This paper puts forth a new metric, dubbed channel cycle time (CCT), to measure the short-term fairness of communication networks. CCT characterizes the average duration between two consecutive successful transmissions of a user, during which all other users successfully accessed the channel at least once. In contrast to existing short-term fairness measures, CCT provides more comprehensive insight into the transient dynamics of communication networks, with a particular focus on users’ delays and jitter. To validate the efficacy of our approach, we analytically characterize the CCTs for two classical communication protocols: slotted Aloha and CSMA/CA. The analysis demonstrates that CSMA/CA exhibits superior short-term fairness over slotted Aloha. Beyond its role as a measurement metric, CCT has broader implications as a guiding principle for the design of future communication networks by emphasizing factors like fairness, delay, and jitter in short-term behaviors.