The transmission rate of syslog messages can be limited by configuration. The rate limit is enforced in packets-per-seconds (pps). When the rate limit is exceeded, NAT flow logs are buffered. An overload condition is characterized by exhaustion of this buffer space. This condition can occur because of imposed rate limit or the software speed limit. Once the buffer space is exhausted, new flow creation is denied, and the teardown of the existing flows are delayed until the buffer space becomes available. Rate limit determines how fast the buffers are freed (by sending packets to the collector).