Response Time Calculation for a HTTP Page in a Website

In real-time systems the response time of a task or thread is defined as the time taken to react to the input of a functional unit.

Due to the increase in bandwidth and user experience, response time is very crucial for a website. The ideal response time would be 1 to 2 seconds. The response time up to 15 seconds is tolerable during 1980s. In the 1990s as the internet and web came into existence longer response times were acceptable with the limit of 8-12 seconds without any feedback and 20 to 30 seconds or more with feedback.

The http page is considered as good when it answers to a request within less than 1 second (for a download capacity of 16kb) .

Given below are the basic response times that have been same from the past thirty years.

• 0.1 second It indicates that there is not necessary to provide a special feedback and the user must have a feeling that it responds and shows the result instantaneously.
• 1.0 second The user notices a delay and stays uninterrupted if the response is under this limit.
• 10 seconds If a user needs to wait for a longer time for the computer to finish a particular task, the user performs other tasks during this moment. A feedback must be given that indicates when the task is done by the computer since the users will not know what to expect.

A visitor feels happy if the response time of a website is less. But in case of any unavoidable circumstances, the website should display a message regarding the concerned problem and completion time.