network congestion problem solving

What is Network Congestion? Common Causes and How to Fix Them

There are few areas of networking so problematic, and at the same time so fixable, as network congestion. Understanding the common causes of network congestion can help you detect them, fix them, and keep them from cropping up again.

How to identify network congestion

Network congestion is generally seen by the end-user as “network slow down”, or response times on our computer not being up to par. That dreaded “the network is slow!” or “the internet is slow”, and sometimes even “my computer is slow”. To the end user, all of these problems seem the same. But there’s more to network congestion than this.

There’s a variety of tools in your network management toolbox to help you identify and solve network congestion issues. Let’s dive in.

There are five primary ways we see network congestion:

1. Bandwidth Issues

Probably the most common cause of network congestion is plain old bandwidth . Bandwidth is the maximum rate that data can travel along a given path — that path’s total capacity. When there’s simply not enough bandwidth to handle the amount of traffic you have for a particular network, you’ve got network congestion.

Time for a road analogy. If you have a two-lane highway that’s designed to handle 1000 cars per hour, that’s the highway’s bandwidth. Now, if you try to shove 3000 cars down that same highway (same cars, same weather conditions, same time of day), all the traffic will begin to slow down. This slowdown is congestion. The lack of sufficient bandwidth is the main cause of this congestion.

Latency is the delay in the time it takes for your data packet to get from point A to point B. So, using our same example above about bandwidth: You’re a driver on the highway, and you’re traveling the speed limit. Typical day, typical conditions. But what if all of a sudden you hit rush hour traffic? As we explained above, you’ll have to slow down. You’re slowing down to avoid collisions with the other cars. And so is the car behind you, and so on. So now, what would’ve taken you X amount of time at the speed limit is going to take a lot longer (thanks, traffic). That new slower time is your latency.

Latency normally works hand in hand with bandwidth and other congestion issues. So while latency typically isn’t the cause of network congestion, it’s definitely one of the symptoms, as we’ll see later.

Jitter is variability in delay. Computers, like drivers, like to have their traffic consistent and predictable. And when traffic becomes inconsistent, or unpredictable, it causes variability in delay (jitter), and causes further congestion.

Back to the highway. Not all the extra cars appear on the highway at the same time, and they don’t all exit at the same time. For networks, that could be a computer that starts sending large bursts of traffic on the network, taking up excessive amounts of bandwidth.

Every time the network tries to adjust, the computer changes its traffic patterns. This is how jitter creates congestion. The network support equipment is trying to adjust to the variability and can’t keep up. In order to avoid collisions on the network, your computer will initiate a random back-off, and pause sending any packets for a random period of time, measured in milliseconds. This causes the other transmitters on the network to wait before trying again, increasing congestion as a cascading effect. Which leads to our next culprit.

4. Packet retransmissions

Packet retransmissions are usually a result of the first three congestion issues. If a packet doesn’t get to its destination, or if it arrives damaged, then it must be resent. And this has a way of exacerbating the problem. If you need to send each packet two or more times to reach the destination, you’re increasing traffic congestion without any incremental benefit. It’d be like taking the family on a road trip, but every person takes their own car!

5. Collisions

The back-off process, mentioned in relation to jitter, is a severe situation where all packets have to wait for the network to clear before retransmitting. Normally this is due to packet collisions on the network, the result of bad equipment or poor cabling. When packets collide, they’ll use this process and a timer to determine when they can retransmit. This leads to even greater delay and congestion. Just like a collision on a highway, the police have to stop and direct traffic for everyone’s safety.

Causes of network congestion

As with any troubleshooting process, understanding the root cause of network congestion is critical to resolving it. Some are more common than others, but it’s important to recognize all of them if you want to know how to manage them.

Unneeded traffic

Unneeded traffic is a common cause of network congestion. This will show up on networks in different ways. For example, someone streaming Netflix or YouTube videos at work would count as “unneeded” in a lot of situations and causes congestion since video traffic uses a lot of bandwidth.

Other examples would be unsolicited traffic like advertisements or junk VoIP phone calls tying up your bandwidth. You should be able to identify unneeded traffic using your network management console .

Misconfigured traffic

A typical business network plays host to a lot of different traffic types. There’s broadcast traffic for network operation, multicast traffic for real-time media streams, and unicast traffic to support the data transfer, voice, and video functions we use every day. What we’d call “business critical” traffic can be any one of these types, but it’s important to understand and prioritize what it is. All traffic is intermixed, and in most networks they’re treated equally by network devices, meaning they all get an equal share of bandwidth. If this is not understood and configured correctly, problems are just a matter of time. This is where Quality of Service (QoS) protocols save the day.

Just like vehicles traveling down the highway, Quality of Service shares the same network, but in an unequal way. Traffic is classified and forwarded based on preset rules. QoS allows you to add a bit of special treatment to your business-critical traffic and real-time applications, getting them through congestion quicker.

Highway time again. If an oversized load is moving down the highway, it’s required to stay in the rightmost lane, where slow traffic is supposed to go. But if the oversized load wanders another lane… excessive traffic congestion is back. On the other hand, a presidential motorcade is going to have a police escort, allowing it to slip past everyone else with the highest priority.

Business-critical traffic

In a smooth-running network, the network manager will decide which types of traffic qualifies as “business-critical”, and reserve the bulk of the bandwidth for it. That could range from voice traffic on a VoIP network in a business call center to the order entry system for a large eCommerce business. The remaining bandwidth is left for other types of traffic. One of the best ways to identify business-critical traffic is with a tool such as Auvik Network Traffic Analysis .

How to fix network congestion issues

Once identified, fixing network congestion is not so difficult. The first and most important step is to understand your network and its traffic flows. If you can’t see it, you can’t fix it. Using a good network management tool is essential and can give you the insight and visibility necessary to fix these problems.

Once you’ve found the problematic application or device, the fix is often as simple as:

• Shutting down the problematic application, if it’s not business-critical.
• Disconnecting the device from the network if it is a rogue, unnecessary device.
• “Gently educating” a user about the proper use of the network.
• Updating the device’s firmware to better react to network congestion.

The exact fix will depend on the cause of the network congestion, but once you have visibility into the cause of the issue, the resolution is more often a business decision than a technical one.

How to prevent future network congestion problems

Prevention is worth the effort and a bit of expense. Once you have your fixes in place, and you have inventoried and mapped your network , you’ll be in a great place to provide ongoing support for future issues. There will always be security issues to deal with. Ongoing network traffic patterns that change. Mergers and acquisitions of other companies and foreign networks.

Your key to preventing network congestion is to put into place constant monitoring and proactive alerting . And responding or planning for these changes. A good tool for this will be Auvik’s automation tools .

Cheat sheet: Know your traffic types, and know what to do with them

Business-critical traffic . You should be able to identify what traffic your business needs and give it priority on your network. Using QoS features found in most network control systems, you should be able to give business-critical traffic a high priority of 4 or 5 using the DSCP or (differentiated services code point) standard. 5 being the highest, and business-critical is normally set at 4. Business critical traffic can also be called low latency data or AF23.

Voice traffic should be set at level 5. The reason we do not set business-critical traffic at 5 is that there is another type of traffic that needs level 5 also known in the DSCP standard as expedited forwarding or EF: voice traffic or other low latency traffic such as delay-sensitive transactions.

Normal business traffic . This is where you would categorize normal business traffic. Email, client-to-server traffic. Network backups. This’ll be the bulk of the traffic on the network, but it’ll never use the bulk of the bandwidth. It’s what is called DF or s tandard traffic . It does not have priority.

Low-priority data. This would be for your unneeded traffic, basically getting what’s left over. This is called CS1 in the DSCP standard. This would not get any priority and would have to wait for all other types of traffic. It’s also known as best-effort traffic .

Unneeded traffic . The final category needs to be looked for and policed on a regular basis. This traffic needs to be removed from the network to free up bandwidth for the other more important and necessary types. This could be offensive traffic, Netflix, gaming, or worse.

All of these types of unneeded traffic should be located using your network management tools. Once they are cataloged and categorized, they can be filtered to be removed from your network completely.

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How-To Geek

What is network congestion, and how can you work around it.

Whether it's on the roads, in your lungs, or plaguing your home's internet connection, congestion is best eliminated.

Quick Links

What is network congestion, why congested networks are slower, congestion at home, what you can do about network congestion, your router can help, too.

Congestion is never good. Whether it's on the roads, in your lungs, or plaguing your home's internet connection, it's best eliminated. Here's what you need to know about network congestion and what you can do to deal with it.

Put simply, network congestion involves too many transmissions traveling over the internet at once. Doubtless, you've heard the internet referred to as "the information superhighway," and this is a common (and handy) way to think of its functionality. So, network congestion is like a traffic jam.

When you do something on the internet, like Google a fact, read the news, or buy something from an online retailer, the data involved in the transaction gets divided into packets---think of these like cars on a highway. Those packets zip along the most efficient routes on the internet to reach their destination. Then, the computer or server receiving the data reassembles the packets into a cohesive message and responds appropriately.

To route all of this traffic, a system known as TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is used. This system establishes a connection between the transmitting and receiving computers or servers known as a handshake. Once the handshake is established, data packets can begin flowing. The TCP/IP protocol has an in-built error detection mechanism so that if one end of the connection detects an error in one of the transmission packets, it will request a replacement packet.

So, if you think of each packet as a car on the information superhighway, you can begin to understand how at peak times, internet traffic can lead to congestion. Not only do initial transmissions involve packets, but also, errors lead to more packets being transmitted, which increases traffic even more.

Again, just like traffic on a road, all of those packets traveling along the various routes that comprise the internet can lead to slowdowns in your surfing speed. Your internet service provider (ISP) only has so much bandwidth that it can offer customers. When it's all being used at once, those data packets simply take longer to make their way to and from their destination, so your connection will begin to lag.

You might have noticed that your internet speed occasionally slows down between the hours of about 6 and 11 p.m. In keeping with the traffic analogy, this is known as "internet rush hour," and is the time when people are getting home from work, hopping online, and beginning to place a big demand on the internet. Emails are checked, shopping is done, and bandwidth-intensive activities like gaming and streaming video content get underway.

Of course, now that more and more people are learning and working from home, congestion can really take place at just about any time of the day.

Network congestion doesn't only happen at the ISP level, but at your home level as well. If you have too many devices in your home using your bandwidth, you could experience slowdowns as well. If the internet is a superhighway, then the bandwidth pipeline to your home is like your driveway. If too many people are trying to pull in or out at the same time, congestion is bound to happen.

Related: How Do Internet Speed Tests Work? (and How Accurate Are They?) If you're noticing reduced internet speeds due to congestion on your home network, there are a few things that you can try.

The first step is to check what speed you're actually getting by using a free speed-test service like fast.com . Try the test a few times a day, write down the numbers that you get, and take the average. Then, check with your ISP plan and see whether the values match up with the speed that you're paying for. If they don't, call your provider and let them know. They might tell you that you have an older router or modem that needs to be upgraded. If the numbers do match up, though, you might need to increase the bandwidth coming into your home. This will cost you more each month, but it could open the data hose wide enough that you no longer experience lags. Going back to the traffic analogy, it would be like putting in a big, circular driveway where cars could get past each other and flow better.

Another option for helping to alleviate slowdowns from network congestion is to connect important devices directly to your router using an ethernet cable , which delivers the fastest and most stable connection to your devices. Even if your computer doesn't have an ethernet port, it's possible to buy USB adaptors that facilitate the connection.

Related: 5 GHz Wi-Fi Isn't Always Better Than 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi Also, most modern routers are now broadcasting in two different bandwidths: 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz . The 2.4 GHz bandwidth is slower than the 5 GHz spectrum, but it can travel further. Yet, most common Wi-Fi devices still operate over the 2.4 GHz bandwidth, so it can simply get more crowded. So, if you have any devices that are in range of your router and can pick up a reliable 5 GHz signal, you can log in to your router and assign these devices that section of bandwidth. You'll need to follow the specific instructions for your modem, but the process isn't complicated and can usually be found by searching online, using your modem's app, or checking out the user manual if you still have it.

Finally, if you're still seeing slowdowns, you can create an internet schedule for your home outlining who can use your connection for different activities at different times. By spreading out the demand for data-intensive tasks, you might just experience a speed improvement. Also, while some family members might have to wait to hop online until it's their turn, if you have a good cellular connection at your home, they can use that to surf, chat, and stream, taking even more pressure off of your home's bandwidth pipeline.

Want to skip the negotiation and tell your router which devices should be slower? The best routers have "quality of service" (QoS) features that let you prioritize specific devices and applications on your local network. For example, you might want to prioritize a work PC over a gaming PC---or a gaming PC over a work PC.

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Network Congestion – 5 Causes & How to Alleviate Issues with your Network being Congested!

Marc Wilson UPDATED: February 6, 2023

See Full Bio & All Articles from this Author.

When you hear the word “Congestion”, what comes to mind?

My guess is that you thought about traffic congestion on the road. When there are too many cars on a particular stretch of road faster than they can exit that road, we have a traffic jam/congestion.

Traffic congestions can also be caused by other factors like accidents, bad roads, small roads, and so on. The point is that congestion results in restricted flow of traffic.

The same is true of Network Congestion as we will discuss in this article, looking at the causes, effects, troubleshooting tips and software and how to fix of network congestion.

Network Congestion

Just like in road congestion, Network Congestion occurs when a network is not able to adequately handle the traffic flowing through it. While network congestion is usually a temporary state of a network rather than a permanent feature, there are cases where a network is always congested signifying a larger issue is at hand.

In this section, we will discuss five (5) common causes of network congestion including:

• Over-subscription
• Poor network design/mis-configuration
• Over-utilized devices
• Faulty devices
• Security attack

Over-Subscription

Have you ever experienced a case where your web browsing experience is consistently faster at certain times of the day than others? For example, there is a high probability that you will have a better browsing experience at night than during the day.

This is because there are more users on the network during the day (peak period) than at night (off-peak period). This is similar to getting on the train during rush hour versus when everyone is at work.

Cases like this are usually the result of Over-Subscription where a system (e.g. a network) is handling more traffic than it was designed to handle per time.

It is important to note that over-subscription is usually done on purpose as it may result in cost savings.

For example, let’s consider a scenario where an organization has 100 users and it has been determined that a 100Mbps Internet link will be suitable for all these users.

Now imagine that most of the staff of this organization work from home. In this case, it will be more cost efficient to go for a lower link capacity, say 50Mbps, since only a handful of employees will be using the link per time. But what happens when there is a company-wide meeting and all employees come into the office? You guessed right – Network congestion.

Poor Network Design/Mis-Configuration

A more serious cause of network congestion is poor design or device Mis-Configuration. Take for example a broadcast storm, where a large volume of broadcast and/or multicast traffic is seen on the network within a short time, resulting in severe performance degradation.

Since broadcasts are contained within subnets, the larger the subnet the more serious the effect of a broadcast storm. Therefore, a network that has been designed with large subnets without giving proper consideration to broadcast storms can result in network congestion.

