Network Switching
Course Code: EEE 3215 Course Title: Principles of Communications
Dept. of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Faculty of Engineering
Lecture No: 12 Week No: 13 Semester:
Lecturer:
Lecture Outline
1. Switching Mechanism for Data Transfer
2. Circuit Switching
3. Message Switching
4. Packet Switching
5. Virtual Circuit Switching
6. Datagram Switching
Switching Mechanism for Data
Transfer
Taxonomy of Switched Network
Circuit Switching
Dedicated communication path between two stations
Must have switching capacity and channel capacity to establish connection
Must have intelligence to work out routing
Inefficient
Channel capacity dedicated for duration of connection
If no data, capacity wasted
Set up (connection) takes time
Developed for voice traffic (phone)
Examples
Telephone networks
ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Networks)
Circuit Switching
A Node 1 Node 2 B
processing delay at Node 1
propagation delay
between A
Set-up phase and Node 1
propagation delay
between B
and A
Data
Transfer phase
DATA
Teardown phase
Message Switching
No dedicated path needs to be established between end-nodes.
Source and destination node do not interact in real time. There is no need to
determine the status of the destination node before sending the message.
Each message is an independent entity and carries address information of the
destination. There is no upper limit on the size of the message.
Header Data
The messages are stored at each node before being forwarded to the next node
in the route.
Message switching accept all traffic but offers longer delivery time than circuit
switching. Circuit switching blocks/rejects access traffic.
Packet Switching
⚫ Messages are broken into small segments of bit-sequences and they are called
packets. As packets are restricted to a specific size, they can be routed more
rapidly.
⚫ Packets have the following structure:
Header Data
⚫ Header carries control information (e.g., destination id, source id, message
id, packet id, control info)
⚫ Each packet is passed through the network from node to node along some path
(Routing)
⚫ At each node the entire packet is received, stored briefly, and then forwarded to
the next node (Store-and-Forward Networks)
⚫ Typically no storage is required at nodes/switches for packets.
Packet Switching Advantages
⚫ Packetization allows short messages to get through a transmission link without
waiting behind long messages.
⚫ Line efficiency
⚫ Single node to node link can be shared by many packets over time
⚫ Packets queued and transmitted as fast as possible
⚫ Packets are accepted even when network is busy
⚫ Delivery may slow down
⚫ Priorities can be used
Datagram packet switching
Modify as appropriate….. ⚫ Each packet is independently
switched
⚫ each packet header contains
destination address
⚫ No resources are pre-
allocated (reserved) in
advance
⚫ Routes may change during
session
Virtual-Circuit Packet Switching
Preplanned route established before
any packets sent
Call request and call accept packets
establish connection (handshake)
Communication with virtual circuits
takes place in three phases
VC establishment
data transfer
VC disconnect
Note: packet headers don’t need to
contain the full destination address of
the packet
Datagram vs. Virtual-Circuits
Packet Switching
Datagram Virtual circuits
No call setup phase Network can provide sequencing
Better if few packets and error control
More flexible Packets are forwarded more
Routing can be used to avoid quickly
congested parts of the No routing decisions to make
network
Less reliable
Loss of a node looses all
circuits through that node
Books
1. Forouzan, B. A. "Data Communication and Networking. Tata McGraw." (2005).
References
1. Prakash C. Gupta, “Data communications”, Prentice Hall India Pvt.
2. William Stallings, "Data and Computer Communications”, Pearson
3. Forouzan, B. A. "Data Communication and Networking. Tata McGraw." (2005).
