requests per second

> Speed is is the magnitude of velocity so bigger is faster.

If you're going to be pedantic, velocity is a vector, and vectors must reside in a vector space, so what vector space do the velocities in this context reside in?

Ignoring all context to call into doubt the use of a perfectly well-understood word adds nothing to the discussion.

That vector space would be the real numbers.

request to and from the server are in opposite directions and travel along edges of a graph via nodes.