fragmentation

1. networking segmentation.

2. The process, or result, of splitting a large area of free

memory (on disk or in main memory) into smaller non-contiguous

blocks. This happens after many blocks have been allocated

and freed. For example, if there is 3 kilobytes of free space

and two 1k blocks are allocated and then the first one (at the

lowest address) is freed, then there will be 2k of free space

split between the two 1k blocks. The maximum size block that

could then be allocated would be 1k, even though there was 2k

free. The solution is to "compact" the free space by moving

the allocated blocks to one end (and thus the free space to

the other). See garbage collection.