Exponential Backoff

Abstract

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• Handled Collision by making the sending computers wait for a random time interval before re-sending the Data.
• If a collision occurs again, indicating Network Congestion, the waiting time will increase exponentially to reduce the rate of Collisions
• Used by Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and in the CSMA approach.

Jittered Exponential Backoff

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• Instead of always multiplying by a fixed exponent like 3, you randomize that exponent each retry. For example, anywhere between 3 to 4, so everyone’s retry schedule spreads out naturally.
• This avoids the classic thundering-herd problem where all clients back off, wake up at the same time, and slam the server again. It’s a small tweak, but it makes the retry pattern a lot smoother and more stable in practice.
• This is widely used in AWS, gRPC & Kubernetes etc.