
If the packets containing the payload and the trailer arrive, but the header doesn’t make it in time, the entire packet is unreadable and is therefore lost. Traffic on the network, called network congestion, is often what causes packet loss. While 2 cars made it to the concert, the 3rd was unable to arrive in time. There’s an accident on the freeway causing a major delay, and one of the cars gets stuck in the traffic. The other car takes the city streets instead. Two of the cars decide to take the highway to get to the concert. You and a group of friends are driving to the same concert in 3 different cars. Let’s think about it in terms of driving. Packet loss is when a data packet does not make it to its destination. Now that you understand the makeup of a data packet and how it functions, where does packet loss come in? This allows each data packet to take the most efficient path and for traffic to be evenly routed across the network. Once broken into packets, the data packets are individually routed across different paths. It also can have error correction that can send info to the computer to resend the packet if something looks off. The trailer lets the receiving server know that it has reached the end of the data packet. Trailer: I think of this as the conclusion or sign-off data packet.Payload: The payload holds the bulk of your message-the actual content of the email.It includes sender information like the sender IP address and the receiver IP address as well as packet information like packet type and packet number. Header: This is the intro data packet.

Once all of the data packets have arrived at the destination, the data packets are pieced back together.įor example, when you send something as simple as an email, it’s broken down into data packets to be sent to the recipient. When data is transmitted across the internet, the Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol (TCP/ IP) breaks down the data into smaller chunks called packets to make it easier to transfer. To understand packet loss, it’s important to first know what a data packet is. Both instances could be the effect of packet loss. Instead, you’ve lost your life, and all your weapons are up for grabs. Or how about when you play a video game, like Fortnite, and you have the target aimed perfectly at your opponent, but nothing happens to your opponent. Have you ever had a video call with someone when every other word is cutting out, and the video is moving in slo-mo? “Hey - are - today? - you - help - anything?” Leads to really productive conversations…
