Traffic intensity is a measure of network traffic conditions used to describe network congestion or otherwise degraded network conditions. Traffic intensity, also called the traffic intensity factor when calculated, describes conditions in a packet-switched network such as one carrying TCP traffic.
The traffic intensity factor (TF) is a relative measure taking into account the average rate at which packets arrive, the average packet size, and the available network transmission rates. TF can be calculated with the following formula:
The Traffic Intensity Factor is useful in probing for network delays and in directing rate-limiting protocols and error prediction.
