How does a volumetric DDoS attack differ from other types of DDoS attacks?

Volumetric attacks primarily focus on bandwidth exhaustion. Unlike application-layer attacks (e.g., HTTP floods) that target specific application vulnerabilities, volumetric attacks are about sheer volume. They differ from protocol attacks (e.g., SYN floods) which exploit weaknesses in network protocols. Volumetric attacks aim to overwhelm the network infrastructure with traffic, regardless of the protocol being used. This makes them difficult to mitigate using traditional firewall techniques which often inspect application-layer data.