How does traffic shaping mitigate network congestion?

Traffic shaping mitigates network congestion by buffering and queuing packets that exceed a configured committed information rate (CIR). Instead of dropping excess traffic, shaping holds these packets temporarily and then releases them at a steady, controlled rate, smoothing out traffic bursts. This prevents sudden spikes from overwhelming network devices or links, ensuring a more consistent flow and reducing packet loss. Dropping packets when traffic exceeds a certain bitrate describes traffic policing, not shaping. Fragmenting large packets and queuing them for delivery is not a primary function of traffic shaping; fragmentation is typically handled at lower layers or for specific VPN/tunneling scenarios. Dropping packets randomly from lower priority queues is a characteristic of Weighted Random Early Detection (WRED) or similar congestion avoidance mechanisms, not traffic shaping itself.