Switching

Switching
• Switched communication networks are those in
which data transferred from source to
destination is routed between various
intermediate nodes.
• Switching is process to forward packets coming
in from one port to a port leading towards the
destination.
• Switching technique is used to connect the
systems for making one-to-one communication.
 Types of Switching
• . There are 3 common switching techniques:
• switching can be divided into two major
categories:
• Connection- Oriented: Before switching data to
be forwarded to destination, there is a need to
pre-establish circuit along the path between both
endpoints. Data is then forwarded on that circuit.
After the transfer is completed, circuits can be
kept for future use or can be turned down
immediately. Eg:- Calling to a person.
• Connection-less: The data is forwarded on behalf
of forwarding tables. No previous handshaking is
required and acknowledgements are optional.
Eg- Email sending
 Circuit Switching
• It is a Connection –Oriented Switching. When two
nodes communicate with each other over a
dedicated communication path it is called circuit
switching.
• There is a need of pre-specified route from which
data will travel and no other data is permitted.
• Once the data is established between two
parties, it will be available till the end of the
conversation.
• The channel is reserved between the users till the
connection is active.
• The most common example of circuit
switching is telephone network.
i) Circuit Establishment
ii) Data Transfer
iii) Circuit Disconnect
• Circuit Establishment:- Before any data
can be transmitted an end-to-end circuit
must be establishment.
• For ex:- Station A send a request to
node s1 . Node s1 request a connection
to station B . The node s1 select the link
to node s2 . Node s2 dedicated a
channel to node s4 and internally ties.
Node s6 complete the connection to B
and the test is made to determine if B is
busy or is prepared to accept the
connection.
• Data Transfer:- Signals can now be
transmitted from node A trough the network
to B.
• Circuit Disconnect:- After some time of data
transfer , the connection is terminated. Signal
must propagate to node s1, s2, s4 & s6 to
dedicate resources.
 Advantages
• The dedicated path established between
sender and receiver provide a guarantee data
rates .
• Once the circuit is established , data is
transmitted without any delay as there is no
waiting time at each switch.
• Since a dedicated continues transmission path
is established, the method is suitable for long
continuous transmission.
 Disadvantages
• As the connection is dedicated , it can’t be
used to transmit any other data even if the
channel is free.
• It is inefficient in term of utilization of system
resources , As resources are allocated for the
entire duration of connection there are
available to other connection.
• Circuit switching is less well suited to data &
other non voice transmission.
 Message Switching
• In message switching end user communicate
by sending & receiving message that included
the entire data to be shared.
• The logical unit of data called message is
exchanged.
• Example of message switching are email and
computer files etc.
• In message switching network it is not
necessary to establish a dedicated path
between two stations. If a station wish to send
a message it append a destination address to
the message. The message is then passed
through the network from node to node. At
each node entire message is received , stored
and then transmitted to the next node.
• According to example, a message to be send
from A to B , station A append B’s Address to
the message and determine the next node of
the route , hence node s1 queue the message
for the transmission over the s1-s2 link . When
the link is available the message is transmitted
to node s2 which will forward the message to
node s4 and then s6 and finally to B. This
system is also known as store & forward
system.
 Advantages
• No physical connection is required between
the source and destination.
• It support the message length of unlimited
size.
 Disadvantages
• As message length is unlimited, each switching
node must have sufficient storage to buffer
message.
• Storing & forwarding facility introduce delay
thus, making message switching unsuitable for
real time application like voice & video.
 Packet Switching
• Packet switching represent an attempt to
combine the advantages of message and circuit
switching ,while minimizing the disadvantages of
both .
• It is similar to message switching.
• Short message called packets. The data is broken
into small pieces of variable length called packets.
Each packets has an unique number and send out
one at a time. At the destination all these packets
has to be reassemble belonging to the same file.
 Modes of packet switching
1. Connection-oriented packet switching(Virtual
circuit):- Before starting the transmission , it
establish a logical path or virtual connection
between sender and receiver and all packets
belongs to his flow will follow this pre-defined
route.
• Virtual circuit ID is provided by switches
/ router to uniquely identify this virtual
connection.Data is divided into small unit and all
these small units are appended with the help of
sequence no.
• These phases take place here are
1) Set up phase
2) Data transfer phase
3) Tear down phase
2. Connection less packet switching(Datagram):-
Unlike , connection oriented packet switching
each packet contain all necessary addressing
information such as source address,
destination address and port no etc.
• In datagram packet switching , each packet is
treated independently . Packet belong to one
flow may take different route because routing
decisions are made dynamically so the packets
arrived to the destination might be out of
order . It has no connection set up and tear
down phase like virtual circuit.
 Advantages
• More reliable as destination can detect the
missing packets.
• More fault tolerant because packets may
follow different path in case any link is down ,
unlike circuit switching.
 Disadvantages
• Since the packets are unordered , we need to
provide sequence no to each packet.
• Complexity is more at each node because of
the facility to follow multiple path.