# Sydney, Australia → Melbourne, Australia RTT

🇦🇺 **Sydney, Australia (SYD)** → 🇦🇺 **Melbourne, Australia (MEL)**

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

In the 2026-08-16T04:07:28Z round, ICMP echo probes from Sydney to Melbourne averaged 9.8 ms over 50 samples taken every 100 ms, with a minimum of 9.38 ms and a maximum of 11.84 ms.

The 0.46 ms standard deviation and 0.41 ms jitter describe a very stable city-to-city path, and zero packet loss was observed in this sample. Across the 713.8 km geodesic distance, the measured RTT is only 1.4 times the theoretical fiber floor, giving an effective fiber efficiency of about 71.3%.

This route ranked first among the 19 outbound routes in the same round, and the network-wide median route variability stood at 3.28% of average latency. For routine measurements between these two Australian cities, the result is a clean ultra-low-latency baseline with essentially no loss.

## Latency Summary

| Metric               | Value                                                      |
| -------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------- |
| RTT                  | **9.8 ms**                                                 |
| Jitter               | **0.41 ms**                                                |
| Packet Loss          | **0%**                                                     |
| Standard Fiber Floor | **6.99 ms**                                                |
| Fiber Efficiency     | **71.3%**                                                  |
| Latency Tier         | Ultra-Low                                                  |
| Source Region        | [Asia Pacific](/docs/network/latency/regions/asia-pacific) |
| Destination Region   | [Asia Pacific](/docs/network/latency/regions/asia-pacific) |

## 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 [Sydney](https://www.geonames.org/2147714) (-33.86785, 151.20732) and [Melbourne](https://www.geonames.org/2158177) (-37.81400, 144.96332). It does not disclose either facility address.

| Physical Reference                            | Value        |
| --------------------------------------------- | ------------ |
| WGS-84 geodesic distance                      | **713.8 km** |
| Vacuum RTT floor                              | **4.76 ms**  |
| Standard fiber RTT floor ($n_g=1.4679$)       | **6.99 ms**  |
| Low-latency fiber material floor              | **6.96 ms**  |
| Engineering floor (5% path allowance)         | **7.34 ms**  |
| Research 1.33× mapped-fiber reference         | **9.3 ms**   |
| Estimated unamplified path loss               | **149.9 dB** |
| Transparent optical spans / inline amplifiers | **10 / 9**   |
| Published RTT inflation over fiber floor      | **1.4×**     |

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        | **9.38 ms**  |
| Average RTT        | **9.8 ms**   |
| Maximum RTT        | **11.84 ms** |
| Standard deviation | **0.46 ms**  |
| Stdev / average    | **4.7%**     |

## Route Context

* Departure PoP: [Sydney (SYD)](/docs/network/latency/syd-sydney)
* Destination PoP: [Melbourne (MEL)](/docs/network/latency/mel-melbourne)
* Region overview: [Asia Pacific](/docs/network/latency/regions/asia-pacific) → [Asia Pacific](/docs/network/latency/regions/asia-pacific)
* 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**

* [Melbourne to Sydney latency and RTT](/docs/network/latency/pairs/mel-syd-rtt) — 9.8 ms

**Fastest routes departing Sydney (SYD)**

* [Sydney to Singapore latency and RTT](/docs/network/latency/pairs/syd-sin-rtt) — 94.5 ms
* [Sydney to Tokyo latency and RTT](/docs/network/latency/pairs/syd-tyo-rtt) — 101.3 ms
* [Sydney to Taipei latency and RTT](/docs/network/latency/pairs/syd-tpe-rtt) — 131.7 ms
* [Sydney to Hong Kong latency and RTT](/docs/network/latency/pairs/syd-hkg-rtt) — 135.7 ms
* [Sydney to Los Angeles latency and RTT](/docs/network/latency/pairs/syd-lax-rtt) — 136.5 ms

**Fastest routes arriving at Melbourne (MEL)**

* [Singapore to Melbourne latency and RTT](/docs/network/latency/pairs/sin-mel-rtt) — 88.6 ms
* [Tokyo to Melbourne latency and RTT](/docs/network/latency/pairs/tyo-mel-rtt) — 113.9 ms
* [Hong Kong to Melbourne latency and RTT](/docs/network/latency/pairs/hkg-mel-rtt) — 138.4 ms
* [Taipei to Melbourne latency and RTT](/docs/network/latency/pairs/tpe-mel-rtt) — 142 ms
* [Los Angeles to Melbourne latency and RTT](/docs/network/latency/pairs/lax-mel-rtt) — 148.2 ms

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

* [Hong Kong to Taipei latency and RTT](/docs/network/latency/pairs/hkg-tpe-rtt) — 14.7 ms
* [Taipei to Hong Kong latency and RTT](/docs/network/latency/pairs/tpe-hkg-rtt) — 15.5 ms
* [Singapore to Hong Kong latency and RTT](/docs/network/latency/pairs/sin-hkg-rtt) — 30.8 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/syd-mel.pings.{csv,json,yaml}`. When citing, include the route, the measurement round timestamp, and the dataset version — for example: "Hats Network latency dataset, Sydney → Melbourne 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/syd-mel-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.