<networking> (By analogy with catastrophic failure of a nuclear reactor) An event that causes saturation, or near saturation, of a network. Network meltdown usually results from illegal or misrouted packets (see Chernobyl packet) and typically lasts only a short time. It may also be caused by a hardware fault. It is the network equivalent of thrashing.
(2004-02-17)
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Nearby terms: network layer « network layer reachability information « network management « network meltdown » Network News Transfer Protocol » network node » Network Node Interface
