Request times vary by 100ms on server, client send them every 256 ms

[noweare]

Using an esp32 v5.5 esp-idf audio server to web client

working on an audio project where i am getting request every 256 msecs from the client for data.
i am using an i2 interrupt driven task to read samples from the i2s dma buffers so there no blocking.
The interrupt happens every 256 msecs. I am logging the interval between when i
recieve the request from the client in the handler and it alternates between 205 msecs and 307 msecs. The
interrupt and storing the data is done within the 10 msec resolution of the esp_logi statement.
The sending of the data is also within the 10 ms window of the esp_logi.
I am trying to understand why the variance in the server responding to
the request as everything else in the code is periodic and fast.

It seems like something is taking 50 msecs somewhere before it can respond to the
request so thats why i get the 307 msec delay instead of 256 msecs.

The average of the two is close to the 256 ms i would expect.

I am thinking it is something behind the scenes ie task scheduler
or a network thing.

Maybe someone has experienced this and point me in a direction.