Another case of broadcast storms is Layer 2 loops. In a layer 2 segment, broadcast messages are used to discover unknown MAC addresses. If there is a loop on the network, the same broadcast message can be sent back and forth between the devices on the network resulting in broadcast storms and possible network congestion.

Over-Utilized Devices

Devices such as routers, switches, and firewalls have been designed to handle certain network throughput . For example, the Juniper MX5 has a capacity of 20Gbps. Apart from the fact that this is a theoretical value (the capacity in the production environment will be slightly lower), this is also the maximum capacity.

Therefore, constantly pushing ~20Gbps of traffic through that device means that the device will be over-utilized and will likely result in high CPU utilization and packet drops, leading to congestion on the network.

Another issue related to over-utilized devices that can cause network congestion is Bottlenecks . As in most hierarchical designs where multiple devices feed into a higher-level device, care must be taken to ensure that the higher-level device is capable of handling all the traffic from the lower-level devices.

If this is not the case, then the higher-level device can result in a bottleneck causing congestion on the network. Think about a 4-lane highway merging into a 2-lane road.

Faulty Devices

I once performed a network performance assessment for an organization. They were buying 100Mbps link capacity from their ISP but the users on the network were struggling to connect to the Internet effectively.

They complained that the network was always “slow” (user speak for network congestion) even when few people were on the network. Upon investigation, we discovered that while their ISP was truly giving the agreed upon 100Mbps, the edge device was only providing 30Mbps to the network!

Apart from the fact that this organization had wrongly terminated the link on a FastEthernet interface (which gives a theoretical speed of 100Mbps but much lower practical speed), that interface was also faulty. By moving the ISP link to another interface (we used a GigabitEthernet interface instead), the performance problem was solved.

Security Attack

In another organization I consulted for, a network of about 10 users had poor browsing experience even with the 4Mbps link they were getting from their ISP.

Ideally, this capacity should have been enough because the users were not doing anything heavy on the Internet – just emails, web searches, and normal user activities.

Upon investigation, it was discovered that one of their servers had been compromised and it seems the attacker was using this server to host illicit content resulting in a huge amount of traffic being sent to/from this server. By cleaning up this server, the congested network was once again “free” for normal user traffic.

Other security attacks that can result in network congestion include viruses, worms, and Denial of Service (DoS) attacks.

Effects of Network Congestion

Everyone on a network generally “feels” the effects of network congestion. They may not be able to explain it in technical terms but will say things like “ The connection is so slow ”, “ I can’t open web pages ”, “ The network is really bad, I can’t hear you ”.

From a technical perspective, the effects of a congested network include:

• Delay : Also known as Latency, Delay is the time it takes for a destination to receive the packet sent by the sender. For example, the time it takes for a webpage to load is a result of how long it takes for the packets from the web server to get to the client. Another evidence of delay is the buffering you experience when watching a video, say on YouTube.
• Packet Loss : While packets may take a while to get to their destination (delay), packet loss is an even more negative effect of network congestion. This is especially troubling for applications like Voice over IP (VoIP) that do not deal well with delay and packet loss , resulting in dropped calls and Call Detail Records , lag, robotic voices, and so on.
• Timeouts : Network congestion can also result in timeouts in various applications. Since most connections will not stay up indefinitely waiting for packets to arrive, this can result in lost connections.

Troubleshooting Network Congestion

Feeling the effects of network congestion is one thing but actually confirming that a network is congested is another. In this section, we will look at some activities that can be performed to confirm the congestion of a network.

One of the fastest ways to check if a network is congested is to use Ping because not only can it detect packet loss , it can also reveal delay in a network i.e. through the round-trip time (RTT). Using a tool like MTR (which combines ping and traceroute) can also reveal parts of the network where congestion is occurring.

2. LAN Performance Tests

A tool like iPerf can be very useful in determining performance issues on a network, measuring statistics like bandwidth, delay, jitter , and packet loss . This can help reveal bottlenecks on the network and also identify any faulty devices/interfaces.

3. Bandwidth Monitoring

During the investigation of the compromised server I mentioned above, we used a tool called ntopng to discover “Top Talkers” which revealed that the server was using up all the bandwidth on the network. In the same way, tools that monitor bandwidth can reveal network congestion especially during a security attack or if a particular host is using up all the bandwidth.

You can read this article for more information about performing a network performance assessment.

Decongesting a network

The fix for a Congested Network will Depend on the Cause:

• For oversubscribed links, you may need to purchase more bandwidth from your service provider. Some service providers also allow you to temporarily boost your bandwidth for a small fee. You may also want to implement Quality of Service (QoS) features which will ensure that even in the event of congestion, critical applications can still function.
• Layer 2 loops can be prevented by using loop prevention protocols such as Spanning Tree Protocol ( STP ). A poor network design can be more difficult to fix since the network is probably in use. For such cases, incremental changes can be made to improve the network and remove congestion.
• Over-Utilized devices may need to be swapped out. Alternatively, the capacity of the system can be increased by implementing high-availability features such as clustering and stacking.
• Faulty devices definitely need to be replaced. In some cases (like the example I gave above about the 100Mbps link reduced to 30Mbps), only a part of the device (e.g. an interface) needs to be replaced.
• Security attacks need to be combated as soon as they are discovered. In the case of the compromised server, the first thing we did was to remove that server from the network completely. Since this is not always a feasible solution (e.g. the compromised device is a critical server), other temporary measures such as applying access control lists to deny the offending traffic may need to be implemented.

In this article, we have discussed network congestion and how it affects user experience. We have seen how causes such as over-subscription, faulty devices, and security attacks can result in network congestion.

We have also discussed the effects of network congestion including generally poor user experience, packet loss, and timed-out connections. Finally, we have discussed how to troubleshoot congestions in a network and highlighted some things that can be done to fix these issues.

Network Congestion FAQs

How can i monitor network congestion.

Network congestion can be monitored using network monitoring tools and protocols such as SNMP, NetFlow, and packet analyzers.

How can network congestion be resolved?

Network congestion can be resolved by increasing network bandwidth, improving network configurations, and implementing traffic management techniques such as Quality of Service (QoS) and traffic shaping.

What is Quality of Service (QoS)?

Quality of Service (QoS) is a set of techniques for managing network traffic to ensure that critical applications receive the necessary bandwidth and low latency.

What are the benefits of implementing QoS for network congestion management?

Implementing QoS can improve network performance by prioritizing critical traffic and reducing the impact of congestion on applications and users.

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Ebooks, guides, & reports • 13 min read, a guide to network congestion: what it is, causes, and how to fix it.

Written by IR Team

Today's business and working environment requires a fast, stable, and secure network infrastructure to connect all the network components, multiple devices and huge volumes of traffic that flows through it.

Optimal network performance and the best user experience requires high uptime. Issues like severe network congestion can lead to poor user experience, and severely affect a business’s overall performance, which in turn could lead to a loss of revenue.

What is network congestion?

Network congestion occurs when a network is overrun with more data packet traffic than it can cope with. This backup of data traffic occurs when too many communication and data requests are made at the same time, over a network that doesn’t have enough network bandwidth to carry it.

Image: Avinetworks

While network congestion is usually temporary, it can cause inconvenient network problems that can affect performance, such as high levels of jitter , packet loss , and latency , as well as a decrease in throughput. A congested network can be a sign of a larger issue in your network.

Because of this, it’s important to have network performance monitoring tools in place that can proactively detect network congestion in your own network, and outside of it.

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What are the causes of network traffic congestion?

It's vital to understand the causes of network congestion, so you can take action to fix it. Here are some of the most common reasons why network congestion occurs.

Broadcast Storms

When a network is inundated with requests, it causes what's sometimes referred to as a broadcast storm. This could happen for example, on an unusually busy day for an eCommerce business, or a video going viral, and creates a situation where a network can't process all the requests at once.

Too many hosts in broadcast domain

A 'broadcast domain' applies to a network structure. This could be the network within an enterprise, educational facility, or a VLAN. A 'host' refers to each individual router or switch within the broadcast domain. Too many hosts in the structure can cause an overload, as too many devices are requesting network access at once.

The concept also applies to mobile networks and routers. Mobile networks and routers are the broadcast domain. While computers, tablets, or phones are the hosts.

A maximum capacity for hosts in a broadcast domain is 200–254.

Image: Medium

Low Bandwidth

If you think of your network as a pipe that channels data, bandwidth refers to the 'size of the pipe' through which business critical traffic flows. If the pipe is not large enough for all the traffic to move through at once, problems happen with traffic flowing smoothly, causing congestion.

Network bandwidth usage can be affected during peak TV streaming hours, for example, when a video streaming service is consuming 40% of the internet, resulting in network congestion.

Image: Fonepaw

Devices using too much bandwidth

Network congestion can also happen when overactive devices are running on your network. Whenever a large amount of traffic is traveling through your network at the same time, data packets can get backed up on their routes, similar to too many cars on the highway at once. Too much activity is caused by 'bandwidth hogs', devices that either communicate too much data or run too frequently.

Im: Techbuzzireland

Inefficient configuration management

Network misconfiguration is a common cause of network congestion. This could be caused, for example, by network engineers introducing bugs into the system via repetitive and one-off scripts.

The other aspect to configuration management is regular maintenance and testing. Like all components of a technology infrastructure, lack of maintenance on network devices and network equipment, and not monitoring network traffic leads to an inevitable breakdown.

Network monitoring tools can not only identify network congestion, but determine if misconfigured traffic is causing the problem.

Image: Techbuzzireland

Outdated Hardware

Data transmitted through outdated switches, routers, servers, cable connections, and other network equipment can cause bottlenecks and affect network traffic.

If your network's hardware is not optimal, this creates a bottleneck in the transmission of business critical traffic, resulting in network congestion.

Border Gateway Protocol

Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) refers to a gateway protocol that enables the internet to exchange routing information between autonomous systems (AS). This usually occurs through the shortest logical path, and without consideration for how much traffic is already going over that path. This can result in transit paths becoming overloaded, creating slower speeds, and causing network congestion.

Packet Retransmissions

Packet loss, or data packets that arrive damaged obviously need to be resent. If this is happening two or more times, this results in your network experiencing network congestion without any incremental benefit.

Packet collisions can be caused by poor cabling, over utilized devices, or bad equipment, and can produce a serious situation, forcing all packets to stop and wait for a clear network to retransmit. This produces even greater congestion and delay, and as is the case with a highway collision, traffic direction is often required.

How to reduce/prevent network congestion issues

Preventing network congestion altogether is difficult if not impossible, given the fact that most businesses experience large volumes of network traffic every day. Traffic patterns and device usage can vary across computer networks, or even fluctuate greatly within the same network.

Fortunately, you can take steps and put strategies in place to help limit the ways network congestion can affect productivity.

1. Monitor and Analyze Network Traffic

 One of the first steps to take to fix network congestion is to deploy network management tools to monitor network traffic volumes. A third party monitoring tool like IR Collaborate specializes in application performance monitoring, tracing, and custom metrics for hybrid and cloud-custom applications.

A major benefit of monitoring traffic is the capacity to design or re-design a more viable network network optimized for your needs. Segmenting your network into smaller sub-networks will increase efficiency and create space to establish practical priorities. This not only produces a more viable network, but it also permits more accurate monitoring.

To diagnose network congestion, look for times during the day when traffic loads are particularly heavy. This might occur during peak office hours when many devices are connected to the same network at once, and using more bandwidth.

If you're not sure where network congestion is coming from, the right network monitoring tools can help provide answers. For example, it can scan your company’s virtual networks, monitor bandwidth, cloud servers, and all other wireless networks and devices. This process will help you identify devices, servers, and even users accounting for significant portions of the available bandwidth.

  2. Prioritize Network Traffic

To ensure that important online processes run smoothly, you can identify unneeded traffic and prioritize network traffic in ways that reserve bandwidth for certain users, devices, or platforms. The remaining bandwidth can then be assigned to other types of traffic.

When you prioritize network traffic, you’ll often reclassify internal traffic in ways that reserve certain bandwidth amounts for different purposes.

A typical business network plays host to a lot of different traffic types. Broadcast traffic is for network operation, while multicast traffic for real time media streams, and unicast traffic supports the data transfer, voice, and video functions we use every day. Business critical traffic can be any one of these types, but it's important for the network manager to understand and prioritize what it is.

You can also prioritize network traffic by scheduling any activities that require large amounts of available bandwidth for a time when users will likely not be using it. This helps avoid network downtimes and keep network bandwidth high during the day.

3. Increase /improve Bandwidth

You can often reduce network congestion simply by increasing the available bandwidth so that the network itself will be able to handle more data, and more devices at the same time. Once you take steps to increase your network’s bandwidth, users will typically enjoy faster connection speeds and fewer interruptions.

In the same way that a wider highway that can sustain more cars, a “wider” bandwidth can handle more data flow without compromised speeds.

 To improve your company’s bandwidth, consider the following options:

Update routers to the latest settings;

Change router locations;

Use broadband accelerators to boost signal speeds;

Purchase routers with additional bandwidth lanes;

Use wireless repeaters to boost reception;

Use VPNs to optimize traffic flow

Bandwidth monitoring allows you to improve bandwidth, and essentially allows for more simultaneous data use.

4. Assess Your Devices

The type, number, and bandwidth usage for each device can affect data processing across the entire network. Though it’s a time-sensitive process, scanning each device can help you reduce, even prevent, network congestion.

Overused devices (or too many devices) can also contribute to network congestion. Pushing devices to their maximum capacity can often result in over-utilization. Excessive volumes of device usage can also cause network congestion as they can provide a surplus of requests for data. Excessive volumes of device usage can also cause network congestion as they can provide a surplus of requests for data.

Quality of Service (QoS)

Quality of Service (QoS) is a method for prioritizing network traffic, and can solve your network issues to keep your bandwidth under control.

If your network is constantly experiencing delays or interruptions, choppy voice calls that drop in and out, or poor video quality it's probably a sign that your network traffic is reaching the maximum bandwidth, making several applications function below par.

Microsoft defines QoS as: “An industry-wide set of standards and mechanisms for ensuring high-quality performance for critical applications. By using QoS mechanisms, network administrators can use existing resources efficiently and ensure the required level of service without reactively expanding or over-provisioning their networks.”

Manage Congestion with Network Performance Management Tools

As hybrid working is now part of life, the demand for a seamless user experience increases. The need for high up-time, fast problem resolution, and intelligent insight has never been more critical. Part of the strategy to achieve this is to manage network congestion.

IR Collaborate suite of hybrid-cloud performance management tools brings together reliability, agility, and innovation to solve the complexities of managing critical technologies that keep you in business.

With end-to-end visibility across your entire multi-vendor UC ecosystem, you can quickly identify, troubleshoot and resolve UC related issues, including network congestion.

In a complex, multi-vendor unified communications ecosystem, our monitoring and performance management tools can keep your network completely functional, and quickly find and resolve performance issues in real-time – across your on-premises, cloud or hybrid environments.

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Topics: Communications Performance management Network Assessment eBooks, Guides & Reports Collaborate

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Network Congestion Troubleshooting Guide

The modern business environment requires a fast, stable, and secure network infrastructure that can connect all its digital devices – be they locally or remotely located. It also requires a high uptime so clients can stay in contact with the business. Thus, issues like severe network congestion can severely affect a business’s overall performance.

