# Melbourne, Australia → Los Angeles, USA RTT

🇦🇺 **Melbourne, Australia (MEL)** → 🇺🇸 **Los Angeles, USA (LAX)**

Measurement round: `2026-08-16T04:07:28Z`.

The 2026-08-16T04:07:28Z round from Melbourne to Los Angeles produced a Good latency result: an average of 148.4 ms, a minimum of 145.47 ms, a maximum of 157.53 ms, and zero packet loss. Jitter was 2.8 ms and the standard deviation was 2.96 ms, making this a tightly grouped set of probes.

Ranked sixth among the 19 outbound routes measured from Melbourne, the route's variability of about 2.0% of the average is well below the network-wide median of 3.28%. This is a stable profile for a trans-Pacific path.

The geodesic distance of 12,764 km gives a vacuum floor of 85.15 ms and a fiber floor of 125 ms. The observed average is 1.19 times the fiber floor, with 84.2% fiber efficiency, indicating the overhead over the theoretical minimum is relatively small.

## Latency Summary

| Metric               | Value                                                        |
| -------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ |
| RTT                  | **148.4 ms**                                                 |
| Jitter               | **2.8 ms**                                                   |
| Packet Loss          | **0%**                                                       |
| Standard Fiber Floor | **125 ms**                                                   |
| Fiber Efficiency     | **84.2%**                                                    |
| Latency Tier         | Good                                                         |
| Source Region        | [Asia Pacific](/docs/network/latency/regions/asia-pacific)   |
| Destination Region   | [North America](/docs/network/latency/regions/north-america) |

## Ping Measurement Series

The chart below renders the 50-sample ICMP echo measurement round for this route; an accessible table of every sample is included with the chart.

## Download This Route's Data

This route's measurement round is published as open data (CC BY 4.0) in CSV, JSON, and YAML. See [About This Measurement](#about-this-measurement) for citation guidance.

## Theoretical Fiber Latency

The public physical reference uses the GeoNames city centres for [Melbourne](https://www.geonames.org/2158177) (-37.81400, 144.96332) and [Los Angeles](https://www.geonames.org/5368361) (34.05223, -118.24368). It does not disclose either facility address.

| Physical Reference                            | Value         |
| --------------------------------------------- | ------------- |
| WGS-84 geodesic distance                      | **12,764 km** |
| Vacuum RTT floor                              | **85.15 ms**  |
| Standard fiber RTT floor ($n_g=1.4679$)       | **125 ms**    |
| Low-latency fiber material floor              | **124.49 ms** |
| Engineering floor (5% path allowance)         | **131.26 ms** |
| Research 1.33× mapped-fiber reference         | **166.24 ms** |
| Estimated unamplified path loss               | **2680.4 dB** |
| Transparent optical spans / inline amplifiers | **168 / 167** |
| Published RTT inflation over fiber floor      | **1.19×**     |

Attenuation is used to estimate the number of 80 km optical spans; it does not directly slow light. See the full [theoretical fiber latency, GeoNames, attenuation, and amplifier methodology](/docs/network/latency/theoretical-fiber-latency).

## Stability & Trend

The current measurement round (2026-08-16T04:07:28Z) collected 50 ICMP echo samples on this route. Distribution statistics from that round:

| Round Statistic    | Value         |
| ------------------ | ------------- |
| Minimum RTT        | **145.47 ms** |
| Average RTT        | **148.4 ms**  |
| Maximum RTT        | **157.53 ms** |
| Standard deviation | **2.96 ms**   |
| Stdev / average    | **2.0%**      |

## Route Context

* Departure PoP: [Melbourne (MEL)](/docs/network/latency/mel-melbourne)
* Destination PoP: [Los Angeles (LAX)](/docs/network/latency/lax-los-angeles)
* Region overview: [Asia Pacific](/docs/network/latency/regions/asia-pacific) → [North America](/docs/network/latency/regions/north-america)
* Full global matrix: [Backbone Latency Matrix](/docs/network/latency)
* Physical methodology: [Theoretical Fiber Latency](/docs/network/latency/theoretical-fiber-latency)

## Related City-Pair Routes

**Reverse direction**

* [Los Angeles to Melbourne latency and RTT](/docs/network/latency/pairs/lax-mel-rtt) — 148.2 ms

**Fastest routes departing Melbourne (MEL)**

* [Melbourne to Sydney latency and RTT](/docs/network/latency/pairs/mel-syd-rtt) — 9.8 ms
* [Melbourne to Singapore latency and RTT](/docs/network/latency/pairs/mel-sin-rtt) — 88.4 ms
* [Melbourne to Tokyo latency and RTT](/docs/network/latency/pairs/mel-tyo-rtt) — 112 ms
* [Melbourne to Hong Kong latency and RTT](/docs/network/latency/pairs/mel-hkg-rtt) — 138.5 ms
* [Melbourne to Taipei latency and RTT](/docs/network/latency/pairs/mel-tpe-rtt) — 143.2 ms

**Fastest routes arriving at Los Angeles (LAX)**

* [Seattle to Los Angeles latency and RTT](/docs/network/latency/pairs/sea-lax-rtt) — 25.9 ms
* [Miami to Los Angeles latency and RTT](/docs/network/latency/pairs/mia-lax-rtt) — 56.8 ms
* [New York to Los Angeles latency and RTT](/docs/network/latency/pairs/nyc-lax-rtt) — 58.9 ms
* [Ashburn to Los Angeles latency and RTT](/docs/network/latency/pairs/iad-lax-rtt) — 60.7 ms
* [Tokyo to Los Angeles latency and RTT](/docs/network/latency/pairs/tyo-lax-rtt) — 101.2 ms

**Same corridor (Asia Pacific → North America)**

* [Tokyo to Seattle latency and RTT](/docs/network/latency/pairs/tyo-sea-rtt) — 84.8 ms
* [Taipei to Seattle latency and RTT](/docs/network/latency/pairs/tpe-sea-rtt) — 115.8 ms
* [Hong Kong to Seattle latency and RTT](/docs/network/latency/pairs/hkg-sea-rtt) — 131.6 ms

## About This Measurement

Published RTT reflects best-case backbone path behavior measured with ICMP echo probes between PoPs. End-user latency also depends on local access networks, congestion, routing policy, and traffic engineering. None of these values is an SLA.

The measurement round behind this page is published as open data under **CC BY 4.0** in the [Hats Network latency dataset](/opendata/latency/). Per-pair files are available at `/opendata/latency/latest/pairs/mel-lax.pings.{csv,json,yaml}`. When citing, include the route, the measurement round timestamp, and the dataset version — for example: "Hats Network latency dataset, Melbourne → Los Angeles round 2026-08-16T04:07:28Z, CC BY 4.0".

***

*Data auto-generated on August 16, 2026. Explore the [full interactive latency matrix](/docs/network/latency) or browse more [city-pair routes](/docs/network/latency/pairs).*

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## License and attribution

- **Canonical source:** [View the human-readable HTML page](https://hatsnet.io/docs/network/latency/pairs/mel-lax-rtt).
- **Original documentation:** © Hats Network Inc., licensed under [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).
- **Public latency data:** © Hats Network Inc., licensed under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
- **Full terms:** [Content and Data License](https://hatsnet.io/docs/legal/content-and-data-license) — includes attribution requirements, third-party material, trademarks, source code and other exclusions.