ADVANCED COMPUTER

NETWORKS

Dr. Irfana Memon

Department of CSE, QUEST

https://sites.google.com/a/quest.edu.pk/dr-irfana-memon/lecture-slides
Course Content
NO TOPIC
01 Introduction: Motivations of studying networking
02
03
04
05 Switching
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
Chapter 04
Switching
 Chapter 4 : Outline

• Introduction to switching
• Switching modes
• Switching Techniques
 Circuit switching
 Message switching
 Packet switching
 Switching
• When a user accesses the internet or another computer
network outside their immediate location, messages are
sent through the network of transmission media. This
technique of transferring the information from one
computer network to another network is known
as switching.
• Switching in a computer network is achieved by using
switches. A switch is a small hardware device which is
used to join multiple computers together with one local
area network (LAN).
• Network switches operate at layer 2 (Data link layer) in
the OSI model.
 Switching
• Switching is transparent to the user and does not
require any configuration in the home network.
• Switches are used to forward the packets based on MAC
addresses.
• A Switch is used to transfer the data only to the device
that has been addressed. It verifies the destination
address to route the packet appropriately.
• It is operated in full duplex mode.
• Packet collision is minimum as it directly communicates
between source and destination.
• It does not broadcast the message as it works with
limited bandwidth.
 Why Switching Concept required?
Switching concept is developed because of the following
reasons:
• Bandwidth: It is defined as the maximum transfer rate
of a cable. It is a very critical and expensive resource.
Therefore, switching techniques are used for the
effective utilization of the bandwidth of a network.
• Collision: Collision is the effect that occurs when more
than one device transmits the message over the same
physical media, and they collide with each other. To
overcome this problem, switching technology is
implemented so that packets do not collide with each
other.
 Advantages Of Switching
• Switch increases the bandwidth of the network.
• It reduces the workload on individual PCs as it sends
the information to only that device which has been
addressed.
• It increases the overall performance of the network by
reducing the traffic on the network.
• There will be less frame collision as switch creates the
collision domain for each connection.
 Disadvantages Of Switching

• A Switch is more expensive than network bridges.

• A Switch cannot determine the network connectivity
issues easily.
• Proper designing and configuration of the switch are
required to handle multicast packets.
 Switching Modes
• The layer 2 switches are used for transmitting the data on the
data link layer, and it also performs error checking on
transmitted and received frames.
• The layer 2 switches forward the packets with the help of MAC
address.
• Different modes are used for forwarding the packets known
as Switching modes.
• In switching mode, Different parts of a frame are recognized.
The frame consists of several parts such as preamble,
destination MAC address, source MAC address, user's data, FCS.
 Types Of Switching Modes
There are three types of switching modes:
• Store-and-forward
• Cut-through
• Fragment-free
Store-and-forward Switching Mode

• Store-and-forward is a technique in which the

intermediate nodes store the received frame and then
check for errors before forwarding the packets to the
next node.
• The layer 2 switch waits until the entire frame has
received. On receiving the entire frame, switch store the
frame into the switch buffer memory. This process is
known as storing the frame.
Store-and-forward Switching Mode
• When the frame is stored, then the frame is checked for
the errors. If any error found, the message is discarded
otherwise the message is forwarded to the next node.
This process is known as forwarding the frame.
• CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) technique is
implemented that uses a number of bits to check for the
errors on the received frame.
• The store-and-forward technique ensures a high level of
security as the destination network will not be affected
by the corrupted frames.
• Store-and-forward switches are highly reliable as it
does not forward the collided frames.
 Cut-through Switching Mode

• Cut-through switching is a technique in which the

switch forwards the packets after the destination
address has been identified without waiting for the
entire frame to be received.
• Once the frame is received, it checks the first six bytes of
the frame following the preamble, the switch checks the
destination in the switching table to determine the
outgoing interface port, and forwards the frame to the
destination.
 Cut-through Switching Mode
• It has low latency rate as the switch does not wait for
the entire frame to be received before sending the
packets to the destination.
• It has no error checking technique. Therefore, the
errors can be sent with or without errors to the
receiver.
• A Cut-through switching technique has low wait
time as it forwards the packets as soon as it identifies
the destination MAC address.
• In this technique, collision is not detected, if frames
have collided will also be forwarded.
 Fragment-free Switching Mode

• A Fragment-free switching is an advanced technique of the Cut-through

Switching.
• A Fragment-free switching is a technique that reads at least 64 bytes of
a frame before forwarding to the next node to provide the error-free
transmission.
• It combines the speed of Cut-through Switching with the error checking
functionality.
• This technique checks the 64 bytes of the ethernet frame where
addressing information is available.
• A collision is detected within 64 bytes of the frame, the frames which
are collided will not be forwarded further.
 Difference b/w Store-and-forward
and Cut-through Switching Mode
Store-and-forward Switching Cut-through Switching

Store-and-forward Switching is a technique that Cut-through Switching is a technique that checks the
waits until the entire frame is received. first 6 bytes following the preamble to identify the
destination address.

It performs error checking functionality. If any error It does not perform any error checking. The frame
is found in the frame, the frame will be discarded with or without errors will be forwarded.
otherwise forwarded to the next node.