Definition of network congestion

The simple definition of network congestion is that it is what occurs when a network is overburdened with more data packet traffic than it can handle .

Basically, a backup of data packets occurs when too many communication and data requests are simultaneously made over a network that doesn’t have enough bandwidth – which could have been reduced due to various reasons – to carry it all at once.

Although network congestions are usually a Local Area Network (LAN) issue, they can also occur on the Internet in cases where cloud computing, remote access, or hybrid networking architectures are involved.

Problems caused by network congestions

Some problems that may arise because of a congested network would be:

• Slowing down of data packets delivery
• Timeouts causing data packets to be dropped
• Impossible for connected devices to communicate with one another
• The inability of new devices to join the network or for clients to contact the business for service processing or business transactions

Depending on the length of the network’s downtime, the business could lose revenue and their clients’ trust. The worst-case scenario can occur if, and when, network congestion isn’t remedied in time and leads to the total collapse of the business’ communication and processing capabilities resulting in substantial losses .

Causes of network congestions

The main causes of network congestions include (but are not limited to):

• Improperly configured network connectivity devices or poor network architecture , segmentation, or design causing packet collisions, data loss, broadcast storms, and IP conflicts.
• Poor network growth forecasting or not anticipating trends, traffic surges, and resource consumption.
• Low bandwidth limitations creating unpredicted data bottlenecks.
• Too many users , applications, or devices using the network.
• Misconfigured or zealous antiviruses running in excess and over-consuming resources and slowing everything else down.
• Outdated, legacy, faulty, and incompatible network devices being used on a modern network and then being expected to keep up with the performance of the latest software and hardware technology.
• Security breaches like Cryptojacking – hacking devices and networks for illegal mining of Bitcoins – consuming a lot of computing power.

As we can see, the causes for the congestion themselves have their roots in just as many faults – both internal and external – and the only way to stop them is by keeping a vigilant eye on the whole network setup .

Effects of network congestions

Now, as can be imagined, these conditions would hamper the smooth workings of business; especially if they cater to online clients or have remote workers that need to stay in constant contact with the HQ. But, there’s more; they could be the reason for:

• The inability for devices – internal or external – to join the network and thus causing communication errors between applications and servers that may need to synchronize regularly, for example.
• Deterioration of services and processes can affect the business’ ability to deliver on products and services.
• The total collapse of the network – especially if the network congestion is not contained, managed, and fully remedied.

If regular bouts of network congestions persist, the negative effects will add up and result in poor overall performance, negative customer satisfaction, and ultimately a shuttered business.

Signs of a network congestion

Some signs that can alert administrators to network congestions include:

• Slow network connectivity – especially if it is sudden and unanticipated.
• Delays or jitters in data packet relays – especially within a limited environment that shouldn’t be acting so.
• Dropped packets that should have otherwise been delivered without a hitch.
• Loss of communication between applications, devices, and servers when there is no reason to be so.

In case of an issue, the loudest complaints will almost always come from users and customers. That is why there needs to be a system in place to take notice of any early grumbles about the deterioration of a network or application’s response times.

How can network congestions be prevented?

Network administrators can implement two strategies to prevent a total collapse of their network: Network congestion control and Network congestion avoidance .

Network congestion control strategies involve:

• Modulation – controlling incoming traffic from overwhelming a network by reducing packet rates.
• Flow control – preventing origin devices from overwhelming destination devices when communicating with one another.

Network congestion avoidance strategies involve:

• Watching for packet losses or delays in queues and adjusting a network’s packet transmission rates.
• Managing data queues by rearranging packets by priority or even dropping them – temporarily or permanently – if they are deemed unnecessary.

These two strategies involve tactics that like:

• Monitoring data packages that are on the network
• Implementing a UAC (User Access Control) system that is always on top of accounts, roles, and privileges
• Denying access to unauthorized users and devices
• Removing legacy and defunct devices and replacing them with more modern and efficient ones

Using network performance monitoring tools

The good news here is that there are great network monitoring and administration tools on the market that can help keep an eye on networks and alert admins whenever there are issues or any suspicious activities.

These tools are also known as Quality of Service (QoS) tools because they make sure the network offers quality service by:

• Prioritizing the packets to ensure sensitive and time-critical data does not get lost or dropped.
• Monitoring network usage – or abuse – to look out for any issues that may cause congestion.
• Alerting administrators if any thresholds have been surpassed or milestones are not met.
• Auditing and reporting on activities to help with troubleshooting as well as trend analysis for forecasting.

We will have a detailed look at each one, but here’s a brief list of the best network monitoring tools admins can use to prevent network congestion:

• SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer EDITOR’S CHOICE   A product from the leader in the network monitoring and administration tools field, it gives real-time updates of the health of a network and integrates with other powerful products in the networking field to ensure deep, informative insights.
• ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer (FREE TRIAL) A popular tool that is ideal for complex networking environments and can be used to ensure QoS policies are in place and being applied appropriately. Get a 30-day free trial .
• Site 24×7 Cloud Network Monitoring Software (FREE TRIAL) This would be the ideal choice for cloud networks and administrators who can monitor their infrastructure remotely with the help of numerous free tools. Start a 30-day free trial .
• Paessler PRTG Network Monitoring (FREE TRIAL) Apart from the network, this tool also includes monitoring of databases to control their impact on communication performance. Highly customizable maps show the network in a more comprehensible format. Start a 30-day free trial .
• Datadog Network Monitoring Another SaaS tool, it has a light footprint and is easy to implement and use. Scaling up is easy and it uses AI for smarter analysis.

Network congestion monitoring tools

Our methodology for selecting traffic management systems.

We reviewed the market for network traffic analyzers and assessed the options based on the following criteria:

• Extraction of traffic data from routers
• The ability to communicate with NetFlow, sFlow, J-Flow, NetStream, and IP-FIX
• Cisco NBAR for application traffic assessment
• IP SLA, Mean Opinion Score, and Quality of Service measurements for VoIP traffic
• Assistance in implementing traffic shaping
• A free trial or a demo for an opportunity to check out the system before buying
• Value for money from a network traffic analyzer that can also help improve congestion problems

1. SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (FREE TRIAL)

SolarWinds is one of the best in the network and hardware management and monitoring tools industry – proof lies in SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer .

Key Features:

• NetFlow, J-Flow, sFlow, NetStream, and IPFIX
• NBAR2 application recognition
• Class-based Quality of Service
• IP SLA Manager
• Stack layer correlation

Why do we recommend it?

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer extracts traffic data from each network device. As each interface on each device has a finite capacity, tracking utilization will identify when a particular link is overloaded. Combining this service with the Network Performance Monitor’s network map to assist capacity planning and traffic shaping measures.

The main purpose of NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA) is to collect traffic data, correlate it into a consumable format, and present it to admins in web-based dashboards and reports for further handling.

These highly-informative dashboards help to quickly identify and tackle root causes of issues; simply dragging-and-dropping network performance metrics into a common timeline results in immediate visual correlations across all network data and NetFlow analytics.

Also, the tool can help admins review their historical data to identify things like peak bandwidth usage times which, in turn, helps them develop future scaling strategies.

As a matter of fact, the tool tracks both IPv4 and IPv6 packet flow records and works with other popular network flow monitoring tools – like Cisco NetFlow, Juniper J-Flow, sFlow, Huawei NetStream, and IPFIX flow – to help identify applications and protocols that consume too much bandwidth.

It spots any unusual changes in application traffic patterns and alerts admins in case of device failure to send data packets; the tool can even work in the virtual realm – it can give insights into flow data from VMware vSphere switches.

In fact, NTA performs tasks like filtering out east-west traffic on specific VMMs (Virtual Machine Monitors).

Admins can gain deeper insight into HTTP and HTTPS traffic – the corresponding protocols for the unsecured (port 80) and secured (port443) data traffic, respectively – without the need for additional tools.

This tool has the ability to monitor and analyze Wireless LAN Controller (WLC) traffic to keep track of mobile and portable devices and their wireless bandwidth consumption which is then presented in customizable network traffic reports.

More importantly, businesses that have VoIP, e-commerce, or cloud-based applications running on their networks can use this tool to organize and prioritize their data packets to achieve QoS policy optimization.

Finally, SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer integrates well with their network User Device Tracker which provides user contact info and switch port location – allowing admins to contact their users to ask them to reduce their bandwidth usage or kick them off the network if they don’t comply.

Who is it recommended for?

This system is suitable for mid-sized and large organizations. The NetFlow Traffic Analyzer requires the presence of the Network Performance Monitor, both of which can be bought together in the Network Bandwidth Analyzer Pack. This bundle provides live status monitoring of network devices and traffic data extraction plus troubleshooting tools.

• Supports multiple protocols great for monitoring Cisco equipment and other popular infrastructure vendors
• Both tools work well alongside each other to help view traffic patterns and bandwidth usage
• Easy-to-use interface automatically highlights bandwidth hogs and other network traffic outliers
• Scales well, designed for large enterprise networks
• Can view traffic on a per-hop basis, allowing for granular traffic analysis
• Built for enterprise use, not designed for small home networks

Download a 30-day fully-functional Free Trial of SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer.

EDITOR'S CHOICE

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is our top pick for a network congestion troubleshooting tool because it enables analysis of all types of traffic and lets you decide how you can get the best value out of your existing network infrastructure and avoid the expense of buying in more capacity. With this tool, you can identify which applications need to be prioritized and then implement queuing on network devices in order to give interactive applications, such as VoIP, priority. This system helps you to identify bottlenecks on your network and reroute traffic to relieve that choke point.

Download: Get a 30-day free trial

Official Site: https://www.solarwinds.com/netflow-traffic-analyzer/registration

OS: Windows Server

2. ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer (FREE TRIAL)

• Bottleneck identification
• VoIP performance tracking
• Traffic shaping tools

ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer is a similar product to the SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer. Both are delivered as a software bundle and both extract traffic data from switches using the NetFlow protocol and adaptations of that system, such as sFlow and J-Flow. Use this package to detect traffic bottlenecks and implement traffic shaping.

It has real-time reports and graphs that give a comprehensive insight into network traffic, the top applications running on a network. This ensures mission-critical processes run as expected –and a customizable dashboard that shows all relevant traffic information in one place.

The tool also has capacity planning reports for trend analysis and forecasting requirements.

It has Class-Based Quality of Service ( CBQoS ) reports ensuring that QoS policies are being enforced effectively and allow admins to easily prioritize their network traffic as they may see fit.

NetFlow Analyzer monitors WLCs for statistics on bandwidth which can also be used in reports with drill-down capabilities for in-depth information on WLAN, SSIDS, APs (Access Points), and QoS.

There are numerous add-ons and plugins that help with tasks like monitoring of critical factors that can affect VoIP and video quality, and WAN Round Trip Time (RTT) monitoring to ensure seamless WAN connectivity.

It can be used to stop bandwidth hogging by reconfiguring policies with traffic-shaping techniques.

The tool works seamlessly with routers and switches to monitor network traffic, WAN link availability, latency, and overall performance to keep an eye on the network as a whole. It can even view just segments in case more detailed information is required about a particular department’s network consumption, for example.

This tool is suitable for use by mid-sized and large organizations. There is a Free edition available, but that will only monitor two interfaces. The lowest capacity available with the Professional edition is for 10 interfaces and the lower Standard plan would be cheaper, except that the minimum capacity is for 500 interfaces.

• Both tools work well alongside each other monitors to help view traffic patterns and bandwidth usage
• Scale well, designed for large enterprise networks

Download a 30-day Free Trial of ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer.

ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer Start a 30-day FREE Trial

3. Site24x7 Cloud Network Monitoring Software (FREE TRIAL)

Site24x7 is a cloud-based monitoring service that offers end-to-end monitoring including a Network Monitor with impressive network supervising capabilities and checks for bottlenecks or overloads.

• Monitors routers and switches
• Tests LANs, internet connections, and wireless systems
• VoIP monitoring

Site24x7 Network Monitoring is part of a cloud platform of system monitoring services. This bundle includes both network device monitoring and bandwidth analysis services. The system can extract flow metrics from switches and it also provides tools for troubleshooting. As well as observing network traffic, this package can measure the performance of internet connection between sites and to cloud platforms.

To begin with, the network monitoring tool keeps an eye on almost all connectivity devices: firewalls, VPNs, printers, and even UPS’.

It, in fact, monitors routers and switches to spot spikes, and bottlenecks and looks out for suspicious activities.

Also, it visualizes the connection and devices’ health with the help of interactive maps and dashboards which allows for complete insight into a network.

Being a SaaS, administrators don’t even need to be onsite; they can monitor their network uptimes using mobile devices or remotely manage multiple networks from a single cloud platform.

Automated or unattended monitoring can be done with the On-Premises Poller – which collects data according to set poll intervals – which sends information back to a data collector that can then be further used as input for reports.

This also means alerts can be sent to administrators located anywhere via SMS, emails, and even voice calls.

The On-Premises Poller – which can be configured to monitor a single IP address or a range of them (up to a whole network) – can also notify admins about downtime within a minute of a monitored device going down.

Other metrics that can be monitored include: undersized or oversized packets, dropped packets, jabber packets , VPN latency, Interface collisions, and much more.

There are real-time reports and status updates for all nodes and devices and even a Network Operations Center (NOC) view to help with coordinated troubleshooting.

Admins can drill down on key metrics like response times or packet losses, for example, and combine them with a certain device to get deeper insights that help understand the current overall status of the device. They can identify issues before they happen, and even allow for future forecasting based on current trends.

This system is suitable for businesses of all sizes. Site24x7 offers plans that include all of the modules on the platform, rather than charging separately for each module. Thus, you get server and application monitoring in with your network traffic analysis system. Plans are priced according to capacity with the smallest options suitable for small businesses.

• Features a mobile app for both Android and iOS
• Can measure can detect latency, jitter, and performance over time, making it a viable long-term solution for ping monitoring
• Can integrate and monitor up to 200 different vendor devices
• The free version can support up to hosts, making it a great introductory option for smaller businesses
• Site24x7 is a feature-dense platform that can take time to fully learn all of its features and customization options

Finally, Site24x7 offers other free tools that can help administrators with managing their networks including a subnet calculator (IPv4 and IPv6), random password generator, blacklist checker, and more. Download a 30-day Free trial of Site24x7 Network Monitoring Software.

Site24x7 Network Monitoring Software Start a 30-day FREE Trial

4. Paessler PRTG Network Monitor (FREE TRIAL)

Paessler also makes products that cover IT infrastructures from end to end, and its PRTG Network Monitor tool monitors all the devices, systems, and traffic on a network.

• NetFlow, J-Flow, sFlow, and IPFIX
• QoS, CBQoS, and IP SLA
• Connection quality tests

Paessler PRTG Network Monitor is a large package of sensors that include many network traffic analysis features, which include flow metric gathering sensors for NetFlow, IPFIX, and sFlow, among others. The tool is able to identify overloaded switches and can also measure the quality of connections.

