What Is Packet Loss? How to Fix It - IT Glossary | SolarWinds (2024)

Packets are small units of data transmitted over a network from a particular source to a destination. Packet loss occurs when a network packet fails to reach its expected destination, resulting in information loss.

Packet loss across network connections is common and may be caused by any of the following reasons:

• Network Congestion:One of the primary reasons for packet loss and implies a situation where network traffic is at its peak. With excessive traffic, it becomes critical for each packet to wait until its delivery. However, packets might also get discarded if the network connection reaches its maximum capacity and can’t accommodate any more packets.
• Network Hardware Bottlenecks:Faulty network hardware or components, such as routers and network switches, may drastically impede network traffic speed. Usually, growing companies with expanding scale witness packet loss due to connectivity issues and experience lag because of outdated hardware. It becomes imperative to update existing hardware to effectively handle growing throughput.
• Software Bugs:In the absence of exhaustive software testing or unchecked updates, bugs might prevail and disrupt network performance. A system reboot, requisite software update, or a patch can help fix such bugs.
• Security Threats and Attack:A security breach is also a possibility to tamper with a network connection, resulting in packet loss. Some prevalent security attacks include packet drop attacks or denial-of-service (DoS) attacks.

In today’s hyper-connected world, businesses strive for an effective network that supports seamless interactions and business operations. Any instance of packet loss hampers the overall experience of communicating via email, accessing business-critical applications, or any other operational task.

Packet loss eventually hinders network performance and overall business in the following ways:

• Low Network Throughput:In case of packet loss, some data never reaches the intended destination, lowering the throughput of a network connection.
• High Latency:Additional time for retransmitting the lost packets to ensure complete information transmission increasesnetwork latency.
• Poor Application Experience:Packet loss impacts business applications and disrupts the end-user experience. Mission-critical applications and apps based on real-time packet processing witness drastic impacts of packet loss.
• Increased Costs:Packet loss may also add to operational expenses as businesses need to spend on additional IT tools to overcome the network lag. Organizations also face productivity challenges due to the delay in tasks.

Though complete packet loss prevention is impossible in any network environment, you can be cautious and try to minimize information loss by following some preventive measures, including:

• System Reboots:Restarting your system devices and routers helps complete pending software updates, fix minor glitches, delete temporary files, and release memory space.
• Routine Network Connection Checks:Ensure the right network configuration is in place and all cables are plugged in accurately.
• Timely Software Updates:Avoid postponing software updates. With an up-to-date operating system, the probability of encountering bugs and glitches is considerably less.
• Replacing Outdated Hardware:It’s critical to identify whether an obsolete or faulty hardware component leads to packet loss. Proactive replacement of any such hardware is vital in preventing packet loss incidents.
• Substituting Wi-Fi With Cable Connections:Since packet loss is more prevalent through a Wi-Fi connection, use a wired Ethernet connection instead of Wi-Fi for better network performance.
• Using Quality of Service (QoS) Settings:QoS settings allow organizing network resources for effectively controlling packet loss. This is useful in cases where the network transmits resource-intensive data such as voice and video. QoS settings drive more network traffic to accommodate resource-intensive data.

Packet loss monitoring is essential to detect, analyze, and troubleshoot network performance problems before things fall through the cracks. A smartpacket loss monitoring solutionsimplifies comprehensive packet loss testing to uncover the causes behind possible instances of packet loss.

A packet loss monitoring tool helps maintain the network infrastructure and ensure defenses are in place to prevent packet loss. It can provide better visibility across the network environment, alert you to vulnerabilities, and mitigate the effects of packet loss.

The key steps to diagnosis and packet loss troubleshooting with automated tools include:

• Conduct Packet Loss Testing:To ensure your network infrastructure is always up and running,test packet losscaused by wireless signal coverage and network congestion.
• Measure Packet Loss:Accurate packet loss measurement, both real-time and historical, is critical for detailed and precise analysis. Tracking network performance metrics provides greater visibility in identifying root causes quickly.
• Pinpoint Causes of Packet Loss:Packet loss monitoring tools allow you to correlate packet loss with other network performance issues for comprehensivepacket loss analysisfor drilling down network performance issues.
• Troubleshoot Packet Loss in Real Time:Proactively mitigate packet loss effects before they start impacting end users by setting custom real-time alerts to notify any threshold breach.

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