< 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 .
[ Jargon File ]
(2004-02-17)