Chapter 8

Switching

8.1 Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.
 Figure 8.1 Switched network
 A network is a set of connected devices. Whenever we have multiple devices,
we have the problem of how to connect them to make one-to-one
communication possible. One solution is to make a point-to-point connection
between each pair of devices (a mesh topology) or between a central device
and every other device (a star topology). These methods, however, are
impractical and wasteful when applied to very large networks.
 The number and length of the links require too much infrastructure to
be cost-efficient, and the majority of those links would be idle most of
the time. Other topologies employing multipoint connections, such as
a bus, are ruled out because the distances between devices and the
total number of devices increase beyond the capacities of the media
and equipment.
 A better solution is switching. A switched network consists of a
series of interlinked nodes, called switches. Switches are devices
capable of creating temporary connections between two or more
devices linked to the switch. In a switched network, some of these
nodes are connected to the end systems (computers or telephones,
for example). Others are used only for routing. Figure 8.1 shows a
switched network.

8.2
 Figure 8.1 Switched network

8.3
 Figure 8.2 Taxonomy of switched networks

8.4
 8-1 CIRCUIT-SWITCHED NETWORKS

A circuit-switched network consists of a set of switches

connected by physical links. 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.

Topics discussed in this section:

Three Phases
Efficiency
Delay
Circuit-Switched Technology in Telephone Networks
8.5
 Note

A circuit-switched network is made of a

set of switches connected by physical
links, in which each link is
divided into n channels.

8.6
 Figure 8.3 A trivial circuit-switched network

8.7
 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.

8.8
 Example 8.1

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. Figure 8.4 shows the situation. 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.

8.9
 Figure 8.4 Circuit-switched network used in Example 8.1

8.10
 Example 8.2

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-1 line
leased from a communication service provider. There are
two 4 × 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. Figure 8.5
shows the situation.

8.11
 Figure 8.5 Circuit-switched network used in Example 8.2

8.12
 Figure 8.6 Delay in a circuit-switched network

8.13
 Note

Switching at the physical layer in the

traditional telephone network uses
the circuit-switching approach.

8.14
 8-2 DATAGRAM NETWORKS

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.

Topics discussed in this section:

Routing Table
Efficiency
Delay
Datagram Networks in the Internet
8.15
 Note

In a packet-switched network, there

is no resource reservation;
resources are allocated on demand.

8.16
 Figure 8.7 A datagram network with four switches (routers)

8.17
 Figure 8.8 Routing table in a datagram network

8.18
 Note

A switch in a datagram network uses a

routing table that is based on the
destination address.

8.19
 Note

The destination address in the header of

a packet in a datagram network
remains the same during the entire
journey of the packet.

8.20
 Figure 8.9 Delay in a datagram network

8.21
 Note

Switching in the Internet is done by

using the datagram approach
to packet switching at
the network layer.

8.22
 8-3 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.

Topics discussed in this section:

Addressing
Three Phases
Efficiency
Delay
Circuit-Switched Technology in WANs

8.23
 Figure 8.10 Virtual-circuit network

8.24
 Figure 8.11 Virtual-circuit identifier

8.25
 Figure 8.12 Switch and tables in a virtual-circuit network

8.26
 Figure 8.13 Source-to-destination data transfer in a virtual-circuit network

8.27
 Figure 8.14 Setup request in a virtual-circuit network

8.28
 Figure 8.15 Setup acknowledgment in a virtual-circuit network

8.29
 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.

8.30
 Figure 8.16 Delay in a virtual-circuit network

8.31
 Note

Switching at the data link layer in a

switched WAN is normally
implemented by using
virtual-circuit techniques.

8.32
 8-4 STRUCTURE OF A SWITCH

We use switches in circuit-switched and packet-

switched networks. In this section, we discuss the
structures of the switches used in each type of
network.

Topics discussed in this section:

Structure of Circuit Switches
Structure of Packet Switches

8.33
 Figure 8.17 Crossbar switch with three inputs and four outputs

8.34
 Figure 8.18 Multistage switch

8.35
 Note

In a three-stage switch, the total

number of crosspoints is
2kN + k(N/n)2
which is much smaller than the number of
crosspoints in a single-stage switch (N2).

8.36
 Example 8.3

Design a three-stage, 200 × 200 switch (N = 200) with

k = 4 and n = 20.

Solution
In the first stage we have N/n or 10 crossbars, each of size
20 × 4. In the second stage, we have 4 crossbars, each of
size 10 × 10. In the third stage, we have 10 crossbars,
each of size 4 × 20. The total number of crosspoints is
2kN + k(N/n)2, or 2000 crosspoints. This is 5 percent of
the number of crosspoints in a single-stage switch (200 ×
200 = 40,000).

8.37
 Note

According to the Clos criterion:

n = (N/2)1/2
k > 2n – 1
Crosspoints ≥ 4N [(2N)1/2 – 1]

8.38
 Example 8.4

Redesign the previous three-stage, 200 × 200 switch,

using the Clos criteria with a minimum number of
crosspoints.

Solution
We let n = (200/2)1/2, or n = 10. We calculate k = 2n − 1 =
19. In the first stage, we have 200/10, or 20, crossbars,
each with 10 × 19 crosspoints. In the second stage, we
have 19 crossbars, each with 10 × 10 crosspoints. In the
third stage, we have 20 crossbars each with 19 × 10
crosspoints. The total number of crosspoints is 20(10 ×
19) + 19(10 × 10) + 20(19 ×10) = 9500.
8.39
 Figure 8.19 Time-slot interchange

8.40
 Figure 8.20 Time-space-time switch

8.41
 Figure 8.21 Packet switch components

8.42
 Figure 8.22 Input port

8.43
 Figure 8.23 Output port

8.44
 Figure 8.24 A banyan switch

8.45
 Figure 8.25 Examples of routing in a banyan switch

8.46
 Figure 8.26 Batcher-banyan switch

8.47