It monitors bandwidth to see how much resource is being used by applications and devices while also keeping a close eye on the datasets from databases to see how they cope with traffic and data access during read/write sessions; this helps spot delays and overloads with the databases themselves or the platforms they sit on.

Databases that can be monitored include MySQL, Microsoft SQL v2, Oracle SQL v2, and PostgreSQL. Admins can also use the generic ADO SQL v2 Sensor or even create their own customized sensors if all else fails.

The tool manages applications to analyze their efficiency when sending data packets on the network during inter-device communication or while executing data queries.

It centrally monitors all assets in the cloud as well as those located locally on a LAN – it can in fact cover a diverse number of devices via SNMP.

The highly customizable real-time maps with live status information can be viewed from customizable dashboards with the PRTG Map Designer. It can integrate all network components using more than 300 different map objects such as device and status icons, traffic charts, top lists, and lots more.

Admins can truly customize these maps using custom HTML. Once done, they can then share their maps as a URL that can be accessed either publicly or only internally on their LAN.

This service is suitable for any business because it is so adaptable. The software package runs on Windows Server. However, if you don’t have that operating system on-site, you can opt for the SaaS version. Buyers pay for an allowance of sensors and then choose which of the monitoring systems to activate.

• Designed to be an infrastructure monitoring tool that supports multiple sensor types such as NetFlow, sFlow, and J-Flow
• Offers additional monitoring on the same platform, supporting infrastructure, network, and application performance monitoring
• Captures packet headers only, helps speed up analysis and keep storage costs down for long-term collection
• Uses simple yet intuitive graphing for traffic visualization
• Very detailed platform that takes time to learn and fully utilize all of the features available

Directly download the Free Unlimited Version of PRTG Network Monitor for 30 days . After 30 days, PRTG reverts to a free version.

Paessler PRTG Network Monitor Start a 30-day FREE Trial

5. Datadog Network Monitoring Tool

Datadog is another company that offers a Network Monitoring Tool as SaaS. This Datadog network performance monitoring tool keeps an eye on networks that are located on-site, remotely, in the cloud, or even a hybrid one that utilizes all of these architectures.

• Monitors LANs, internet, and cloud
• Queries network devices
• Tracks virtual systems

Datadog Network Monitoring is implemented in two modules. The first of these is the Network Device Monitoring service, which uses SNMP to check on the statuses of system hardware. The second is the Network Performance Monitoring service and it is this package that you will need in order to monitor networks for congestion and troubleshoot for solutions.

Apart from the network, the tool also monitors apps, services, and devices that use the connection; this means, the Network Monitoring tool consolidates the data garnered from monitoring the network with information collected from other inputs to paint a full picture.

If administrators need even more in-depth information, the tool can be extended further with APIs .

Being a SaaS tool makes it easy to install because all that is required is to deploy an Agent that is available for all major operating systems including Windows, macOS, Linux, and Docker.

The Agent also means the tool has a light digital footprint and won’t affect the network’s performance. It also has its own storage to keep the collected data, and scalability is a breeze that won’t waste time or require great technical know-how.

The browser-based interface makes it easy and convenient to use, but it is also pretty straightforward to master the dashboard – which is not only aesthetically pleasing but also highly informative – that comes with features like drill-down reports in real-time and traffic flow monitoring that displays the results in graphs that are highly customizable.

Datadog uses AI Machine Learning to allow the tool to forecast future trends based on the analysis of current data.

This is an affordable solution but, unlike the Site24x7 service, you have to choose modules from a list and pay for each in order to assemble a system monitoring package. The Network Performance Monitor works well with the Network Device Monitor and both of these modules rely on the presence of the Infrastructure Monitoring plan for network discovery.

• Offers advanced troubleshooting features and root cause analysis to help reduce TTR
• Cloud-based SaaS product allows monitoring with no server deployments or onboarding costs
• Can monitor both internally and externally giving network admins a holistic view of network performance and accessibility
• Supports auto-discovery that builds network topology maps on the fly
• Changes made to the network are reflected in near real-time
• Allows businesses to scale their monitoring efforts reliably through flexible pricing options
• Would like to see a longer trial period for testing

Download a 14-day Free Trial of Datadog Network Monitoring Tool.

Using network monitoring tools against network congestion

Ok, now that we have seen the best network monitoring tools, let’s see what we can use them for when trying to avoid network congestion:

• Keep track of the traffic to see what is passing in the network and decide whether it belongs there or not.
• Use the tools to isolate rogue users , applications, services, and devices.
• Use Net Flow to track packet attributes like time taken, timeouts, and dropped packets and use them as metrics to gauge the networks’ performances using reports and graphs.
• Auto-monitor networks around the clock and set milestones or benchmarks for alerts.
• Keep an eye on said alerts and respond to them ASAP.
• Use maps to make sure the network topography is as it should be and that all packets are flowing – in to, out of, and across various architectures – without issues.

Tackling these tasks will ensure no network congestion cripples a business’s processes and prevent any causative issues from occurring in the first place.

We would like to know of any network monitoring tools you have used; leave us a comment below.

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How Data Center Network Congestion Can Be Reduced

Network congestion occurs when the amount of data being sent through a network exceeds its processing capacity. It can result in slow data transfer, packet loss, and even a complete failure of the network. Congestion can happen for various reasons, such as an increase in the number of users, bandwidth limitations, and routing issues. Network congestion can be a significant problem for businesses and individuals as it can impact productivity and efficiency.

What is Network Congestion?

Network congestion refers to the situation where there is too much traffic on a network, which leads to a decrease in its performance and efficiency. Often, this is caused by a surge in the number of devices or users on a network that exceeds the capacity of the network to handle all of them at once.

When congestion occurs, data packets may be delayed, lost, or dropped. This leads to slower data transfer rates, longer download and upload times, and increased latency. In severe cases, it can even cause the network to crash or become unavailable.

Network congestion can occur in any type of network, including local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs), and the Internet. It is a common problem that affects many different types of devices, including computers, routers, servers, and other network components.

Why Data Centers Can't Have Network Congestion

Network congestion is when the data network becomes congested and overloaded with data traffic, which slows down the speed of data transfer and can cause data loss.

Here are several reasons:

Reliability: Data centers need to be reliable and ensure data accessibility, performance, and security. Network congestion will lead to data unavailability or loss, which can affect the reliability of the data center.

Efficiency: Data centers need to operate efficiently to manage costs and provide high-quality services to clients. Congestion will lead to slower data transfer rates and more operating costs, which can affect the efficiency of the data center.

Capacity: Data centers have limited bandwidth capacity to handle data traffic, and network congestion will exceed their capacity, leading to potential data loss or system failure.

Security: Data centers must keep data secure and protect against cyber-attacks. Network congestion will cause security breaches when hackers take advantage of network weaknesses to access confidential data.

In summary, data centers can't have network congestion because it can affect their reliability, efficiency, capacity, and security—leading to potential data loss or system failure. Therefore, data centers must prioritize network management to ensure optimal data transfer speed and efficiency.

How to Solve the Problem of Network Congestion?

Network congestion occurs when there is a significant increase in network traffic that surpasses the available network resources, leading to performance degradation and slower data transfer speeds. Solving network congestion requires a combination of strategies aimed at managing and optimizing network resources. Here are several approaches to address network congestion:

Upgrade your network: Consider upgrading your network bandwidth or implementing Quality of Service (QoS) solutions to prioritize traffic.

Implement traffic shaping: Traffic shaping is a method that regulates the amount and type of data that goes through a network. It helps prevent network congestion by balancing the flow of traffic and reducing the amount of data that enters the network at any given time.

Reduce unnecessary traffic: Ensure that only essential data is transmitted over the network. Avoid non-essential software updates or downloads during peak hours.

Use compression techniques: Compressing data can help reduce the size of files to be transferred, which results in less congestion.

Implement load balancing: Load balancing distributes network traffic across multiple servers, reducing the load on any one server and preventing congestion.

Upgrade network hardware: Upgrading hardware, such as switches or routers, can increase the network's capacity, enabling it to handle more traffic.

By implementing these solutions, you can reduce congestion and improve the overall performance of your network.

Network Protocols to Reduce Network Congestion

There are several network protocols that are used in data center flow control technology. Some of the most common ones include:

802.1Qbb – Priority-based Flow Control (PFC), this protocol is used to enable the lossless handling of traffic in Ethernet networks. It works by giving higher priority to certain types of traffic, such as storage traffic or VoIP, which require a guaranteed level of bandwidth and latency.

802.3x – This protocol is used to prevent network congestion by enabling devices to signal each other when they are overloaded. It works by pausing transmission of data until the receiving device is ready to receive it.

802.1Qau – It also known as Congestion Notification (CN), this protocol is used to provide congestion management in Ethernet networks. It works by notifying devices of potential congestion before it occurs, allowing them to take proactive measures to avoid it.

Data Center Bridging Exchange (DCBX) – This protocol is used to exchange information between network devices in order to configure and manage network settings. It includes features such as priority flow control, congestion management, and virtual LAN (VLAN) discovery and management.

These protocols are essential to maintaining the reliability, performance, and overall efficiency of data center networks.

Choosing the Right Data Center Switches to Avoid Network Congestion

For high data transmission in data centers, data center switches must ensure business continuity. For example, while the FS data center switch has basic functions, it can also achieve low network latency and zero packet loss, effectively avoiding network congestion. They internally support a variety of network flow control technologies, such as network protocols such as PFC/ECN.

In addition, FS data center switches support EVPN-VXLAN, helping users quickly and flexibly deploy networks on a large scale and reduce data center network management costs. In terms of hardware facilities, power supply redundancy protection ensures business continuity, which can greatly improve the stability of your data center network operation.

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How to Avoid The Network Traffic Jam: What is Network Congestion and How to Fix It

Table of contents.

Have you ever found yourself staring at your screen, waiting for a webpage to load, or a file to download, only to be left frustrated by sluggish Internet speeds? It's like being stuck in a traffic jam during rush hour, with no end in sight. But instead of honking your horn and yelling at other drivers, you might be wondering what's causing the holdup. Well, fear not, fellow internet user, because the culprit might just be network congestion.

In this post, we'll explain what network congestion is, what causes it, and most importantly, how to fix it. So buckle up, because we're about to hit the accelerator and leave that traffic jam in the rearview mirror.

What is Network Congestion: The Network Traffic Jam

Picture this: You're driving down the highway, singing along to your favourite tunes, when all of a sudden, you hit a wall of traffic. Cars are bumper-to-bumper, horns are blaring, and everyone's slamming on their brakes. That's what it feels like when your network is congested.

In simple terms, network congestion happens when there's too much traffic on a network that can't handle it . Just like a busy highway during rush hour, the more cars there are, the slower everyone moves. And when your network is congested, your Internet speed slows to a crawl, making it feel like you're stuck in a never-ending traffic jam.

5 Common Causes of Network Congestion: Networks Have Accidents Too

Just like rush hour traffic, networks can have accidents too! Whether it's a faulty cable, a misconfigured router, or a rogue device hogging all the bandwidth, accidents can quickly lead to network congestion. In this section, we'll explore some of the common accidents that can cause congestion, and offer tips for avoiding them. So buckle up and let's hit the road to better network performance!

So what causes network congestion? Well, it can happen for a variety of reasons. Here are some of the most common causes:

Network Congestion Cause #1: High Traffic Volume

High traffic volume can cause network congestion because networks have a limited amount of bandwidth available to transmit data. When the amount of data being transmitted across the network exceeds the available bandwidth, it can lead to congestion .

Think of it like a highway during rush hour. If there are too many cars on the road and not enough lanes to accommodate them, traffic will slow down and come to a standstill. Similarly, if there is too much data trying to flow across a network and not enough bandwidth to handle it, the network will slow down and become congested.

High traffic volume can be caused by a variety of factors, including increased demand for data-intensive applications such as video streaming, file sharing, and cloud-based services. As more devices connect to a network and consume bandwidth, the risk of congestion increases.

Network Congestion Cause #2: Outdated Hardware

Firstly , older hardware may not be able to handle the higher speeds and bandwidths that are required to support modern applications and services. This can result in a network bottleneck , where data is slowed down as it passes through the outdated hardware, causing congestion.

Secondly , outdated hardware may lack the features necessary to prioritize and manage network traffic effectively. For example, it may not support Quality of Service (QoS) policies, which allow network administrators to prioritize certain types of traffic over others based on their importance. This can lead to congestion when bandwidth is consumed by lower-priority traffic, causing delays and decreased network performance for critical applications, like QoS for VoIP .

Thirdly , outdated hardware may be more susceptible to errors and faults, which can contribute to network congestion. For example, a switch or router with outdated firmware may be more likely to drop packets or experience other errors, which can cause congestion by forcing devices to retransmit lost data.

Finally, outdated hardware may lack the security features necessary to protect against cyber threats. In some cases, this can lead to congestion caused by Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, which flood the network with traffic and overwhelm outdated hardware.

Overall, outdated hardware can be a significant contributor to network congestion. That's why it's important to regularly evaluate and upgrade network hardware to ensure that it can keep up with the demands of modern applications and services.

Network Congestion Cause #3: Inadequate Bandwidth

Inadequate bandwidth is one of the most common causes of network congestion or network overload . When a network has insufficient bandwidth, it means that the available capacity of the network is not enough to meet the demand of the devices and applications that are using it.

The amount of bandwidth required for a particular network depends on a variety of factors, including the number of devices that are connected, the types of applications being used, and the volume of data that is being transmitted. If the demand for bandwidth exceeds the available capacity, it can lead to congestion.

For example, if multiple users are streaming high-definition video or transferring large files simultaneously, it can quickly consume the available bandwidth and cause congestion. The result is slow network performance, increased latency, and packet loss.

Inadequate bandwidth can also cause congestion in the upstream or downstream direction of the network . For example, if a business has a slow internet connection, it may be unable to download or upload data quickly enough to meet the demands of its users. This can cause congestion in the network, leading to delays and decreased performance.

Network Congestion Cause #4: Network Configuration Issues

Network configuration issues can be a major contributor to network congestion. Network configuration refers to the settings and parameters that are used to define how devices and applications communicate with each other over the network.

When network devices are configured incorrectly, it can cause a range of problems that can lead to congestion. For example, if a router is misconfigured and is not using the most efficient routing protocol, it may not be able to forward packets quickly enough, causing congestion in the network .

Similarly, if network devices are not properly configured to use Quality of Service (QoS) policies, it can lead to congestion when low-priority traffic uses too much bandwidth, causing delays and decreased network performance for critical applications .

In addition, configuration errors can also cause issues with network security, which can contribute to congestion. For example, if a firewall is misconfigured and is not blocking malicious traffic, it can result in Denial of Service (DoS) attacks that flood the network with traffic and cause congestion.

Network Congestion Cause #5: Network Attacks

Network attacks can be a major cause of network congestion, particularly when they involve Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. In a DDoS attack, a large number of compromised devices, often referred to as a "botnet," are used to flood a target network with traffic, overwhelming the network and causing congestion .

