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Collaboration, Voice & AV · Intermediate

Serialization Delay

The time required to clock a frame's bits onto a physical link, equal to frame size divided by link speed.

Definition

Serialization delay is fixed for a given frame size and interface rate and becomes significant on slow WAN links. For example, a 1500-byte frame takes about 187 ms to serialize on a 64 kbps link, which can delay a voice packet waiting behind it. Link fragmentation and interleaving (LFI) was historically used on links under 768 kbps to break large packets into pieces that allow voice to be interleaved.

Example

A 1500-byte packet on a 1.544 Mbps T1 takes about 7.8 ms to serialize.

Exam tip

Remember the formula bits divided by bits per second, and that LFI targets serialization delay only on slow links.

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