The degree to which a network resource is busy is called what?

• A. Reliability
• B. Delay
• C. Load
• D. Bandwidth

Answer: (C)

In networking, the term used for how much work a resource is handling at a given moment is its load. Load reflects utilization—the portion of the resource’s capacity that is currently in use. When a device or link is heavily loaded, it’s busy, which can lead to longer queues and slower responses as more data competes for the same resources.

Delay, while related, is about the time it takes for data to travel or wait in a queue, and it can increase as load rises but is not the measure of busy-ness itself. Bandwidth is the maximum data rate a link can carry, i.e., capacity, not how much of that capacity is currently in use. Reliability concerns how consistently the resource operates, not how busy it is.

So the degree to which a network resource is busy is best described by its load.