Traffic Shaping
Traffic shaping is a network management technique that controls the flow of data packets to optimize bandwidth usage, reduce congestion, and ensure quality of service (QoS). It involves regulating the rate of data transmission by delaying, prioritizing, or dropping packets based on predefined policies. This is commonly used in networking, cloud services, and content delivery to maintain performance and reliability.
Developers should learn traffic shaping when building applications that require consistent network performance, such as real-time communication tools (e.g., VoIP, video streaming), online gaming, or cloud-based services with high traffic loads. It helps prevent network bottlenecks, ensures fair resource allocation, and meets service-level agreements (SLAs) by prioritizing critical data flows over less important ones.