Figure 4-23 is the result of sampling tnsping results once an hour for three months. There were 1,210 samples collected, the average latency was 47.90 ms, and 90% of all the samples were less than 47.38 ms. It might seem strange that the average latency is greater than the ninetieth percentile figure, but this is due to a few samples over 600 ms. For this particular application, service levels dictated the latency must be below 100 ms 90% of the time. Most applications require the latency to be within 20 ms or even 5 ms. So while there are clearly latency times greater then 100 ms, both the average and the ninetieth percentile figures meet service-level requirements.

Figure 4-23. This graph shows SQL*Net packet latency results taken once each hour over a three-month period. While there are no alarming trends, the average latency for the 1,210 samples is 47.90 ms.

While many network administrators are not aware of Oracle application latency issues, most administrators will realize if there is a collision issue. Collisions are the result of some type of confusion between the packet sender and receiver. As a result, they both send a packet at the same time and collide. You won't get anything as exciting as subatomic particle collision results, just angry users.