What is a potential downside of a broadcast storm in a network?

A broadcast storm occurs when there is an excessive amount of broadcast traffic on a network. This can significantly impact network performance, as the network becomes congested with these broadcasts, leading to a situation where legitimate traffic is delayed or dropped. The flood of broadcast packets consumes valuable bandwidth and processing resources on switches and routers, leading to slower network responses and overall degradation of service. In severe cases, a broadcast storm can even cause network devices to become unresponsive, resulting in downtime.

Recognizing this, it's clear that the impact of a broadcast storm is detrimental to network performance rather than beneficial. It highlights the importance of managing broadcast traffic and implementing network design principles that minimize the risk of such storms occurring.