DDoS attacks can be particularly difficult to defend against, as the attack traffic often appears to be legitimate traffic, making it difficult for network security devices to distinguish between the two. The high volume of traffic generated by a DDoS attack can also saturate the available bandwidth of a network, leading to congestion and decreased performance for legitimate traffic.

Other types of network attacks can also contribute to congestion, particularly those that involve flooding a network with traffic. For example, a Ping flood attack involves sending a large number of ICMP echo requests to a target device, causing it to become overwhelmed and unresponsive. Similarly, a SYN flood attack involves sending a large number of SYN requests to a target device, consuming its resources and causing congestion.

Network Congestion Cause #6: Unnecessary Traffic

Unnecessary traffic refers to the data packets or information that is transmitted over a network but does not contribute to the productive or intended operation of the network . While each network has a certain capacity to handle data, excessive unnecessary traffic can cause network congestion, which can lead to performance degradation and communication issues.

Here are some ways unnecessary traffic can cause network congestion:

• Bandwidth consumption : Unnecessary traffic consumes valuable network bandwidth that could be used for essential data transmission. When the available bandwidth is occupied by non-essential or excessive traffic, it leaves less capacity for important data, leading to slower transmission speeds and delays.
• Resource exhaustion : Network devices, such as routers and switches, have finite processing power and memory. When unnecessary traffic floods the network, these devices must process and handle the excessive load, potentially exhausting their available resources. As a result, network devices may struggle to keep up with the demand, leading to congestion and performance issues.
• Increased collisions : In shared network environments like Ethernet networks, unnecessary traffic can lead to an increased number of collisions. Collisions occur when multiple devices attempt to transmit data simultaneously, resulting in data loss and retransmissions. When unnecessary traffic is present, it can exacerbate collision rates, causing congestion and reducing network efficiency.
• Buffer overflow : Network devices use buffers to temporarily store incoming data packets when the receiving end is busy or unable to process them immediately. However, excessive unnecessary traffic can fill up these buffers, leading to buffer overflow. When buffers overflow, new packets may be dropped or delayed, causing congestion and performance degradation.
• Routing inefficiencies : Unnecessary traffic can impact the efficiency of routing protocols and mechanisms. Routers use various algorithms to determine the best path for data transmission. However, if unnecessary traffic is present, routers may waste time and resources attempting to process and forward this traffic, leading to suboptimal routing decisions. This inefficiency can result in increased latency and congestion throughout the network.

Don’t Get Stuck in Congested Network Traffic - Detect Network Congestion With Obkio Network Monitoring Solution Today!

No one likes getting stuck in traffic - whether it’s on the road or in the network. Don't let network congestion slow down your network performance - try Obkio's network monitoring solution today to quickly detect and solve congestion in your network!

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What Are the Symptoms of Network Congestion?

How do you know that your network is being held back by network congestion? Well, you can use Obkio’s monitoring tool to let you know ;)

Of course, you can also look out for these key symptoms of network congestion:

• Slow Internet Speeds : The most obvious symptom of network congestion is slow Internet speeds. This can manifest as slow webpage loading times, buffering videos, or delays in downloading files.
• Packet Loss : When a network is congested, packets of data may be lost or dropped, leading to errors in data transfer and even application crashes.
• High Latency : Network congestion can cause high latency or lag, which can be especially noticeable in online gaming or video conferencing.
• Connection Timeouts : If a network is congested, connections may time out or fail to establish, preventing users from accessing the network or particular applications.
• Poor voice or video quality : Congestion can cause poor quality in voice or video calls, with images appearing pixelated or choppy, and sound being distorted or dropping out.
• Unresponsive Applications : When a network is congested, applications may become unresponsive, leading to frustration and lost productivity.

If you're experiencing any of these symptoms, it's likely that your network is suffering from congestion. In such cases, it's best to troubleshoot the issue and try to alleviate the congestion to improve network performance .

Here’s how you can do that!

Step 1: How to Detect Network Congestion: There’s An App for That!

To troubleshoot network congestion, you first need to find it. Because although you may feel the symptoms, just like road congestion, you may not know it’s there until you reach the source.

To detect network congestion, you need a monitoring tool that monitors network devices and end-to-end network performance. That’s where Obkio Network Performance Monitoring tool can help.

Obkio uses Network Monitoring Agents and synthetic traffic using to monitor all ends of your network to measure network metrics, identify network problems like congestion, and collect the information to help you troubleshoot.

Step 2: Measure Network Devices: Where Network Congestion Often Happens

Network congestion is often caused by overused network equipment - so you need to look there first. You can use Obkio’s Network Device Monitoring feature to monitor your own network equipment and measure the quantity of traffic going through your devices.

If you’re reaching your limit on the amount of traffic your devices or Internet connection can handle, then you’re sure to experience network congestion.

With Obkio, detect network congestion in network devices such as:

• Routers and switches : Routers and switches are responsible for forwarding data packets between different devices on the network. Monitoring these devices can give you insight into how much traffic is being transmitted and help you identify potential bottlenecks or congestion points.
• Firewalls : Firewalls are designed to control access to the network and protect it from external threats. Monitoring firewall traffic can help you identify anomalies in network traffic that may indicate congestion.
• Servers and storage devices : These devices are responsible for storing and processing data on the network. Monitoring their performance can help you identify any performance issues that may be contributing to network congestion.
• Endpoints : Endpoints refer to the devices that connect to the network, such as desktop computers, laptops, and mobile devices. Monitoring endpoint performance can help you identify any issues that may be causing congestion, such as bandwidth-hungry applications or misconfigured devices.

By monitoring these network devices , you can gain a comprehensive view of your network and identify any areas that may be contributing to congestion. This can help you take proactive steps to optimize your network and improve its performance.

Step 3: Identify a Lack of Resources Causing Network Congestion

Network congestion commonly occurs when your network devices or Internet connection are lacking the resources available, such as bandwidth or CPU usage , to process traffic flowing through the network.

So to detect network congestion, you’ll want to look into your network’s research usage.

The screenshot above is an example of high CPU usage on SD-WAN Devices affecting all sessions (in the second column). This means that the network device does not have enough available resources to manage the throughput . Since it cannot process data packers properly, it will end up dropping them and causing packet loss.

Step 4: Measure Network Metrics That Signal At Network Congestion

It's easy to detect network congestion in your own network equipment, but you’re not always using your own equipment. Some businesses use their ISP’s or MSP’s network equipment, so they don't have direct access to the network equipment’s data.

Additionally, the network congestion may not be actually happening in your own network, but maybe in your ISP’s network, on the local loop of its connection or even on the Internet.

But, Obkio can still easily identify network congestion by measuring other core network metrics like:

• Bandwidth utilization : Bandwidth utilization is the amount of bandwidth that is being used at any given time. This metric is important because it can help you understand how much traffic is flowing across your network. If the bandwidth utilization is consistently high, it can indicate that your network is congested and struggling to keep up with the demand.
• Packet loss : Packet loss occurs when one or more packets fail to reach their destination. This can happen due to a variety of reasons, including network congestion. Measuring the percentage of packet loss can give you an indication of how congested your network is. If the packet loss rate is high, it can indicate that your network is struggling to handle the amount of traffic it's receiving.
• Round-trip time (RTT) : RTT is the time it takes for a packet to travel from the source to the destination and back again. Measuring RTT can give you an indication of how long it takes for data to be transmitted across your network. If the RTT is high, it can indicate that there is congestion on the network or that the distance between the source and destination is causing delays.
• Network jitter : Jitter is the variation in the time it takes for packets to travel from the source to the destination. High jitter can lead to inconsistent network performance and can make it difficult to predict how long it will take for packets to reach their destination.
• Network Throughput : Network throughput is the amount of data that is transmitted over a network during a certain period of time. If the network throughput is consistently low, it can indicate that your network is congested and struggling to keep up with demand. By measuring network throughput, you can get an idea of how much data your network can handle and whether it's meeting the needs of your users.
• Queue Length : A network queue is a buffer where packets are stored before being transmitted. If the queue length is consistently high, it can indicate that your network is congested and that packets are waiting too long to be transmitted. High queue lengths can lead to increased latency and packet loss.

That’s because network congestion can cause packet loss, increased latency and jitter . When network congestion occurs, data packets can accumulate, like cars in a traffic jam and cause a huge buffer.

It then takes time to empty and refill the buffer, which increases latency and jitter. If the buffer is small, the latency won’t increase too much but more packets will be dropped. Depending on the network equipment, the buffer size can be adjustable or it can be fixed in the hardware.

In this screenshot, we can see three graphs.

• In the first graph, you can see there is network congestion and the buffer is very large. Therefore there is little packet loss but a lot of latency and jitter.
• In the second graph, there is network congestion with a medium buffer, so the packet loss, latency and jitter are all moderate.
• In the third graph, there is network congestion with a small buffer, so the latency and jitter don’t increase too much but there is more packet loss.

How to Fix Network Congestion: Avoid Network Traffic Jams

Just like rush hour on a busy highway, network congestion can cause frustrating delays and slowdowns. But fear not, intrepid network admin, we've got some tips and tricks to help you navigate through the congestion and keep your network flowing smoothly. So buckle up and let's hit the road to congestion-free networking!

• Add Bandwidth : One of the most straightforward solutions to network congestion is to increase the amount of available bandwidth. This can involve upgrading your network hardware, such as routers and switches, or increasing your internet service provider's bandwidth.
• Add Traffic Prioritization : You can optimize network traffic by prioritizing critical applications and limiting the bandwidth available to less important applications. This can be achieved using Quality of Service (QoS) settings on network devices.
• Remove Unnecessary Traffic : You can reduce network congestion by removing unnecessary traffic from the network, such as spam or malware. This can be achieved using network security measures, such as firewalls and antivirus software.
• Reconfigure Network Architecture : You can reconfigure your network architecture to improve its performance, such as by creating separate network segments for different departments or applications. This can help to reduce congestion and improve overall network performance.
• Implement Network Monitoring : Network monitoring tools like Obkio can provide real-time visibility into network traffic, allowing you to identify potential congestion points and take action to alleviate them.
• Utilize Load Balancing : Load balancing involves distributing network traffic across multiple servers or connections to optimize performance and reduce congestion. This can be achieved using specialized load-balancing hardware or software.

5 Tried and True Techniques for Identifying Network Congestion

So we just taught you how to detect and fix network congestion using Network Monitoring. That’s because it’s the easiest and most complete way to monitor network congestion and network performance as a whole. But, here is the complete list of techniques you can use to detect network congestion:

1. Network Monitoring Software to Identify Network Congestion

Network performance monitoring is a crucial technique for identifying network congestion. By measuring various metrics related to network performance, network administrators can detect signs of congestion and take proactive steps to address the issue .

There are a number of different network performance metrics that can be monitored to identify congestion. Some of the key metrics include:

• Bandwidth utilization : This metric measures the amount of bandwidth being used on a network. If bandwidth utilization approaches 100%, it may indicate that the network is becoming congested.
• Packet loss : This metric measures the number of packets that are lost or dropped during transmission. If packet loss rates are high, it may indicate that the network is congested and unable to handle the volume of traffic.
• Latency : This metric measures the time it takes for data packets to travel from one point on the network to another. If latency rates are high, it may indicate that the network is congested and unable to handle the volume of traffic.
• Jitter : This metric measures the variation in latency over time. High levels of jitter can indicate that the network is experiencing congestion, as packets are being delayed or dropped.

By monitoring these and other network performance metrics, network administrators can quickly detect signs of congestion and take steps to address the issue. For example, they may need to optimize network configurations, increase available bandwidth, or implement Quality of Service (QoS) policies to prioritize critical traffic.

There are a number of network performance monitoring tools available, like Obkio that can help automate the process of monitoring network performance metrics. These tools can provide real-time network monitoring alerts when congestion is detected, allowing network administrators to quickly respond to and resolve issues before they impact network performance.

Learn how to detect network congestion & perform a network congestion test inside & outside your network with Network Monitoring & Network Device Monitoring.

2. Flow Analysis to Identify Network Congestion

Flow analysis is another important technique for identifying network congestion. Flow analysis involves capturing and analyzing network traffic to gain insight into how traffic is flowing through the network and to identify potential congestion points .

Flow analysis tools capture and analyze data at the flow level, which refers to a set of packets that share common attributes, such as the same source and destination IP addresses, protocol, and port numbers. By analyzing flows, these tools can provide detailed information about how traffic is flowing through the network, including the source and destination of traffic, the protocols being used, and the amount of data being transferred.

By analyzing flow data, network administrators can identify potential congestion points and take steps to address the issue. For example, they may need to reconfigure network devices to optimize traffic flow, implement network load balancing to distribute traffic across multiple paths, or identify and block high-bandwidth applications that are consuming too much network resources.

Flow analysis tools can also provide insight into network security threats, such as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, by identifying anomalous traffic patterns or unusual levels of traffic from specific sources. By monitoring flow data for signs of suspicious activity, network administrators can quickly detect and respond to potential security threats.

3. Ping to Identify Network Congestion

Ping is a simple yet useful technique for identifying network congestion. It involves using the Ping utility to send ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) packets to a remote device on the network and measuring the response time . ICMP packets are a type of network packet that are used to test network connectivity and diagnose network problems .

By measuring the response time of ICMP packets, network administrators can quickly identify potential congestion points on the network. If response times are slow or there are significant delays, it may indicate that the network is experiencing congestion.

However, it is important to note that Ping is not always a reliable indicator of network congestion, as there are many factors that can impact response times, such as network latency, distance between devices, and the processing power of the remote device. In addition, Ping only measures response times between two devices, and does not provide a comprehensive view of network performance.

To obtain a more accurate picture of network congestion, network administrators should use Ping in conjunction with other network monitoring and analysis tools, such as flow analysis or network performance monitoring tools. These tools can provide a more comprehensive view of network performance and help identify the root cause of congestion issues.

4. Traceroutes to Identify Network Congestion

Traceroute is another useful technique for identifying network congestion. It involves using the Traceroute utility to trace the route of network packets from the source device to the destination device, and measuring the response times of each hop along the way .

Traceroute works by sending a series of packets with increasing TTL (Time-to-Live) values, which causes the packets to expire and be discarded at each hop along the route. When a packet is discarded, the hop sends an ICMP error message back to the source device, which includes information about the hop's IP address and response time.

By analyzing the response times of each hop along the route, network administrators can identify potential congestion points and determine where delays are occurring . If response times are consistently slow at a particular hop or set of hops, it may indicate that there is congestion at that point in the network.

However, it is important to note that Traceroute has limitations and may not always provide a complete picture of network congestion. Traceroute only traces the route of packets along a single path, and does not take into account other paths that traffic may be flowing through. In addition, Traceroute may be blocked or return inaccurate results due to network security policies or other factors.

To obtain a more accurate picture of network congestion, network administrators should use Traceroute in conjunction with other network monitoring and analysis tools, such as flow analysis or network performance monitoring tools. These tools can provide a more comprehensive view of network performance and help identify the root cause of congestion issues.

5. Network Performance Testing to Identify Network Congestion

Network performance testing is another technique for identifying network congestion. This involves running network traffic tests to simulate different traffic loads and measure the response times and other performance metrics .

