Causes of packet loss in a network

       

    Packet loss is typically caused by network congestion. When content arrives for a sustained period at a given router or network segment at a rate greater than it is possible to send through, then there is no other option than to drop packets^. If a single router or link is constraining the capacity of the complete travel path or of network travel in general, it is known as a bottleneck.

   Packet loss can be caused by a number of other factors that can corrupt or lose packets in transit, such as radio signals that are too weak due to distance or multi-path fading (in radio transmission), faulty networking hardware, or faulty network drivers. Packets are also intentionally dropped by normal routing routines (such as Dynamic Source Routing in ad hoc networks) and through network dissuasion technique for operational management purposes.

   A packet may be lost due to congestion: too many packets are sent, the queue gets full, and eventually the router or switch starts dropping packets. It may also occur due to different failures; including temporary cabling problems, problems in a switch or router, etc.; these in turn can cause temporary problems with the routing information (a "non-converged network"), causing the packets to travel in loops until the TTL runs out, or a router erroneously concluding that a certain address can't be reached. This latter problem might also be caused by a misconfigured router.