Performance issues
Connectivity:
- How many parties you can talk to
- Sometimes a function of latency, as in the telephone system, which allows you to talk to millions of parties but only one at a time.
Predictability:
- How much latency and bandwidth vary with time
- Variation in latency is called jitter
- Variation in bandwidth is called burstiness
- Computer communication is unpredictable
- Telecommunications service is traditionally highly predictable
Availability:
- Probability that an attempt to communicate succeeds
Uniform and absolute performance
- Locality and congestion
- Uniformity and synchrony