When measuring network performance between US coasts, we typically observe:

• Physical limit: ~70ms (speed of light round-trip)
• Real-world fiber: 80-100ms (accounting for refraction index)
• Practical internet: 100-150ms (with routing hops)

Your observed 215ms latency suggests suboptimal routing. Let's break this down:

// Sample traceroute analysis (simplified)
const routeAnalysis = {
  optimalHops: 15-18,
  yourHops: 22+ (based on 215ms),
  problematicSegments: [
    "Potential congested IXPs",
    "Suboptimal peering agreements",
    "Last-mile latency spikes"
  ]
};

Consider these technical improvements before relocation:

1. TCP/IP Tuning

# Linux kernel tuning for long-distance connections
sysctl -w net.ipv4.tcp_sack=1
sysctl -w net.ipv4.tcp_timestamps=1
sysctl -w net.ipv4.tcp_window_scaling=1
sysctl -w net.core.rmem_max=16777216
sysctl -w net.core.wmem_max=16777216

2. CDN Edge Caching

Example CloudFront configuration for cross-continent delivery:

{
  "DistributionConfig": {
    "Origins": {
      "Items": [
        {
          "DomainName": "origin.example.com",
          "OriginPath": "/assets",
          "CustomHeaders": {
            "Items": [
              {
                "HeaderName": "Edge-Cache-TTL",
                "HeaderValue": "86400"
              }
            ]
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Consider moving your datacenter if:

• >80% of your users are east-coast based
• Your application requires <50ms latency
• You're running latency-sensitive protocols (VoIP, gaming)

For distributed systems, consider:

// Example multi-region database setup
const databaseConfig = {
  primaryRegion: "us-east-1",
  readReplicas: [
    { region: "us-west-1", latency: 120 },
    { region: "us-central-1", latency: 60 }
  ],
  syncStrategy: "semi-synchronous",
  failoverThreshold: 200 // ms
};

For accurate latency testing:

# Continuous latency monitoring script
ping -D -c 100 east-coast.example.com | \
awk '/time=/ {print $1,$7}' | \
sed 's/$$//;s/$$//;s/time=//' > latency.log

Remember that single-point measurements can be misleading. Always test over multiple hours/days to account for network variability.

When evaluating datacenter relocation between US coasts, network latency becomes a critical performance metric. Based on empirical measurements:

• West-to-East Coast: 215ms latency, 261ms total (small file transfer)
• West-to-West Coast: 114ms latency, 155ms total

The 100ms latency delta aligns with physical distance (≈2,800 miles) but warrants deeper technical analysis.

Theoretical minimum latency for light in fiber (200km/ms):

// Theoretical minimum calculation
const distance = 4500; // km (NYC-SF great circle)
const speedOfLight = 200; // km/ms in fiber
const minimumLatency = distance / speedOfLight * 2; // Round trip
console.log(`Theoretical minimum: ${minimumLatency.toFixed(2)}ms`);
// Output: Theoretical minimum: 45.00ms

Real-world factors causing 4-5x degradation:

• Non-linear fiber routes (actual path > great circle distance)
• Router hops (typically 15-20 between coasts)
• Peering agreements and congestion points

For accurate benchmarking:

# Linux traceroute with latency metrics
traceroute -T -p 443 east-coast-dc.example.com

# Windows equivalent
pathping east-coast-dc.example.com

# HTTP latency test with curl
curl -w "\nDNS: %{time_namelookup}  Connect: %{time_connect}  TTFB: %{time_starttransfer}\n" \
  -o /dev/null -s https://east-coast-dc.example.com/test.png

When relocation is unavoidable:

// Node.js TCP_NODELAY optimization
const net = require('net');
const client = net.createConnection({ port: 443, host: 'east-coast-dc.example.com' }, () => {
  client.setNoDelay(true); // Disable Nagle's algorithm
});

// HTTP/2 multiplexing example (Apache config)
<IfModule http2_module>
    Protocols h2 http/1.1
    H2Direct on
    H2EarlyHints on
</IfModule>

Consider hybrid approaches:

• Edge caching: Cloudflare/CloudFront POPs reduce RTT
• Anycast routing: BGP-based traffic steering
• Data replication: Active-active database clusters

Example Redis geo-replication config:

# redis.conf (east coast replica)
replicaof west-coast-dc-ip 6379
repl-ping-replica-period 10
repl-timeout 60
min-replicas-to-write 1