It has high latency rate as it waits for the entire It has low latency rate as it checks only six bytes of
frame to be received before forwarding to the next the frame to determine the destination address.
node.

It is highly reliable as it forwards only error-free It is less reliable as compared to Store-and-forward

packets. technique as it forwards error prone packets as well.

It has a high wait time as it waits for the entire It has low wait time as cut-through switches do not
frame to be received before taking any forwarding store the whole frame or packets.
decisions.
 Switching Techniques
• In large networks, there can be multiple paths from
sender to receiver. The switching technique will
decide the best route for data transmission.
• Switching technique is used to connect the systems
for making one-to-one communication.
Classification of Switching
Techniques
 Circuit Switching
• Circuit switching is a switching technique that establishes a dedicated
path between sender and receiver.
• In the Circuit Switching Technique, once the connection is established
then the dedicated path will remain to exist until the connection is
terminated.
• Circuit switching in a network operates in a similar way as the
telephone works.
• A complete end-to-end path must exist before the communication takes
place.
• In case of circuit switching technique, when any user wants to send the
data, voice, video, a request signal is sent to the receiver then the
receiver sends back the acknowledgment to ensure the availability of
the dedicated path. After receiving the acknowledgment, dedicated path
transfers the data.
• Circuit switching is used in public telephone network. It is used for voice
transmission.
• Fixed data can be transferred at a time in circuit switching technology.
 Communication through Circuit
Switching
Communication through circuit switching has 3 phases:
• Circuit establishment
• Data transfer
• Circuit Disconnect
Message Switching
• Message Switching is a switching technique in which a message is
transferred as a complete unit and routed through intermediate
nodes at which it is stored and forwarded.
• In Message Switching technique, there is no establishment of a
dedicated path between the sender and receiver.
• The destination address is appended to the message. Message
Switching provides a dynamic routing as the message is routed
through the intermediate nodes based on the information
available in the message.
• Message switches are programmed in such a way so that they can
provide the most efficient routes.
• Each and every node stores the entire message and then forward
it to the next node. This type of network is known as store and
forward network.
• Message switching treats each message as an independent entity.
Message Switching
Advantages of Message Switching

• Data channels are shared among the communicating

devices that improve the efficiency of using available
bandwidth.
• Traffic congestion can be reduced because the
message is temporarily stored in the nodes.
• Message priority can be used to manage the network.
• The size of the message which is sent over the
network can be varied. Therefore, it supports the
data of unlimited size.
Disadvantages Of Message Switching
• The message switches must be equipped with sufficient
storage to enable them to store the messages until the
message is forwarded.
• The Long delay can occur due to the storing and
forwarding facility provided by the message switching
technique.
Packet Switching
• The packet switching is a switching technique in which
the message is sent in one go, but it is divided into
smaller pieces, and they are sent individually.
• The message splits into smaller pieces known as
packets and packets are given a unique number to
identify their order at the receiving end.
• Every packet contains some information in its headers
such as source address, destination address and
sequence number.
• Packets will travel across the network, taking the
shortest path as possible.
• All the packets are reassembled at the receiving end in
correct order.
Packet Switching
• If any packet is missing or corrupted, then the message
will be sent to resend the message.
• If the correct order of the packets is reached, then the
acknowledgment message will be sent.
Approaches of Packet Switching

There are two approaches to Packet Switching:

• Datagram Packet switching:
• Virtual Circuit Switching
 Difference b/w Datagram and
virtual circuit approach

Datagram approach Virtual Circuit approach

Node takes routing decisions to Node does not take any routing
forward the packets. decision.

Congestion cannot occur as all the Congestion can occur when the
packets travel in different node is busy, and it does not allow
directions. other packets to pass through.

It is more flexible as all the packets It is not very flexible.

are treated as an independent
entity.
Advantages of Packet Switching
• Cost-effective: In packet switching technique,
switching devices do not require massive secondary
storage to store the packets, so cost is minimized to
some extent. Therefore, we can say that the packet
switching technique is a cost-effective technique.
• Reliable: If any node is busy, then the packets can be
rerouted. This ensures that the Packet Switching
technique provides reliable communication.
• Efficient: Packet Switching is an efficient technique. It
does not require any established path prior to the
transmission, and many users can use the same
communication channel simultaneously, hence makes
use of available bandwidth very efficiently.
Disadvantages of Packet Switching
• Packet Switching technique cannot be implemented
in those applications that require low delay and high-
quality services.
• The protocols used in a packet switching technique
are very complex and requires high implementation
cost.
• If the network is overloaded or corrupted, then it
requires retransmission of lost packets. It can also
lead to the loss of critical information if errors are nor
recovered.
 Switching Strategies
• Circuit switching: • Packet switching: store-and-
carry bit streams forward messages
a. establishes a a. operates on discrete
dedicated circuit blocks of data
b. links reserved for use b. utilizes resources
by communication dynamically according to
channel traffic demand
c. send/receive bit c. send/receive messages
stream at constant at variable rate
rate
d. example: Internet
d. example: original
telephone network
Wish You Good Luck