broadcast storm
termnetworking
The meltdown where broadcast frames multiply through a switching loop until the network drowns in its own traffic.
Ethernet frames carry no time-to-live, so one redundant cable between switches lets every broadcast circulate forever while being reflooded out every port, saturating links and CPUs within seconds. Spanning Tree Protocol exists to break such loops, and storm control to cap the damage; the classic incident remains someone helpfully plugging both wall jacks 'for redundancy'. It is the L2 reminder that redundancy without a control plane is just a loop.