Hop (networking)

An illustration of hops in a wired network (assuming a 0-origin hop count ^[1]). The hop count between the computers in this case is 2.

In wired computer networking a hop occurs when a packet is passed from one network segment to the next. Data packets pass through routers as they travel between source and destination. The hop count refers to the number of network devices through which data passes from source to destination (depending on routing protocol, this may include the source/destination, that is, the first hop is counted as hop 0 or hop 1^[1]).

Since store and forward and other latencies are incurred through each hop, a large number of hops between source and destination implies lower real-time performance.

^ ^a ^b Comer, Douglas (2014). Internetworking with TCP/IP. Volume one (Sixth ed.). Harlow. p. 294 (footnotes). ISBN 978-1-292-05623-4. OCLC 971612806.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

[:0-1] Comer, Douglas (2014). Internetworking with TCP/IP. Volume one (Sixth ed.). Harlow. p. 294 (footnotes). ISBN 978-1-292-05623-4. OCLC 971612806.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

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