Switching

Traditionally, three methods of switching have been discussed: circuit switching, packet
switching, and message switching. The first two are commonly used today. The third has been
phased out in general communications but still has networking applications. Packet switching can
further be divided into two subcategories—virtual circuit approach and datagram approach—as
shown in Figure 8.2. In this chapter, we discuss only circuit switching and packet switching;
message switching is more conceptual than practical.
Switching can happen at several layers of the TCP/IP protocol suite.

Switching at Physical Layer

At the physical layer, we can have only circuit switching. There are no packets exchanged at the
physical layer. The switches at the physical layer allow signals to travel in one path or another.

Switching at Data-Link Layer

At the data-link layer, we can have packet switching. However, the term packet in this case
means frames or cells. Packet switching at the data-link layer is normally done using a virtual-
circuit approach.

Switching at Network Layer

At the network layer, we can have packet switching. In this case, either a virtual-circuit approach
or a datagram approach can be used.

Switching at Application Layer

At the application layer, we can have only message switching. The communication at the
application layer occurs by exchanging messages. Conceptually, we can say that communication
using e-mail is a kind of message-switched communication, but we do not see any network that
actually can be called a message-switched network.

Circuit switching
Conceptually, when you or your computer places a telephone call, the switching equipment within
the telephone system seeks out a physical path all the way from your telephone to the receiver’s
telephone. This technique is called circuit switching.
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.
When end system A needs to communicate with end system M, system A needs to request a
connection to M that must be accepted by all switches as well as by M itself. This is called the
setup phase; a circuit (channel) is reserved on each link, and the combination of circuits or
channels defines the dedicated path. After the dedicated path made of connected circuits (channels)
is established, the data-transfer phase can take place. After all data have been transferred, the
circuits are torn down.

❑ Circuit switching takes place at the physical layer.

❑ Before starting communication, the stations must make a reservation for the resources to be
used during the communication. These resources, such as channels (bandwidth in FDM and time
slots in TDM), switch buffers, switch processing time, and switch input/output ports, must
remain dedicated during the entire duration of data transfer until the teardown phase.
❑ 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.
❑ There is no addressing involved during data transfer. The switches route the data based on their
occupied band (FDM) or time slot (TDM). Of course, there is end-toend addressing used during
the setup phase, as we will see shortly.

An important property of circuit switching is the need to set up an end-to-end path before any data
can be sent. The elapsed time between the end of dialing and the start of ringing can easily be 10
sec, more on long-distance or international calls. During this time interval, the telephone system
is hunting for a path, Note that before data transmission can even begin, the call request signal
must propagate all the way to the destination and be acknowledged. For many computer
applications (e.g., point-of-sale credit verification), long setup times are undesirable.
As a consequence of the reserved path between the calling parties, once the setup has been
completed, the only delay for data is the propagation time for the electromagnetic signal, about 5
msec per 1000 km. Also as a consequence of the established path, there is no danger of
congestion—that is, once the call has been put through, you never get busy signals. Of course, you
might get one before the connection has been established due to lack of switching or trunk capacity

Summary: 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.

Message Switching:
Message switching techniques don’t need 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.

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:
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.
In packet switching, there is no resource allocation for a packet. This means that there is no
reserved bandwidth on the links, and there is no scheduled processing time for each packet.
Resources are allocated on demand. The allocation is done on a firstcome, first-served basis. When
a switch receives a packet, no matter what the source or destination is, the packet must wait if there
are other packets being processed. As with other systems in our daily life, this lack of reservation
may create delay. For example, if we do not have a reservation at a restaurant, we might have to
wait.
Notes:

In a packet-switched network, there is no resource reservation; resources are allocated on

demand.
Datagram Networks

In a datagram network, each packet is treated independently of all others. Even if a packet is part
of a multipacket transmission, the network treats it as though it existed alone. Packets in this
approach are referred to as datagrams.

Datagram switching is normally done at the network layer. We briefly discuss datagram networks
here as a comparison with circuit-switched and virtual-circuit switched networks. In Chapter 18 of
this text, we go into greater detail. Figure 8.7 shows how the datagram approach is used to deliver
four packets from station A to station X. The switches in a datagram network are traditionally
referred to as routers. That is why we use a different symbol for the switches in the figure.
In this example, all four packets (or datagrams) belong to the same message, but may travel
different paths to reach their destination. This is so because the links may be involved in carrying
packets from other sources and do not have the necessary bandwidth available to carry all the
packets from A to X. 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 sometimes referred to as connectionless networks. The
term connectionless here means that the switch (packet switch) does not keep information about
the connection state. There are no setup or teardown phases. Each packet is treated the same by a
switch regardless of its source or destination.

There may be greater delay in a datagram network than in a virtual-circuit network. Although there
are no setup and teardown phases, each packet may experience a wait at a switch before it is
forwarded. In addition, since not all packets in a message necessarily travel through the same
switches, the delay is not uniform for the packets of a message. Figure 8.9 gives an example of
delay in a datagram network for one packet.

The packet travels through two switches. There are three transmission times (3T), three
propagation delays (slopes 3 of the lines), and two waiting times (w1 + w2). We ignore the
processing time in each switch. The total delay is

Total Delay = 3 T + 3  + w1 + w2
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.

1. As in a circuit-switched network, there are setup and teardown phases in addition to the data
transfer phase.

2. Resources can be allocated during the setup phase, as in a circuit-switched network, or on

demand, as in a datagram network.

3. As in a datagram network, data are packetized and each packet carries an address in the header.
However, the address in the header has local jurisdiction (it defines what the next switch should
be and the channel on which the packet is being carried), not end-to-end jurisdiction. The reader
may ask how the intermediate switches know where to send the packet if there is no final
destination address carried by a packet.

4. As in a circuit-switched network, all packets follow the same path established during the
connection.

5. A virtual-circuit network is normally implemented in the data-link layer, while a circuit-

switched network is implemented in the physical layer and a datagram network in the network
layer. But this may change in the future. Figure 8.10 is an example of a virtual-circuit network.
The network has switches that allow traffic from sources to destinations. A source or destination
can be a computer, packet switch, bridge, or any other device that connects other networks.
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. Figure
8.16 shows the delay for a packet traveling through two switches in a virtual-circuit network.

The packet is traveling through two switches (routers). There are three transmission times (3T ),
three propagation times (3), data transfer depicted by the sloping lines, a setup delay (which
includes transmission and propagation in two directions), and a teardown delay (which includes
transmission and propagation in one direction). We ignore the processing time in each switch. The
total delay time is

Total delay = 3T + 3 + setup delay + teardown delay

Reference:
1. Forouzan, B. A. "Data Communication and Networking. Tata McGraw." (2005).
2. Tanenbaum, Andrew S. "a D. WETHERALL." Computer networks. 5th ed. Boston:
Pearson (2011).