1.

2.
3.

Circuit-Switched Networks
Datagram Networks
Virtual-Circuit Networks
R. R. Malekar

Whenever we have multiple devices, we have the

problem of how to connect them to make one-to-one
communication possible.

Quite difficult using Star, Bus, mesh.

A better solution is switching.

R. R. Malekar

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Switching
Note
Switched network: Series of interlinked nodes, called switches.
Switches are devices capable of creating temporary
connections between two or more devices linked to the switch.

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Switches
End Device: a, b,
c, so on

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A circuit-switched network is made of a set

of switches connected by physical links.

In which each link is divided into n

channels by using FDM or TDM.

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Multiplexing is the set of techniques that allows the

simultaneous transmission of multiple signals across a
single data link (physical path).

N lines share the bandwidth of one link

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Frequency-division multiple (FDM)

In FDMA, the available bandwidth of the common channel is
divided into bands that are separated by guard bands.

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Time-division multiple access (TDMA)

The bandwidth is just one that is timeshared between different
stations

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A trivial
circuit-switched
network

Three phases are need to communicate two parties or multiple

parties in a conference call):
Connection setup (setup phase)
data transfer
Connection teardown.
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Three Phases
A. The setup phase: means creating dedicated channels between
the switches.
Example : when system A needs to connect to system M:
1. A sends a setup request that includes the address of system
M, to switch I. Switch I finds a channel between itself and
switch IV. Switch I then sends the request to switch IV,
which finds a dedicated channel between itself and switch
III. Switch III informs system M of system A's intention at
this time.
2. An acknowledgment from system M needs to be sent in the
opposite direction to system A.
3. After system A receives this acknowledgment the connection
established.
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R. R. Malekar

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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.

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circuit-switched network
B. Data Transfer Phase:
After the establishment of the dedicated
circuit (channels), the two parties can transfer
data.
C. Teardown Phase:
When one of the parties needs to disconnect,
a signal is sent to each switch to release the
resources.

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Example 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. 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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Telephone 1 is connected to telephone 7; 3 --- 8; and 2 -- 5; 4 -- 6.

The situation may change when new connections are made.
The switch controls the connections.

Each link use FDMA

Bandwidth of each link
is then 8 kHz
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Note
Switching at the physical layer in the traditional telephone
network uses the circuit-switching approach. .

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Switching take place at physical layer

Resources Reserved
Such as bandwidth in FDM and time slot in TDM
Switch buffer
Switch processing time
Switch I/O ports

Data transferred are not packetized, continuous flow

No addressing involved during data transfer

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1. Circuit switching takes place at the physical layer.

2. Before starting communication, the stations must make a
3. reservation for the resources to be used during the communication.
(such as channels bandwidth in FDM and time slots in TDM)
4. input/output ports, must remain dedicated during the entire duration
of data transfer until the teardown phase.
5. Data transferred between the two stations are not packetized
(physical layer transfer of the signal). The data are a continuous
flow sent by the source station and received by the destination
station, although there may be periods of silence.
6. There is no addressing involved during data transfer. Of course,
there is end-to-end addressing used during the setup phase.

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Example 2
As another example, consider a circuit-switched
network that connects computers in two remote offices
of a private company. The offices are connected
using a T-l line leased from a communication service
provider. There are two 4 X 8 (4 inputs and 8 outputs)
switches in this network. For each switch, four output
ports are folded into the input ports to allow
communication between computers in the same office.
Four other output ports allow communication between
the two offices.

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two 4 X 8 (4 inputs and 8 outputs) switches

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 circuit-switched networks are not as efficient as the

other two types of networks because resources
are allocated during the entire duration of the
connection.
These resources are unavailable to other connections.
In a telephone network, people normally terminates
the communication when they have finished their
conversation.
However, in computer networks, a computer can be
connected to another computer even if there is no
activity for a long time. In this case, allowing
resources to be dedicated means that other
connections are deprived.
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Although a circuit-switched network normally has low

efficiency, the delay in this type of network is minimal.
During data transfer the data are not delayed at each
switch; the resources are allocated for the duration of
the connection.

The total delay = time needed to create the connection,

transfer data, and disconnect the circuit.

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Three phases
Setup phase, data transfer phase, teardown phase

Delay in a circuit-switched network

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In data communications, 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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Note
In a packet-switched network, there is no resource
reservation;
Resources are allocated on demand.

The allocation is done first come, first served

When a switch receives a packets , the packet

must wait if there are other packets being
processed, this lack of reservation may create
delay. e.g.
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Datagram Networks
1.

Each packet is treated independently of all others. Even if

a packet is part of a the same message.

2.

Packets in this approach are referred to as datagrams.

3.

All packets (or datagrams) belong to the same message may

travel different paths to reach their destination.

4.

This is so because the links may be involved in carrying

packets from other sources.

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In a datagram network, each packet is treated

independently of all others. Referred to as connectionless
networks.

