In networking term LAN congestion is too much data forced through a route that results in the inability to process the data fast enough which inevitably leads to delays and packet loss. This is common and very serious issue for the network and here’s list of major 5 things that commonly cause LAN traffic congestion:
- Too many hosts in a collision or broadcast domain
- Broadcast storms
- Too much multicast traffic
- Low bandwidth
- Adding hubs for connectivity to the network
Too many hosts in a collision or broadcast domain: A host is going to be each individual switch, PC, laptop, network printer, or any other network device within the broadcast domain. Too many numbers of host overloads the network. A safe number of hosts in a broadcast domain is 200 – 254.
Broadcast storms: A broadcast storm is a situation where there are unexpectedly too many requests on a network. There are many reasons that cause the broadcast storms which can Poor Network design, use of cheap devices, including hubs, switches, routers, cables, connectors, etc.
Too much multicast traffic: When multiple computers speaks with each other simultaneously, you can’t stops this but only way to reduce the multicast traffic is good network design.
Low bandwidth: Bandwidth is refers to as “size of the pipe” in which Internet data can travel from your local network to the public internet. Best way to manage the low bandwidth is restricts the users only to work related Internet services.
Adding hubs for connectivity to the network: Hubs is good for home use only to expand network but for enterprise its very bad network design. Hub operates in half duplex mode and it cannot filter information i.e. it passes packets to all the connected segments. For enterprise always use manageable switches.