One common method of network performance testing is to use a traffic generator, which can simulate different types of traffic loads and measure response times, throughput, and other performance metrics. Traffic generators can simulate different types of traffic, including voice, video, and data traffic, and can also simulate different network conditions, such as latency, jitter, and packet loss.

By running network performance tests under different traffic loads and conditions, network administrators can identify potential congestion points and determine how the network performs under different scenarios. If response times and other performance metrics degrade under heavier traffic loads, it may indicate that the network is experiencing congestion.

However, it is important to note that network performance testing can be resource-intensive and may require specialized equipment or software. In addition, network performance testing only provides a snapshot of network performance at a particular point in time and may not reflect ongoing network conditions.

To obtain a more complete view of network congestion, network administrators should use network performance testing in conjunction with other network monitoring and analysis techniques, such as flow analysis or network performance monitoring tools. These tools can provide ongoing monitoring and analysis of network performance and help identify the root cause of congestion issues.

6. User Feedback to Identify Network Congestion

User feedback is another useful technique for identifying network congestion. This involves soliciting feedback from end-users, such as employees or customers, about their network experience, including any issues or problems they may have encountered.

There are several ways to collect user feedback, including surveys, focus groups, or informal discussions. By gathering feedback from a broad range of users, network administrators can gain insights into how the network is performing from the end-user's perspective and identify potential areas of congestion or other issues.

For example, if users report slow response times when accessing certain applications or websites, it may indicate that there is congestion on the network. Similarly, if users report frequent disconnects or other issues, it may indicate a problem with network connectivity or hardware.

User feedback can also provide valuable insights into how users are utilizing the network and what types of traffic are being generated. By understanding user behavior and traffic patterns, network administrators can optimize network resources and ensure that the network is configured to meet the needs of its users.

However, it is important to note that user feedback should be used in conjunction with other network monitoring and analysis techniques, such as network performance testing and flow analysis. User feedback is subjective and may not always provide a complete picture of network performance or identify the root cause of congestion issues. By combining user feedback with other monitoring techniques, network administrators can gain a more comprehensive understanding of network performance and make informed decisions about network optimization and troubleshooting.

The Impact of Network Congestion: Sitting In Network Traffic Is As Frustrating As It Seems

Imagine you're driving on a highway during rush hour traffic. The traffic is moving very slowly due to the large number of vehicles on the road. This means that you're spending more time on the road, using more fuel, and increasing the wear and tear on your vehicle. You might even miss an important appointment or deadline due to the delay.

In the same way, when a network is congested, data packets are moving slowly, causing delays and inefficiencies . This can cause frustration, wasted time, and lost productivity. Just like in traffic, when there is network congestion, it takes longer for data to get to its destination , and the performance of the network can suffer as a result.

Moreover, in road traffic, congestion can create a ripple effect, causing delays and backups on other roads leading to a standstill. Similarly, network congestion can have a domino effect , causing delays and inefficiencies in other parts of the network, leading to slow responses and reduced productivity across the board.

In both cases, the solution is to alleviate the congestion, whether by taking alternate routes on the road or optimizing the network to improve its performance. By understanding the negative impact of congestion, we can take steps to avoid it and ensure that we're using our time and resources effectively.

What is the Impact of Network Congestion On Network Performance?

Network congestion can have several negative impacts on network performance, including:

• Slower data transfer speeds : Network congestion can cause data packets to be delayed or lost, resulting in slower transfer speeds and longer wait times for users.
• Reduced reliability : When network congestion occurs, data packets can be lost or dropped, which can result in lower reliability and increased error rates.
• Reduced productivity : Network congestion can cause applications and services to slow down or become unresponsive, reducing productivity and increasing frustration for users.
• Security risks : Network congestion can make it more difficult to detect and respond to security threats, leaving your network vulnerable to cyberattacks.
• Increased costs : Network congestion can lead to increased costs, such as additional hardware purchases, bandwidth upgrades, or downtime due to network outages.

What Network Applications Are Impacted By Network Congestion?

So we know that network congestion can impact network performance in different ways, but some network applications can be more sensitive to network problems , like network congestion, than others. This can depend on a variety of factors, such as the resources required from the application.

When monitoring network congestion, here are some of the network applications most affected by network congestion:

• Web browsing : When network congestion occurs, it can slow down the loading of web pages and increase the time it takes for a user to access websites. Email: Network congestion can delay the delivery of emails, and may even result in some emails being lost or undelivered.
• VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) and video conferencing : Network congestion can cause delays, choppy audio, and video and VoIP quality degradation during VoIP calls or video conferencing application such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams .
• File transfer : Network congestion can slow down the transfer of large files, such as software updates, video files, or backups.
• Streaming video and audio : Network congestion can lead to buffering and interruptions in streaming video and audio content.
• Cloud-based applications : Congestion can affect access to cloud-based applications, such as AWS and Microsoft Azure, and data storage services, causing delays or unavailability.
• Virtual private networks (VPNs) : Network congestion can cause a reduction in VPN performance, making it harder to connect to remote networks and access resources.
• Internet of Things (IoT) devices : Congestion can affect the performance of IoT devices, such as smart home appliances, security systems, and healthcare devices, leading to delays or failures in their operations.

What is the Impact of Network Congestion On User Experience?

The impact of network congestion on user experience can be significant, as it can lead to frustration, reduced productivity, and even customer churn. Some of the specific impacts of network congestion on user experience include:

• Slow application performance : Network congestion can cause applications to load slowly, respond slowly, or even crash, leading to frustration for users who rely on those applications for their work.
• Poor quality audio and video : Network congestion can cause audio and video to become distorted or choppy, making it difficult for users to communicate effectively or consume content.
• Unresponsive websites : Network congestion can cause websites to load slowly or become unresponsive, leading to frustration for users who need to access information or complete transactions quickly.
• Increased wait times : Network congestion can lead to longer wait times for users who need to download large files, access remote servers, or perform other bandwidth-intensive tasks.
• Dropped connections : In severe cases, network congestion can cause connections to be dropped altogether, resulting in lost work or interrupted communications.

6 Best Practices For Avoiding Network Congestion: Take the Side Streets

Because network congestion or network overload can be so frustrating for your business operations and your users, it’s definitely something you want to avoid. Kind of like taking the side streets to avoid traffic on the highway,

Luckily, there are ways to optimize network performance and avoid the chance of network congestion happening.

• Upgrade your network infrastructure : Ensure that your network infrastructure is up to date and has sufficient capacity to handle the traffic. Consider upgrading your hardware, such as routers and switches, to faster and more capable models.
• Use Quality of Service (QoS) settings : QoS settings can prioritize traffic and allocate bandwidth more effectively, preventing congestion from occurring.
• Monitor your network : Use network monitoring tools to keep track of traffic patterns and detect any signs of congestion before it becomes a problem.
• Implement traffic shaping and load balancing : These techniques can help distribute traffic evenly across your network and prevent any one device or user from hogging bandwidth.
• Limit unnecessary traffic : Consider blocking or limiting non-essential traffic, such as peer-to-peer file sharing, to reduce the overall load on your network.
• Use caching and compression : Caching and compression can help reduce the amount of data that needs to be transferred over the network, reducing the risk of congestion.

By taking these steps, you can reduce the risk of network congestion and ensure that your network is running smoothly and efficiently.

Say Goodbye to Congested Networks: Say Hello to Network Congestion Monitoring

So there you have it! We've learned what network congestion is, how it can impact network performance and user experience, and most importantly, how to detect and avoid it. From optimizing network traffic to upgrading network infrastructure, we've covered the best ways to keep the data flowing smoothly. But wait, there's one more thing!

The secret weapon in your arsenal against network congestion is Obkio Network Monitoring !

By keeping a watchful eye on your network traffic, you can identify potential issues before they become full-blown traffic jams. So, whether you're a tech-savvy pro or a curious newbie:

And stay ahead of network congestion and keep the data superhighway moving at full speed!

These might interest you

How to detect network congestion like a pro, leveraging qos monitoring in networking: dscp & prioritization, say goodbye to network headaches..

Get a live demo of Obkio now!

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What is Network Congestion? Common Causes and How to Fix Them?

Network Congestion occurs when the traffic flowing through a network exceeds its maximum capacity. In most cases, congestion is a temporary issue with the network caused due to a sudden upsurge of traffic, however, sometimes, a network is continually congested, indicating a deeper problem. End-users perceive network congestion as Network Slowdown or a very large delay in processing requests.

Network congestion is also a contributing factor in the following underlying issues:

• High Latency –  In a congested network, the time taken by a packet to reach its destination increases significantly, hence a higher latency rate is observed.
• Connection timeouts – Ideally, the service should wait for the arrival of packets but in several cases, the connection terminates due to timeout.
• Packet loss – Many packets cannot reach their destination if the network is congested, and will be dropped eventually due to timeout.

Causes of network congestion :

• Excessive bandwidth consumption – Certain users or devices on the network may occasionally utilize more bandwidth than the average user or device. This can put a strain on the network and its routing equipment (routers, switches, and cables), causing network congestion.  
• Poor subnet management – For better resource management, a big network is divided into subnets. However, network congestion could arise if the subnets are not scaled according to usage patterns and resource requirements.  
• Broadcast Storms – A broadcast storm occurs when there is a sudden upsurge in the number of requests to a network. As a result, a network may be unable to handle all of the requests at the same time.  
• Multicasting – Multicasting occurs when a network allows multiple computers to communicate with each other at the same time. In multicasting, a collision can occur when two packets are sent at the same time. Such frequent collisions may cause a network to be congested.  
• Border Gateway Protocol – All traffic is routed by BGP via the shortest possible path. However, while routing a packet, it doesn’t consider the amount of traffic present in the route. In such scenarios, there is a possibility all the packets are being routed via the same route which may lead to network congestion.  
• Too many devices – Every network has a limit on the amount of data it can manage. This capacity establishes a limit on how much bandwidth and traffic your network can handle before performance degrades. If the network has too many devices linked to it, the network may become burdened with data requests.  
• Outdated Hardware – When data is transmitted over old switches, routers, servers, and Internet exchanges, bottlenecks can emerge. Data transmission can get hampered or slowed down due to outdated hardware. As a result, network congestion occurs.  
• Over-subscription – A cost-cutting tactic that can result in the network being compelled to accommodate far more traffic than it was designed to handle (at the same time).

Effects of network congestion :

• Queueing delay
• Packet Loss
• Slow Network
• Blocking of new connections
• Low throughput

Test for network congestion :

• Run Command Prompt as administrator.
• Type tracert google.com in the CMD window.

• Take note of how many hops it takes to get to the final server.
• For every hop, check out the value of ping.

Congestion at the network layer is related to two issues, throughput and delay.

1. Based on delay

When the load is much less than the capacity of the network, the delay is at a minimum . This minimum delay is composed of propagation delay and processing delay, both of which are negligible. However, when the load reaches the network capacity ,the delay increases sharply because we now need to add the queuing delay to the total delay. The delay becomes infinite when the load is greater than the capacity.

delay as a function load

2. Based on Throughout

When the load is below the capacity of the network, the throughput increases proportionally with the load. We expect the throughput to remain constant after the load reaches the capacity, but instead the throughput declines sharply. The reason is the discarding of packets by the routers. When the load exceeds the capacity, the queues become full and the routers have to discard some packets. Discarding packets does not reduce the number of packets in the network because the sources retransmit the packets, using time-out mechanisms, when the packets do not reach the destinations.

throughput as a function of delay

How to fix network congestion?

• Divide your network into subnets that can be resized to meet traffic.
• TCP/IP settings should be adjusted to balance packet send/request speeds.
• Use a CDN (Content Delivery Network) to save time by directing more requests to edge servers.
• Choke packets are used to reduce the output of sender devices, which helps to avoid network congestion.
• In case the default route becomes congested, you can employ multi-hop routing so that traffic can be managed.
• Upgrade your Internet plan to allow for more devices and increased bandwidth. Check to see if your devices are up to date and not outdated (even the cables).

A good practice is to monitor your network for any abnormal changes in the traffic. This helps in identifying the issue in advance and planning out improvements.

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What is Network Congestion? Causes and How to Fix

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What is Network Congestion?

Network congestion occurs when too many packets are sent into a single link or node in the network. In extreme cases, it could lead to packet loss, queueing delays, or even the blocking or slowing down of new connections.

The most common cause of network congestion is the overload of one or more nodes in the network. When this happens, the network’s overall performance suffers because the bandwidth allocated to each network connection becomes limited. If this continues long enough, the entire network will eventually reach saturation and stop functioning correctly.

How to Identify Network Congestion

Network congestion is one of the factors can identify behind these underlying issues:

• Bandwidth Limitation- The maximum amount of data that can be transferred per unit of time is called the “bandwidth” of the network. Bandwidth limitations are often caused by physical constraints such as the speed of light, which limits how fast information can travel within a fiber optic cable.
• High Latency- A congested network has a high latency rate because packets take longer to reach their destinations.
• Connection Timeouts- It would be ideal if the service waited for the arrival of packets, but in some cases, the connection terminated because of timeouts.
• Packet loss- If too many packets are sent at once, they may not get through because the network is busy, and some will be dropped for various reasons.It could be because of an improper connection, poor cabling, etc..
• Packet retransmission- When there is a problem with the transmission of a message, the sender must resend the message. When data packets are sent back and forth between two computers, they increase network congestion.
• Jitter-  Jitter refers to the variation in the delay of packet arrival. In a congested network, there may be inconsistent delays in packet delivery, leading to jitter.
• Collisions-  In a shared network environment, collisions occur when two or more devices transmit data simultaneously. Network congestion can increase the likelihood of collisions and degrade overall network performance.

Causes of Network Congestion

Understanding the causes of network traffic jams is crucial for fixing them. These are some of the most commonly encountered causes of network congestion.

Excessive Bandwidth Consumption

Some users or devices on the internet may occasionally consume more bandwidth than others. This can cause traffic jams and slow down other users’ connections. This could happen if you download an extremely large file, stream a video, or upload lots of photos or videos. If your connection speed is slower than the average connection speed, then you will experience delays when downloading files or streaming media.

Misconfigured Traffic

Typically, business visitors come from multiple sources.

• Unicast traffic for supporting video functions, phone calls, or data transfers
• Broadcast traffic for network operations
• Multicast traffic is used for real-time multimedia streaming applications.

Traffic from all these sources can be critical for your site’s success. However, you need to prioritize them, so they don’t cause too much congestion. Intermixed traffic means that both IPv4 and IPv6 packets are sent at the same time. This causes network issues and outages because they’re treated equally by network devices Quality of Service protocols allow organizations to manage misconfigured network traffic.

Poor Subnet Management

A big network is divided into smaller networks called subnets. These subnets are then further subdivided into even smaller networks called network segments . Segments are usually assigned to specific users or groups of users. If there is an increase in traffic congestion within a segment, the network will automatically assign additional resources to handle the increased load.

Outdated Hardware

Data transmission gets hindered when there are outdated devices in your network. Old switches, routers, servers, and internet exchange points create bottlenecks. These bottlenecks slow down or stop data transmission. When you add too many devices to your network, it becomes congested. Congestion slows down or stops data transmission.

