packet, the latency is increasing constantly as time advances. Why is this happening? Best, Mostafa On Sun, Sep 7, 2014 at 8:04 PM, Mostafa A. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > for output buffers. When I change them a little, the latency will change > > > installations to exhibit the same latency. That being said, it’s still a > > would be adding a stream tag containing the current host time at an > > something like 4096 samples going into a block, which then processes them, > > far as breaking up GNU Radios highly modular approach. > > packet. Assume that we have a source which generates packets with specific > > IRAN > Tel: +98 (919) 158-7730 > LAB: [http://ele.aut.ac.ir/~mmwcl/?page\_id=411](http://ele.aut.ac.ir/~mmwcl/?page_id=411) > Homepage: [http://ele.aut.ac.ir/~alizadeh/](http://ele.aut.ac.ir/~alizadeh/) > > * * * – * * * Department of Electrical Engineering Aboureyhan Building MMWCL LAB Amirkabir University Of Technology Tehran IRAN Tel: +98 (919) 158-7730 LAB: [http://ele.aut.ac.ir/~mmwcl/?page\_id=411](http://ele.aut.ac.ir/~mmwcl/?page_id=411) Homepage: [http://ele.aut.ac.ir/~alizadeh/](http://ele.aut.ac.ir/~alizadeh/) * * * ---
**Author:** ![mostafa\_a](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@mostafa\_a](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mostafa_a)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2014, 8:25am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/latency-measurements/231908/9 "2014-09-08T08:25:22Z")
Harold, I’m not using any protocol. This is just a GNURadio application. It is important to me to know is there any way to optimize input/output buffers of blocks to reduce latency as much as possible? Is the GNURadio able to do so automatically? Best, Mostafa On Sun, Sep 7, 2014 at 9:49 PM, Harold Daniel Moreno Urbina \< [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)\> wrote: > > > followed: > > > This is important to mention that the latency here is just accounted for > > > > > > > Just compare the nitems\_written() of an upstream block with the > > > > Also, since I bet this ends up on the Google search results for "GNU > > > > these chunks, which is a thing that as developer/user you can configure, > > > > Marcus > > > > Is there any solution in GNURadio? I think it’s possible with \*performance > > > > > > – > > > > > > * * * > > > > Tehran > > IRAN > > Tel: +98 (919) 158-7730 > > LAB: [http://ele.aut.ac.ir/~mmwcl/?page\_id=411](http://ele.aut.ac.ir/~mmwcl/?page_id=411) > > Homepage: [http://ele.aut.ac.ir/~alizadeh/](http://ele.aut.ac.ir/~alizadeh/) > > > > * * * – * * * Department of Electrical Engineering Aboureyhan Building MMWCL LAB Amirkabir University Of Technology Tehran IRAN Tel: +98 (919) 158-7730 LAB: [http://ele.aut.ac.ir/~mmwcl/?page\_id=411](http://ele.aut.ac.ir/~mmwcl/?page_id=411) Homepage: [http://ele.aut.ac.ir/~alizadeh/](http://ele.aut.ac.ir/~alizadeh/) * * *