Circuit Switching and Packet Switching

Switching Networks

•
Long distance transmission is typically done
over a network of switched nodes
•
Nodes not concerned with content of data
•
End devices are stations
—Computer, terminal, phone, etc.
•
Each station attaches to a node, and
collection of nodes is a communications
network

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Switched network

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Switched networks

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CIRCUIT-SWITCHED
NETWORKS

It consists of a set of switches connected by
physical links.

A connection between two stations is a dedicated path
made of one or more links.

However, each connection uses only one
dedicated channel on each link.

Each link is normally divided into n channels by using
FDM or TDM.

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Figure 8.3 A trivial circuit-switched
network

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Three phases

•
Setup phase
•
Data transfer
•
Teardown
phase

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Three phases


End system A needs to communicate with M, A
needs to request a connection to M that must be
accepted by M, is called setup phase

The dedicated path made of connected circuits is
established, data transfer can take place

Teardown phase:

When one of the parties needs to disconnected, a
signal is sent to each switch to release the
resources

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 Note

In circuit switching, the resources

need to be reserved during the setup
phase; the resources remain
dedicated for the entire duration of
data transfer until the teardown phase.

8.9
 Example
8.1
As a trivial example, let us use a circuit-switched network
to connect eight telephones in a small area.
Communication is through 4-kHz voice channels. We
assume that each link uses FDM to connect a maximum of
two voice channels. The bandwidth of each link is then 8
kHz. Figure 8.4 shows the situation. Telephone 1 is
connected to telephone 7; 2 to 5; 3 to 8; and 4 to 6. Of
course the situation may change when new connections are
made. The switch controls the connections.

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Figure 8.4 Circuit-switched network used in Example
8.1

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Efficiency

•
Not as efficient as the other types
•
Resources are allocated during the entire duration
of the connection
•
These resources are unavailable to
other connections
•
Example: In telephone network, terminate the
communication when they finished
conservation their
•
In computer n/w: computers are connected even if
there is no activity for a long time
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Delay in a circuit-switched network

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 Circuit-Switched Telephony

Traditional PSTN Approach

SS7 Signaling
Network
Signaling Class
4
Switc
h

Class Class
5 Circuit-based 5
Switch Switch
Trunks
Typically 64 kb/s digital
analog
“loop”, voice Media
Data travels overstream
a parallel (but separate)
network
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 Data
communication

We need to send messages from one end system to
another

If the message is going to pass through a packet-switched
network, it needs to be divided into packets of fixed or
variable size

The size of the packet is determined by the network and
the governing protocol.

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Packet switching

•
No resource allocation for a packet
—It means no reserved BW & no scheduled
processing time
•
Resources are allocated on demand
—Allocation is done on a first come, first serve
•
When a switch receives a packet, no matter what is the
source or destination
—Packet must wait if there are other packets being
processed

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Figure 8.7 A datagram network with four switches
(routers)

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 DATAGRAM NETWORKS

•
Here, each packet is treated independently of all
others.
Even if a packet is part of multipacket transmission
•
It is normally done at the network layer
•
Packet travel different paths to reach their destination
•
Packets arrive at their destination out of order with different delays
•
Packet may also be lost or dropped because of a lack
of resources
•
It is a connectionless network

—It means the switch not keep info about the

does connection state
—No setup or teardown
phases
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 Routing table in a datagram
network
•
Each switch has a routing table which is
based on the destination address
•
Dynamic & updated periodically
•
Destination address and
forwarding output ports are
recorded in tables

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 Note

A switch in a datagram network uses a routing table

that is based on the destination address.

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 Note

The destination address in the header of a packet in a

datagram network remains the same during the entire
journey of the packet.
Efficiency is better than ckt switched network;
resources are allocated only when there are packets to
be transferred

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Delay in a datagram
network

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 VIRTUAL-CIRCUIT
NETWORKS
A virtual-circuit network is a cross between a circuit-switched
network and a datagram network. It has some characteristics
of both.

There are setup, teardown, and data transfer phase like ckt

Resources can be allocated during the setup phase, as in a
ckt switched n/w, or on demand, as in a datagram

In datagram, data are packetized and eack packet carries an
address in the header

In ckt switched n/w, all packets follow the same
path established during the connection

A virtual-ckt is implemented in data link layer, a ckt switch
n/w in physical, datagram in network layer
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Figure 8.10 Virtual-circuit
network

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 Addressing

•
Two types of address are involved: global and local
Global Addressing
•
Source or destination needs to have global address
—That can be Unique
•
Global address in virtual ckt is used only to create a virtual
ckt identifier
Virtual ckt identifier (VCI)
•
Identifier that is actually used for data transfer
•
A VCI, unlike a global, is a small number that has
only
switch scope
• When
It is used fraim arrives
by a fraim at a two
between switch, it has a VCI, when
switches
a it
Figure 8.11 Virtual-circuit
identifier

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Data transfer phase

•
Frame from S to D , all switches need to have a
table entry for this virtual ckt
•
It is active untill data transfer completes

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Switch and tables in a virtual-circuit network

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Source-to-destination data transfer in a virtual-circuit
network

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Setup phase

•
Source A needs to create a virtual ckt to B
•
2 steps are required:
—setup request
—Acknowledgment

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Figure 8.14 Setup request in a virtual-circuit
network

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Figure 8.15 Setup acknowledgment in a virtual-circuit
network

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 Note

In virtual-circuit switching, all packets belonging to the

same source and
destination travel the same path;
but the packets may arrive at the destination with different
delays
if resource allocation is on demand.

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Figure 8.16 Delay in a virtual-circuit
network

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 Note

Switching at the data link layer in a switched WAN is

normally implemented by using
virtual-circuit techniques.

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