Overflow
In general usage, an overflow occurs when the volume of a substance exceeds the capacity of its intended container. A river in flood, for instance, may "overflow its banks". It is also used in a metaphorical sense, as "overflowing with enthusiasm."In telecommunication, the term overflow has the following meanings:
- 1. In telephony, the generation of potential traffic that exceeds the capacity of a communications system or subsystem.
- 2. In telephony, a count of telephone call attempts made on groups of busy trunks or access lines.
- 3. In telephony, traffic handled by overflow equipment.
- 4. In telephony, traffic that exceeds the capacity of the switching equipment and is therefore lost.
- 5. In telephony, on a particular route, excess traffic that is offered to another route, i.e. , an alternate route.
In digital communications, the condition that exists when the incoming data rate exceeds that which can be accommodated by a buffer, resulting in the loss of information. This gives rise to the phenomenon of the buffer overflow, providing an exploit, a vulnerability allowing unauthorised escalation of privilege escalation on a computer system.