Analysis of the Paths Followed by Traffic in the LACNIC Region
12/01/2026
The LACNIC R&D Department conducted a study to identify how the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are interconnected. Using data collected through the Speedchecker measurement platform, we analyzed the paths taken by data packets from each country to the rest of the region, including information on intermediate hops and observed latencies.
This work builds upon the connectivity study carried out in 2023 the paths followed by traffic within each country of the LAC region.
At LACNIC, we promote different types of Internet measurements across the countries in the region and at the interconnection level throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. These measurements help us understand the state of connectivity between networks in the countries within our area of influence and allow operators to use the information to improve network performance and interoperability.
In this study we considered traceroute measurements originating in each country in the LAC region and destined for all other countries. We examined average latency and hop patterns and added an analysis of visualizations at the subregional level:
- Central America: Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and El Salvador
- South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela
- Caribbean: Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Trinidad and Tobago
First, we analyzed the average latency from each country to the rest of the region, as shown in the graph below.
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The measurements indicate that interconnection paths vary depending on the origin-destination country pair. In general, we observed that the latency of hops that leave the LACNIC region is higher than that of hops that remain within the region.
When the data was analyzed by subregion, latencies were generally consistent. However, in the Caribbean and Central American subregions, paths destined outside the region had lower latencies than paths destined to South America.
As in our first report on routes within a single country, we analyzed the ASNs that appear the most frequently by subregion, i.e., paths originating in one subregion and destined for each of the three. For example, the following image shows the ASNs appearing the most frequently on paths originating in and destined for South America:
The views expressed by the authors of this blog are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of LACNIC.