Border Gateway Protocol

Border gateway protocol routes traffic according to its best effort policy. If you need to send 100GB of data across an internet connection, then your ISP will not prioritize sending that data through the fastest available route. Instead, they will choose the route that provides the least expensive bandwidth. As a result, if you need to send 100 GB of data across the internet, you might end up using the same route several times. This could cause problems because each time you use the same route, it adds latency to your data transfer.

Multicasting

Multicast traffic is a method of sending information from one source to many destinations simultaneously. Multicast communication requires less bandwidth than unicast communication because it does not require every destination node to receive the message individually. However, multicast communications are subject to packet loss if there is a failure in any intermediate router.

Too Many Devices

Too many devices on a network can also contribute to congestion. When there are too many devices connected to the network, it can overload the network’s capacity and slow down overall performance. This is especially true if multiple devices are actively using bandwidth-intensive applications or services at the same time.

Over-Used Devices

Similarly, over-used devices can also cause network congestion. If a single device consumes significant bandwidth or network resources, it can create a bottleneck and slow down other devices’ connections. This can happen if a device runs multiple bandwidth-intensive applications simultaneously or is infected with malware or viruses that are causing excessive network traffic.

Over-Subscription

Over-subscription occurs when the network service provider oversells their available bandwidth to customers. This means more users use the network than the provider can support, leading to network congestion. Too many users trying to access the network simultaneously can cause delays and slower connections for everyone.

Low Bandwidth

Low bandwidth allocation is another cause of network congestion. If a network doesn’t have enough bandwidth, it can become overwhelmed when multiple users or devices are trying to access it simultaneously. This can result in slow connections and delays in accessing online resources.

Network Infrastructure

Network infrastructure issues such as cable or fiber optic line damage, faulty network equipment, or insufficient network capacity can also contribute to network congestion. When there are physical issues with the network infrastructure, it can lead to disruptions in the flow of data and cause congestion.

Business-critical Traffic

Business-critical traffic refers to the data and communication essential for a business’s operation. When there is an overwhelming amount of business-critical traffic on a network, it can cause congestion and slow down other network activities. This can happen if there is a sudden increase in the volume of business-critical traffic due to high demand or if the network infrastructure cannot handle the amount of traffic being generated.

How To Fix Network Congestion?

Network congestion fix is usually caused by multiple factors. Traffic shaping and prioritization tools help identify the root cause of the problem and allow you to prioritize traffic flows. A good network monitoring solution will provide insights about current network conditions and alert you when something goes wrong.

• If the default route becomes congested, you can use multi-hop routing to manage traffic.
• You should divide your network into subnets so that you can resize them to meet traffic.
• Make sure your internet plan allows for enough network bandwidth so your devices don’t run out of space. Also, check to see if your devices aren’t outdated.
• A CDN ( content delivery network ) helps speed up page load times by directing more requests to server nodes closer to end users.

Monitor and Analyze Network Traffic

To effectively fix network congestion, monitoring and analyzing network traffic is crucial. By doing so, you can gain insights into the current conditions of your network and identify any issues or bottlenecks that may be causing congestion. Monitoring tools provide real-time data on network performance, allowing you to detect abnormal traffic patterns or spikes in usage.

Bandwidth plays a significant role in network congestion. Assessing your current network bandwidth and ensuring it is sufficient for your needs can help prevent congestion. If you find that your network is consistently reaching its maximum bandwidth capacity, you may need to upgrade your internet plan or invest in additional bandwidth.

Segmenting and Prioritizing

Dividing your network into subnets can help manage traffic more efficiently. By segmenting your network, you can allocate resources and bandwidth to specific groups or departments, ensuring that critical traffic gets priority. This can be done by implementing Quality of Service (QoS) policies prioritizing certain types of traffic, such as VoIP or video streaming, over less important traffic like email or web browsing. By prioritizing traffic flows, you can reduce congestion and ensure critical applications have the necessary bandwidth to function properly.

Assess Your Devices

Outdated devices can contribute to network congestion. Older devices may not have the processing power or capabilities to handle increasing traffic demands. Assess your devices and ensure they are up-to-date with the latest software updates and firmware. Consider upgrading any devices that cannot effectively handle network traffic.

Assess Your Network Architecture

The overall architecture of your network can also impact congestion. Evaluate your network design and ensure it is optimized for efficient traffic flow. This includes evaluating the placement of routers, switches, and access points to ensure they are strategically located to minimize latency and maximize bandwidth usage. Consider implementing load-balancing techniques to distribute network traffic across multiple paths or devices evenly.

In conclusion, network congestion happens when there is too much traffic on a particular link. The most common cause of congestion is that many people are trying to access the same website at once. This causes all the packets traveling through the same physical connection to take longer than they should because each packet has to wait for the previous one to finish before it can start moving again.

Implementing robust network monitoring is essential for maintaining the health and efficiency of your network infrastructure. Network monitoring tools are crucial in identifying and addressing potential issues such as congestion, latency, packet loss, and other performance-related challenges. By proactively monitoring key metrics and analyzing network traffic, organizations can gain valuable insights into their network’s behavior, enabling them to detect anomalies, prevent disruptions, and optimize overall performance.

“Do not let network challenges impede your success. Explore our comprehensive Network Monitoring Services to discover how we can enhance your network performance. Take the initial step toward achieving a seamlessly functioning and secure network environment.

Act now! Your network deserves the best.”

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A Guide to Identifying & Reducing Network Congestion

To understand how to prevent almost anything, it is often critical to first understand some of the causes of the thing we want to avoid. For congested networks, the method used to fix the issue can often be directly related to the reason. Imagine trying to fix a leak without understanding precisely what is causing the leak or its origin.

What is Network Congestion?

Congestion refers to when a network is overloaded with data (like roads with cars or the like). In some cases, street traffic is the result of a temporary situation, like high volume or accidents, much in the same way as congestion on our networks. Other cases present more dynamic or overarching issues, like the poor design or needed repairs—more significant matters that require their type of solutions.

Causes of Network Congestion

Over-Used Devices

Not all devices are created equal. Some devices are designed to handle more traffic than others. Examples of devices such as routers, switches, and firewalls are constructed with expectations for network throughput. Adding to the confusion, the assigned capacity for a given device is a theoretical value. In other words, the stated capacity for a device may not be the precise ability the device will manage in real-world scenarios. Pushing devices to their max (reported) capacity can often result in over-utilization of the device.

In many cases, structures for using multiple devices are designed with hierarchies. A higher-level device will often serve lower-level devices. It’s critical within a hierarchy to ensure that the lower-level devices are not requiring more than the higher-level device is capable of supporting. Such incongruencies lead to bottlenecks in the flow of data. Continuing our anecdote about street traffic, this would be similar to when a multi-lane freeway merges into two or fewer lanes.

Too many devices

It’s also important to clarify when a network might be using too many devices. Given that every network has a precise level of support it can provide, issues may arise if this capacity is too strained with an excessive volume of devices. Too many devices can easily lead to a network that is receiving a surplus of requests for data.

Antiquated hardware

It is vital to acknowledge when the figurative streets to which our traffic is traveling may be outdated or require repair/updates. The same goes for our hardware. Any discussion about hardware also extends to wire and cable connections between devices. For example, ethernet cables differ in their maximum data speed and require updates or replacements as your business grows and matures over time.

Deficient design or poor configuration

Each network needs to be designed—or structured—in ways tailored to your operation’s needs. As an obvious example, a small-scale company with only a dozen or so employees requires a dramatically different architecture than a network servicing hundreds. But the cases are too common that a network does not scale in proportion to the operation it supports. A network needs to be optimized to provide connection to all segments while maximizing performance across each of those segments. Designing subnets is a viable way to allocate performance where it is needed the most—or the least. Subnets can be created around where you are sure a lot of data will be required and sized appropriately for this purpose.

Fixes for Network Congestion

Traffic monitoring

Any starting point for determining a solution for over-utilized devices, too many devices, or an insufficient network design must begin by assessing the action. Monitoring network traffic will provide insight sufficient for identifying problem areas. It will help determine where congestion may exist. It can also illuminate under-utilized regions that may be reallocated to perform better in a different area. As problems surface, you will have an awareness of how to make adjustments to design and usage. In many cases, tools are available to install for the sake of monitoring, which will allow you to optimize solutions to congestion.

A network that can transmit more data is less likely to experience issues of congestion. The simple solution to increasing the amount of transferable information is to increase your network’s bandwidth. It is critical to remember a common proverb: a chain is only as strong as the weakest link. In many respects, this is true for a network. A network’s slowest component is commonly linked to its overall performance. Once you’ve monitored your network and identified how data traffic is flowing, you can upgrade your network’s slowest parts to maximize the benefit of increasing your bandwidth.

Segmenting and Prioritizing

Another benefit of monitoring traffic is the capacity to design or re-design a network optimized for your needs. Towards that end, segmenting your network into smaller sub-networks will increase efficiency and create space to establish practical priorities. This not only produces a more viable network but also permits more accurate monitoring. Through segmentation, you can reduce or increase data traffic to positively impact congestion areas. You can do so with more accurate data and less guesswork.

Prioritization simply refers to your capacity to minimize congestion by giving due emphasis (priority) to key network processes. When non-essential or less essential services receive lower priority, a network reduces its likelihood of congestion. Of course, it is necessary to apply care and precision to prioritizing, because the wrong configuration or design can exacerbate issues meant to be resolved. This process can hugely benefit from the correct software or a team of technology experts to support and implement the appropriate design.

Other areas to explore when considering network congestion include using redundancy models, assessing security attacks, LAN performance tests, over-subscription, or TCP/IP protocol settings.

For experienced advice and support on designing or implementing effective measures for reducing network congestion, you can explore expert technology solutions for business strategy by setting up a consultation with Network Coverage .

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Network congestion

Network congestion on any IT infrastructure is a growing concern. Whether for a simple file transfer, or displaying a video conference, an organization's day-to-day IT tasks are entirely dependent on the network's health. A slight data overload in your network might cause sluggish connectivity, poor data quality, and undesirable issues. If not tended to immediately, chances are high that the organization's operations will grind to a halt. To understand the effects of network congestion better, let's dive deep into knowing what exactly it is, and where it comes from.

Network congestion occurs when the network carries or exchanges data beyond its capacity. As a result, the network might experience delays in processing information, or lose packets. Ultimately, the network won't perform to its expectations.

There are a few symptoms that indicate your infrastructure is experiencing network congestion:

High latency: Latency is a measure of the delay for the data packets to travel from its source to a destination. Usually, latency occurs because the network needs to exchange data beyond its bandwidth capacity.

The narrower the bandwidth pipeline, the more congested the data flow will be. Therefore, high latency reduces the bandwidth effectiveness and obviously network congestion.

Jitter: Packets transmitting through a physical distance can take a shorter or longer time to reach the destination. This difference in arrival times is what we call the jitter.

Jitter and congestion go hand-in-hand when the network support device, like a router or a gateway, tries to adjust to the traffic variance. In a VoIP call, for example, jitter is indicated when a video displays choppily or the audio plays slowly, quickly, or intermittently.

Packet Loss: This occurs when data packets are interrupted when trying to reach their destination. When your network can't receive more packets since its capacity has fallen far behind, it will ignore other incoming packets. Packet loss can produce choppy audio or video during VoIP calls, reduced throughput, and more quality degradations.

Causes of network congestion

There are a myriad of aspects in your network infrastructure that can impact your network's stability. Let's look at some reasons network congestion occurs.

Bandwidth capacity: Your network doesn't meet your expectations because of the misuse of bandwidth. For instance, your business has a set of critical applications or devices that might require the most bandwidth. However, a significant amount of bandwidth might also be utilized for video streaming or gaming. Automatically, your resources might get limited for specific purposes, and this could result in performance issues.

Malicious attacks: Corporate networks often witness traffic peaks, and might mistake it to be their typical business interaction or request. In most cases, the unexpected traffic is from malicious websites that intrude into the system to accelerate network downtime. DoS and flash attacks can be disguised as requests, and this additional traffic brings all business processes to a standstill.

Network design: Resulting from not just bandwidth capacity or misconfigured traffic issues, but network congestion might also occur when the network infrastructure is not implemented correctly. This is especially true when the network is divided into subnets or SSIDs. The correct infrastructure is necessary for an efficient network and data transmission. Every business has different requirements, and network designs must be accomplished to ensure it is easy for service monitoring and troubleshooting.

Proven tips to prevent future network congestion problems

Fixing network congestion is not rocket science. Once the root cause is identified, you can reduce your network's inefficiency. Here are some network congestion solutions that will keep your network optimized.

→ Monitoring your network traffic regularly can help you gain insights on how every device and interface in your network is performing. With a network congestion management tool, such as ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer, you can monitor network congestion, drill down to application level traffic and view traffic patterns. You can see the bandwidth utilization and the underlying troubles.

→ Prioritizing network traffic significantly lowers the risks of experiencing slow internet speeds. As a network admin, when you use a network congestion tool like NetFlow Analyzer, you will know which applications consume most network bandwidth as opposed to prioritized applications traffic in real time.

By applying QoS policies to your network, you can classify business-critical real time applications, and make sure that those applications receive maximum bandwidth. This way, you are assured that critical apps receive enough bandwidth, and your network downtime is lowered significantly.

→ Improving bandwidth can play an important role in the way your network handles data. A wider bandwidth can help smooth the transfer of data. Additionally, increasing bandwidth might help the network handle many routers simultaneously. Ultimately, there will only be fewer interruptions, and a faster connection.

ManageEngine's NetFlow Analyzer is a holistic network congestion software that gives you real-time insights into your network traffic's performance. Using this network congestion monitoring tool , you can reduce congestion in network or manage any network traffic-related challenges proactively with comprehensive monitoring of all applications and protocols of your network.

More on network congestion

What is network congestion.

Network congestion is an occurrence when the network is overloaded with data beyond its capacity.

When does network congestion occur?

There are many reasons to what can make a network congested. Some common causes are: connectivity of too many devices in a network, outdated hardware devices, or faulty device etc.

How to check network congestion?

Since in most cases the network congestion originated from packet loss or delay, you can carry out the network congestion test with Ping, or bandwidth monitoring. With Ping test, you will learn about packet loss, and Round-Trip-Time (RTT). Bandwidth monitoring on the other hand, will tell you which host or server is consuming the most bandwidth.

How to reduce network congestion?

Each problem would require a different solution. Some most common practices you could follow to avoid network congestion are to implement a QoS policy, replace faulty or old devices or attending to security attacks as soon as discovered.

What are the effects of network congestion?

The typical effects of network congestion can result in too many packets present in the network, thereby causing jitter, severe performance degradation, data loss and unreliable connection.

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4 Causes of Network Congestion – And How to Prevent Them

• Network Monitoring Best Practices ,

If your company is dealing with bad network congestion, look for these four common causes and take steps to correct them if they’re affecting your network.

Your enterprise’s network needs to operate quickly and efficiently to satisfy your customers. Nobody’s happy if your network isn’t performing at its peak ability. Network teams use network performance monitors (NPMs) to analyze how their network is behaving. An area of network performance that NPMs are equipped to deal with is network congestion.

