broadcast storm /n./

An incorrect packet broadcast on a network that causes most hosts to respond all at once, typically with wrong answers that
start the process over again. See network meltdown; compare mail storm.
 

 A TCP/IP network condition that causes a large number of  broadcast packets to be propogated unnecessarily across a  network, thus causing network overload. A broadcast storm  is often the result of using multiple routers that employ
different releases of the TCP/IP protocol.

A network packet that induces a broadcast storm and/or network meltdown, in memory of the April 1986 nuclear accident at
Chernobyl in Ukraine. The typical scenario involves an IP Ethernet datagram that passes through a gateway with both source
and destination Ether and IP address set as the respective broadcast addresses for the subnetworks being gated between.
Compare Christmas tree packet.

A state of complete network overload; the network equivalent of thrashing. This may be induced by a Chernobyl packet. See
also broadcast storm, kamikaze packet.

Network meltdown is often a result of network designs that are optimized for a steady state of moderate load and don't cope
well with the very jagged, bursty usage patterns of the real world. One amusing instance of this is triggered by the the popular
and very bloody shoot-'em-up game Doom on the PC. When used in multiplayer mode over a network, the game uses
broadcast packets to inform other machines when bullets are fired. This causes problems with weapons like the chain gun
which fire rapidly -- it can blast the network into a meltdown state just as easily as it shreds opposing monsters.