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Switching --- Network layer

lost or dropped because of a lack of resources.
Upper-layer protocol to reorder the datagrams.
No setup or teardown phases.
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Out of order
Different delays

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Datagram Networks

Datagram Switching is done at the network layer.

This approach can cause the datagrams of a transmission to
arrive at their destination out of order with different delays
between the packets.
Packets may also be lost or dropped because of a lack of
resources.
In most protocols, it is the responsibility of an upper-layer
protocol to reorder the datagrams or ask for lost datagrams
before passing them on to the application.
The datagram networks are referred to connectionless
networks.
There are no setup or teardown phases.
How are the packets routed to their destination??
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Each packet switch has a routing table which is based on

the destination address.

The routing tables are dynamic and are updated

periodically.

The destination addresses and the corresponding

forwarding output ports are recorded in the tables.

This is different from the table of a circuit switched

network in which each entry is created when the setup
phase is completed and deleted when the teardown phase is
over.

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A switch uses ---- routing table --based on ---the destination address

Remains the same during the entire

journey of the packet
Destination addresses ---and the
corresponding forwarding --Output ports

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Every packet in a datagram network carries a header that

contains, among other information, the destination address of
the packet.

When the switch receives the packet, this destination address

is examined; the routing table is consulted to find the
corresponding port through which the packet should be
forwarded.

This address remains the same during the entire journey of the
packet.

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The efficiency of a datagram network is better than that of a

circuit-switched network.

Resources are allocated only when there are packets to be

transferred.

If a source sends a packet and there is a delay of a few minutes

before another packet can be sent, the resources can be
reallocated during these minutes for other packets from other
sources.

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Note
Delay in a Datagram Network
Datagram network may have greater delay.
Delay is not uniform.

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Total delay =3T + 3 + WI + W2

T: transmission times
: propagation delays(slopes)
(WI + w2) : waiting times
Ignore the processing time in each
switch
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Note

Switching in the Internet is done by using the

datagram approach to packet switching at the
network layer.

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A virtual-circuit network is a cross between a

circuit-switched network and a datagram
network.. It has some characteristics of both..

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A source and destination need to go through

three phases: setup, data transfer, and
teardown.

In the setup phase, the source and destination

use their global addresses to help switches
make table entries for the connection.

In the teardown phase, the source and

destination inform the switches to delete the
corresponding entry.

Data transfer occurs between these two phases

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In a virtual-circuit network, two types of addressing are

involved:
1. Global and
2. Local (virtual-circuit identifier).

Global Addressing

An address that can be unique in the scope of the network or

internationally if the network is part of an international
network.
A global address in virtual-circuit networks is used only to
create a virtual-circuit identifier .

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Local Address Virtual-circuit identifier

The identifier that is actually used for data transfer (VCI).
A VCI, unlike a global address, is a small .
VCI is used by a frame between two switches.
When a frame arrives at a switch, it has a VCI; when it leaves, it
has a different VCl.
A VCI does not need to be a large number since each switch can
use its own unique set of VCls.

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All switches need to

have a table entry for this
virtual circuit.

The table, has four

columns for each virtual
circuit that is already set
up.

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Virtual-circuit network
Setup Phase:
In the setup phase, a switch creates an entry for a virtual
circuit.
Two steps are required:
1. the setup request
2. the acknowledgment
Teardown Phase:
In this phase, source A, after sending all frames to B, sends a
special frame called a teardown request.
Destination B responds with a teardown confirmation frame.
All switches delete the corresponding entry from their tables.

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Note: The switch, in the setup phase acts as a packet switch ;

It has a routing table used to know the output port
number.
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Note

When Destination B receives the up frame , and it is ready to

receive frames from A, it assign a VCI (in this case :77) .
This VCI lets the destination know that the frames comes from
A not other sources .

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Teardown Phase

In this phase, source A, after sending all

frames to B, sends a special frame called a
teardown request.

Destination B responds with a teardown

confirmation frame.

All switches delete the corresponding

entry from their tables.

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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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Total delay = 3T+ 3 +Setup delay + teardown delay

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As in a circuit-switched network, 1.setup

2.teardown phases
3.data transfer phase.
Resources can be allocated during the setup phase, as in a
or on demand, as in a datagram network.
As in a datagram network, data are packetized and
each packet carries an address in the header VCI..
All packets follow the same path established during the
connection as in circuit switch network.
A virtual-circuit network is implemented in the data link layer,
A circuit-switched network is implemented in the physical
layer and a datagram network in the network layer.

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Datagram VS. Virtual circuit networks

Efficiency :

In datagram network, resources are allocated only

when there are packets to be transferred.

In virtual-circuit network, all packets belonging to

the same source and destination travel the same path;
Delay:

In datagram network, each packet may experience a

wait at a switch before it is forwarded. In addition,
the delay is not uniform for the packets of a
message.

In a virtual-circuit network, there is a one-time delay

for setup and a one-time delay for teardown. If
resources are allocated during the setup phase, there
is no wait time for individual packets.
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