Congestion

Congestion is a state of excessive accumulation or overfilling or overcrowding. This general definition is broadly correct across all uses of the word. However in specific contexts the word has a more precise definition and usage.

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In telecommunication, the term has the following meanings:

1. In a communications switch, a state or condition that occurs when more subscribers attempt simultaneously to access the switch than it is able to handle, even if unsaturated.

2. In a saturated communications system, the condition that occurs when an additional demand for service occurs.

Source: from Federal Standard 1037C and from MIL-STD-188

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In medicine and pathology the term is used to describe excessive accumulation of blood or other fluid in a particular part of the body.

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Traffic congestion : a common nuisance is road congestion, but a railroad or the tracks at a train station may also be congested; also narrow streets and corridors may be congested with pedestrians. Common is also congestion of people at elevators, and at exits of rooms or buildings where people all leave at the same time (at the end of a show and in case of an emergency).

Quote: "You are not in the queue, you are the queue" (you are not (only) the victim but (also) the cause of the problem).

See also London Congestion Charge, queue.

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In electric power transmission it means the inability to supply an area with the cheapest available generation due to a binding constaint[?] on the point to point transmission route. Some plant or equipment could be causing the constraint due to thermal overload or security limits being potentially breached.