Possible error in Computer Networks, V Edition by Tanenbaum & Wetherall

Question

Under section 5.4 Quality of Service on page 404:

Multimedia applications in particular, often need a minimum throughput and maximum latency to work.

Isn't this statement incorrect? Shouldn't it be :

Multimedia applications in particular, often need a maximum throughput and minimum latency to work.

Answer 1

I don't have a copy of this book to confirm the context, but I suspect that the sentence as written was intended to be interpreted as:

Multimedia applications in particular, often need the network to provide guarantees of a certain minimum throughput and maximum latency to work.

In other words, in order for a multimedia application to function, the channel must ensure at least a certain throughput and at most a certain latency—exactly what is written.

The key word to notice here is the indefinite article "a". Both of the following sentences are correct, with different meanings:

1. Multimedia applications often need a minimum throughput and maximum latency to work.
2. Multimedia applications benefit from maximum throughput and minimum latency.

To further confuse matters, the following sentence means the same thing as 2.

3. Multimedia applications benefit from a maximum of throughput and a maximum of latency.

Isn't English grand?