HP FlexNetwork NJ5000 User Manual page 411

Figure 436 Traffic congestion causes
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The traffic enters a device from a high speed link and is forwarded over a low speed link.
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The packet flows enter a device from several incoming interfaces and are forwarded out of an
outgoing interface, whose rate is smaller than the total rate of these incoming interfaces.
When traffic arrives at the line speed, a bottleneck is created at the outgoing interface causing
congestion.
Besides bandwidth bottlenecks, congestion can be caused by resource shortage in various forms
such as insufficient processor time, buffer, and memory, and by network resource exhaustion
resulting from excessive arriving traffic in certain periods.
Impacts
Congestion might bring these negative results:
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Increased delay and jitter during packet transmission
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Decreased network throughput and resource use efficiency
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Network resource (memory in particular) exhaustion and even system breakdown
It is obvious that congestion hinders resource assignment for traffic and degrades service
performance. Congestion is unavoidable in switched networks and multi-user application
environments. To improve the service performance of your network, you must address the
congestion issues.
Countermeasures
A simple solution for congestion is to increase network bandwidth, however, it cannot solve all the
problems that cause congestion because you cannot increase network bandwidth infinitely.
A more effective solution is to provide differentiated services for different applications through traffic
control and resource allocation. In this way, resources can be used more properly. During resources
allocation and traffic control, the direct or indirect factors that might cause network congestion should
be controlled to reduce the probability of congestion. Once congestion occurs, resource allocation
should be performed according to the characteristics and demands of applications to minimize the
effects of congestion.
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