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Usually drops are from lack of buffers. The cause is more traffic sent to the interface then the interface can transmit. If it's long term oversubscription, drops are often normal. If traffic is rate adaptive, drops often are used to signal sender to slow its transmission rate. (NB: for these cases, the ideal drop rate is such that it's the minimum number of drops to regulate transmitter to available bandwidth; often a drop rate of up to about 1%.)
If it's short term oversubscription, allocated buffers are likely insufficient for the needs of your traffic. If possible, increased buffer alloction might mitigate or eliminate the drops.