Network congestion occurs when a network (or a portion of the network) or a network node is overloaded with data. Congestion can happen for a variety of reasons, but regardless of the cause, it can be a huge problem for companies. They annoy both customers and employees alike and reduce and enterprise’s productivity. However, an NPM can discover and alert you to any congestion or bottlenecks on your network. Below, we’ve listed 4 common causes of network congestion and how you can prevent them.

Outdated or non-compatible hardware

Every so often, your network team will have to upgrade network capacity and speeds in order to match your enterprise’s demands. If your team doesn’t upgrade its hardware along with it, you could be opening the door to bottlenecks. Whenever possible, your team should upgrade your switches, servers, routers, etc. to have the most optimal hardware layout.

This also extends to wire and cable connections between devices. Ethernet cables, for example, have different categories that determine their maximum data speed. If your Ethernet cables aren’t able to handle the data speeds your network requires, they can slow down your network tremendously.

Too many devices

Every network has a specific level of capacity that it’s able to handle. This capacity puts a limit on how much bandwidth and traffic your network can deal with before it begins to affect performance. (This is assuming that all the data is healthy and isn’t hurting performance itself.) If there are too many devices connected to the network, then the network might become overloaded with requests for data. Your NPM will inform you if there are more devices than your network is equipped to deal with.

Bandwidth hogs

A bandwidth hog is a device or user that, either accidentally or on purpose, consumes much more data than other devices. Depending on the device/user, the difference between average data usage and the hog’s usage can be minor or significant. Regardless, an NPM can tell you when a device is draining bandwidth above the expected level. Some NPMs allow you to monitor bandwidth usage in real-time, meaning you can detect when a bandwidth hog is using resources.

Poor network design and subnets

Sometimes, the congestion is the fault of how your network is designed. Your network layout needs to be optimized to ensure every part of your network is connected, but also to maximize performance across every area of coverage. When you divide your network into subnets, it should be done to accommodate for the devices you know will be on the network. That is, subnets should be designed around devices permanently connected to the network. If there’s an area where you know a lot of devices will be demanding data, that subnet should be sized appropriately.

Our Network Monitoring Buyer’s Guide contains profiles on the top network performance monitor vendors, as well as questions you should ask providers and yourself before buying.

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This article was written by Daniel Hein on March 20, 2019

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Daniel Hein

Dan is a tech writer who writes about Cybersecurity for Solutions Review. He graduated from Fitchburg State University with a Bachelor's in Professional Writing. You can reach him at [email protected]

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MIT researchers discovered that algorithms designed to ensure greater fairness in network communications are unable to prevent situations where some users are hogging all the bandwidth.

Just as highway networks may suffer from snarls of traffic, so too may computer networks face congestion. Now a new study finds that many key algorithms designed to control these delays on computer networks may prove deeply unfair, letting some users hog all the bandwidth while others get essentially nothing.

Computers and other devices that send data over the internet break it down into smaller packets and then use special algorithms to decide how fast to send these packets. These congestion-control algorithms aim to discover and exploit all the available network capacity while sharing it with other users on the same network.

Over the past decade, researchers have developed several congestion-control algorithms that seek to achieve high rates of data transmission while minimizing the delays resulting from data waiting in queues in the network. Some of these, such as Google’s BBR algorithm , are now widely used by many websites and applications.

“Extreme unfairness happens even when everybody cooperates, and it is nobody’s fault.” —Venkat Arun, MIT

However, although hundreds of congestion-control algorithms have been proposed in the last roughly 40 years, “there is no clear winner,” says study lead author Venkat Arun , a computer scientist at MIT. “I was frustrated by how little we knew about where these algorithms would and would not work. This motivated me to create a mathematical model that could make more systematic predictions.”

Unexpectedly, Arun and his colleagues now find many congestion-control algorithms may prove highly unfair. Their new study finds that given the real-world complexity of network paths, there will always be a scenario where a problem known as “starvation” cannot be avoided—where at least one sender on a network receives almost no bandwidth compared to that of other users.

A user’s computer does not know how fast to send data packets because it lacks knowledge about the network, such as how many other senders are on it or the quality of the connection. Sending packets too slowly makes poor use of the available bandwidth. However, sending packets too quickly may overwhelm a network, resulting in packets getting dropped. These packets then need to be sent again, resulting in delays. Delays may also result from packets waiting in queues for a long time.

Congestion-control algorithms rely on packet losses and delays as details to infer congestion and decide how fast to send data. However, packets can get lost and delayed for reasons other than network congestion. For example, data may be held up and then released in a burst with other packets, or a receiver’s acknowledgement that it received packets might get delayed. The researchers called delays that do not result from congestion “jitter.”

Congestion-control algorithms cannot distinguish the difference between delays caused by congestion and jitter. This can lead to problems, as delays caused by jitter are unpredictable. This ambiguity confuses senders, which can make each of them estimate delay differently and send packets at unequal rates. The researchers found this eventually leads to situations where starvation occurs and some users get shut out completely.

In the new study, the researchers analyzed whether every congestion-control algorithm of which they were aware, as well as some new ones they devised, could avoid starvation. The scientists were surprised to find there were always scenarios with each algorithm where some people got all the bandwidth, and at least one person got basically nothing.

“Some users could be experiencing very poor performance, and we didn’t know about it sooner,” Arun says. “Extreme unfairness happens even when everybody cooperates, and it is nobody’s fault.”

The researchers found that all existing congestion-control algorithms that seek to curb delays are what they call “delay-convergent algorithms” that will always suffer from starvation. The fact that this weakness in these widely used algorithms remained unknown for so long is likely due to how empirical testing alone “could attribute poor performance to insufficient network capacity rather than poor algorithmic decision-making,” Arun says.

Although existing approaches toward congestion control may not be able to avoid starvation, the aim now is to develop a new strategy that does, Arun says. “Better algorithms can enable predictable performance at a reduced cost,” he says.

Arun notes that this research may have applications beyond analyzing network congestion. “We are currently using our method of modeling computer systems to reason about other algorithms that allocate resources in computer systems,” he says. “The goal is to help build systems with predictable performance, which is important since we rely on computers for increasingly critical things. For instance, lives could depend on self-driving cars making timely decisions.”

The scientists will detail their findings 24 August at the ACM Special Interest Group on Data Communications ( SIGCOMM ) conference.

• Why Wi-Fi Stinks—and How to Fix It - IEEE Spectrum ›
• Breaking the Latency Barrier - IEEE Spectrum ›
• If Navigation Apps Don't Alleviate Congestion—Could City-Wide ... ›
• Study of Proposed Internet Congestion Control Mechanisms ›
• Internet congestion control | IEEE Journals & Magazine | IEEE Xplore ›

Charles Q. Choi is a science reporter who contributes regularly to IEEE Spectrum . He has written for Scientific American , The New York Times , Wired , and Science , among others.

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Solving network congestion

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There are few things more frustrating than trying to use your phone on a crowded network. With phone usage growing faster than wireless spectrum, we’re all now fighting over smaller and smaller bits of bandwidth. Spectrum crunch is such a big problem that the White House is getting involved, recently announcing both a $400 million research initiative and a $4 million global competition devoted to the issue.

But researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) say that they have a possible solution. In a new paper, a team led by professor Dina Katabi demonstrate a system called MegaMIMO 2.0 that can transfer wireless data more than three times faster than existing systems while also doubling the range of the signal.

The soon-to-be-commercialized system’s key insight is to coordinate multiple access points at the same time, on the same frequency, without creating interference. This means that MegaMIMO 2.0 could dramatically improve the speed and strength of wireless networks, particularly at high-usage events like concerts, conventions and football games.

“In today’s wireless world, you can’t solve spectrum crunch by throwing more transmitters at the problem, because they will all still be interfering with one another,” says Ezzeldin Hamed, a PhD student who is lead author on a new paper on the topic. “The answer is to have all those access points work with each other simultaneously to efficiently use the available spectrum.”

To test MegaMIMO 2.0’s performance, the researchers created a mock conference room with a set of four laptops that each roamed the space atop Roomba robots. The experiments found that the system could increase the devices’ data-transfer speed 330 percent.

MegaMIMO 2.0’s hardware is the size of a standard router, and consists of a processor, a real-time baseband processing system, and a transceiver board.

Katabi and Hamed co-wrote the paper with Hariharan Rahul SM '99, PhD '13, an alum of Katabi’s group and visiting researcher with the group, as well as visiting student Mohammed A. Albdelghany. Rahul will present the paper at next week’s conference for the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Data Communications (SIGCOMM 16).

How it works

The main reason that your smartphone works so speedily is multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), which means that it uses several transmitters and receivers at the same time. Radio waves bounce off surfaces and therefore arrive at the receivers at slightly different times; devices with multiple receivers, then, are able to combine the various streams to transmit data much faster. For example, a router with three antennas works twice as fast as one with two antennas.

But in a world of limited bandwidth, these speeds are still not as fast as they could be, and so in recent years researchers have searched for the wireless industry’s Holy Grail: being able to coordinate several routers at once so that they can triangulate the data even faster and more consistently.

“The problem is that, just like how two radio stations can’t play music over the same frequency at the same time, multiple routers cannot transfer data on the same chunk of spectrum without creating major interference that muddies the signal,” says Rahul.

For the CSAIL team, the missing piece to the puzzle was a new technique for coordinating multiple transmitters by synchronizing their phases. The team developed special signal-processing algorithms that allow multiple independent transmitters to transmit data on the same piece of spectrum to multiple independent receivers without interfering with each other.

“Since spectrum is scarce, the only way to improve wireless capacity is to add more access points and use some sort of distributed MIMO solution,” says Sachin Katti, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Stanford University who was not involved in the research. “While there has long been skepticism that this could ever work in practice, Katabi’s team has demonstrated that they can solve the many practical challenges of distributed MIMO networks.”

The team compared MegaMIMO 2.0’s performance against both a traditional WiFi system, as well as MegaMIMO 1.0, in which the user has to actively provide information (“explicit channel feedback”) about the different frequencies.

Rahul says that the group’s technology can also be applied cellular networks, meaning that it could solve similar congestion issues for people who actually want to use their phones to make calls. He says the team plans to expand MegaMIMO 2.0 to be able to coordinate dozens of routers at once, which would allow for even faster data-transfer speeds.

“This work offers a completely new way to deliver WiFi in campuses and enterprises,” says Katti. “Whereas current solutions often have slow, spotty performance, this technology has the potential to deliver high-capacity connectivity to each and every user.” 



The work was funded by the National Science Foundation and supported by members of the MIT Center for Wireless Networks and Mobile Computing.

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A new WiFi system developed by CSAIL researchers is three times faster than a normal wireless network, writes Thomas Tamblyn for The Huffington Post . The new system allows transmitters “to work together and make sure that they’re sending information that isn’t clashing to each device,” explains Tamblyn.

Matt McFarland writes for CNN that CSAIL researchers have created a new system that can transfer wireless data 3.3 times faster than usual. McFarland explains that to increase the speed of data transfer, researchers “developed algorithms that process a router's signal so that multiple routers can send information on the same wireless spectrum without causing interference.”

In an article for Forbes , Kevin Murnane writes that a new system developed by MIT researchers significantly improves WiFi performance. Murnane writes that the system “could be used at locations like concert halls and sports stadiums to eliminate the poor WiFi performance people often experience in these venues.”

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• Dina Katabi
• Wireless@MIT
• Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
• Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

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How Does BTC Lightning Network Solve The Blockchain Congestion Issue?

• April 9, 2024 11:00 AM

The thrilling fact about the decentralised economy is that technology always evolves and develops in response to ongoing issues. Ultimately, these tools were innovated to better serve users and provide better facilitation than centralised methods.

The Bitcoin blockchain was the first network developed to register and track crypto transactions using BTC and other tokens minted on the same network. However, due to the increasing demand and congestion on the blockchain, the lighting network was introduced to solve this problem.

Let’s discuss exactly what the Bitcoin lightning network is and how it solves the blockchain performance problem.

What is Lightning Network in BTC Blockchain?

The Bitcoin lightning network is a layer-2 scaling solution developed on the BTC mainnet to offload the network congestion. The Bitcoin network has become highly demanded, and its fees have increased over time due to coin capitalisation and its role as the first and best cryptocurrency.

This innovation was developed to fix the speed and scalability issues of the blockchain network by processing payments, operating digital assets and executing transactions on the LN instead of the mainnet. The BTC main network can be used to register new blocks and add/release newly minted Bitcoins to miners.

This protocol helps avoid congestion time and increased gas fees that occur during network peak times, where transactions take a long time to be processed, and transaction fees can exceed $50 per payment.

How Does Bitcoin LN Work?

The lightning network happens directly between users with minimum interference from the blockchain’s main operators. This peer-to-peer transaction contributes to faster payment settlements and decreased fees.

Operations processed on the layer-2 network minimise the workload from miners, which reduces its security exposure. Transactions processed using LN technology are settled faster, which minimises the risk of being targeted by hackers while being processed or in the pending pool .

Despite being developed mainly for the Bitcoin blockchain, other chains and networks started using a similar technology to improve the network performance and increase their DeFi ecosystems.

Features of Bitcoin Lightning Network

The Bitcoin lightning network solution is one of the many layer-2 additions many protocols are developing, such as Ethereum, Avalanche and Polygon, which proves the utility of this technology. Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of this network solution.

Elevated Security

This technology uses the Basis of Lightning Technology 12 (BOLT 12), which is a safer protocol for data encryption before reaching consensus. This way, transaction information is not exposed to nodes, which makes the process safer.

Additionally, LN transactions are settled almost instantly, which minimises the risk of being hacked or redirected to other destinations.

High Scalability

Due to the fact that the Bitcoin chain is the first and oldest blockchain, some consider it a rigid platform that does not accommodate modern flexibility and scalability.

Therefore, the lightning network solves this issue by adding layer 2, which facilitates fractional payments , hosting decentralised applications and interaction with other blockchains and protocols.

Quick Settlements

Instead of the traditional transaction process of going to the pending list and waiting for miners to process payments, the LN network finalises payments through multiple channels and network participants to find the fastest way possible to settle each order.

This solution minimises the work on the mainnet, which can be congested with long waiting pending times and increased fees.

Less Energy Consumption

Bitcoin transactions are known for being high energy-requiring, consuming a lot of energy from processors and mining machines. This increased demand can have catastrophic environmental consequences. 

Therefore, a layer-2 solution offloads some of the transaction processing burden from the main network with minimum machine requirements classically used by proof-of-work protocols. 

The Bitcoin lightning network is a new invention that elevates the BTC blockchain utility and solves its main challenges. It is a layer-2 solution that offloads some transactions from the mainnet to process and settle them directly with minimum power consumption and low fees.

This activity results in faster processing times and lower exposure risks. Additionally, the LN protocol increases network interoperability, allowing it to transact and interact with other chains and manage dApps.

This introduction comes among the increasing popularity of scaling solutions that most popular blockchains have introduced, such as Polygon and Avalanche.

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