Network Capacity
The fundamental problem is that all network resources are limited, including router processing time and link throughput.
For example:
- Today's (2006) wireless LAN effective bandwidth throughput (15–100Mbit/s) is easily filled by a single personal computer.
- Even on fast computer networks (e.g. 1 Gbit), the backbone can easily be congested by a few servers and client PCs.
- Because P2P scales very well, file transmissions by P2P have no problem filling and will fill an uplink or some other network bottleneck, particularly when nearby peers are preferred over distant peers.
- Denial-of-service attacks by botnets are capable of filling even the largest Internet backbone network links (40 Gbit/s as of 2007), generating large-scale network congestion.
Read more about this topic: Network Congestion
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