What does congestion in a network indicate?

Congestion in a network signifies that the service rate is reduced because there are insufficient network resources to handle the current demand. This leads to delays, packet loss, and degraded performance as the available bandwidth is overwhelmed by the amount of transmitted data. When the network becomes congested, packets may not be delivered in a timely manner, resulting in slower response times and potentially impacting applications that rely on consistent data transmission.

Insufficient resources can stem from a variety of factors such as high network traffic volumes, inadequate bandwidth, or suboptimal routing of data. During times of congestion, additional users or applications trying to access the network can exacerbate the situation, leading to further degradation of service.

In contrast, the other options present scenarios that do not accurately capture the essence of network congestion. Increased service rates due to redundancy would imply that the network is capable of handling more traffic efficiently, while evenly distributed traffic suggests a balanced load, both of which do not align with the concept of congestion. Lastly, stating that all resources are utilized to their maximum capacity can create a misunderstanding, as it could imply optimal performance rather than the struggling inefficiencies of a congested network.