LATENCY, mostly TOTAL LATENCY

[jazzerone]

I'm a novice to UDP, as described here by Dimitri, but have a basic understanding of the difference between UDP and TCP, and how peer-to-peer works. So, my question is this: With 3 players on board, does it matter who initiates the session, or are each of the participants on equal status, so to speak?

I have a 200mbps wired internet connection, with about 8ms latency on my AI. I have regular session with a local player and one in California (1500 miles away). I always initiate the session and invite the others to join. The other local player has no latency issues with the California player. His internet speed is 300mbps, with about the same latency as I have. He experiences virtually no latency issues with the California player; I, on the other hand, see about 45ms total latency and experience the same, which puts us slightly off --- still playable, but noticeable. Yesterday I had a session with 2 California players, and it was nearly impossible. Again, I initiated the session, invited them to join, and they had no issues with each other.

I understand that the distance from me to them, and their proximity to each other comes into play here, but I'm trying to figure out why my local friend doesn't experience this problem with the California player, while I do. We use the same ISP, and live about 15 miles apart. We're running comparable audio interface gear, both on MAC platforms. So, back to my original question: In a UDP setup, does it matter who initiates the session?

Thanks for any insights.