A network administrator deployed a TLS decrypting proxy within an office site. Which metric includes TLS negotiation performance?

Question

Options

• Anetwork latency
• Bthroughput
• Cresponse time
• Dserver availability

• A
  8% (3)
• B
  3% (1)
• C
  74% (29)
• D
  15% (6)

Explanation

Response time (C) is the end-to-end measurement from when a client initiates a request to when it receives the complete response, capturing every step in between - including TLS negotiation. A TLS decrypting proxy performs a double handshake (client-to-proxy and proxy-to-server), adding negotiation overhead that appears directly in response time.

Network latency (A) measures only packet travel time between two points at the network layer - it does not account for application-level processes like a TLS handshake.

Throughput (B) measures data volume per unit of time (e.g., Mbps), reflecting transfer capacity rather than connection setup procedures.

Server availability (D) is a binary or percentage metric indicating whether a server is reachable - it says nothing about how long processes like TLS negotiation take.

Memory tip: Think of response time as a stopwatch from click to content - it starts the moment a request is sent and stops when the full response arrives, so anything that delays that journey (including TLS negotiation) gets captured in it.

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