摘自：http://www.anas.co.in/2011/10/active-directory-intrasite-and.html

There  are two types of Active Directory replication based on site topology.  Intrasite and Intersite replication. In intrasite replication, all  the domain controllers inside the same site will replicate each other. In  Intersite replication, Selected Domain controllers of two different sites will  replicate during specified interval. Domain controller which is assigned for  replication over the site is called Bridge Head Servers.


Interval for Intrasite  Replication:
Intrasite replication occurs automatically on the basis  of change notification. Intrasite replication begins when you make a directory  update on a domain controller. By default, the source domain controller waits  15 seconds and then sends an update notification to its closest  replication partner. If the source domain controller has more than one  replication partner, subsequent notifications go out by default at 3  second intervals to each partner. After receiving notification of a change,  a partner domain controller sends a directory update request to the source  domain controller. The source domain controller responds to the request with a  replication operation. The 3 second notification interval prevents the source  domain controller from being overwhelmed with simultaneous update requests from  its replication partners.

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But for  some of the directory updates, domain controllers will not wait for 15 seconds  for replication. This situation is called Urgent Replication. Some of the  directory updates such as assigning of account lockouts and changes in the  account lockout policy, the domain password policy, or the password on a domain  controller account etc. are example for Urgent  Replication.

Interval for Intersite  Replication:
Intersite replication occurs between replication  partners in two different sites. Active Directory preserves bandwidth between  sites by minimizing the frequency of replication and by allowing you to schedule  the availability of site links for replication. By default, intersite  replication across each site link occurs every 180 minutes that is 3  hours. You can modify this replication interval, and it can be brought down  till 15 minutes. But its always recommended to keep the default interval  because the intersite replication occurs between low speed WAN links, hence  reducing the replication interval could cause high network traffic and  latency. 

This article is applied for Windows Server 2003 and  Windows Server 2008 Active Directory.