Course Name-Computer Networks

Course Code- COM-502

Topic – Switching

Model Institute of
Engineering & Technology
Course Outcome 2-Delivery Plan
Course Topics Blooms Taxonomy
Outcomes

Switching Techniques Understand

Circuit Switching Understand

Packet Switching Understand

CO2

Virtual Datagram Understand

Outcomes of Today’s Lecture

• Switching Techniques
• Circuit Switching
• Packet Switching
• Virtual Datagram
The functions of the physical layer are :
1.Bit synchronization: The physical layer provides the synchronization of the bits by
providing a clock. This clock controls both sender and receiver thus providing
synchronization at bit level.
2.Bit rate control: The Physical layer also defines the transmission rate i.e. the number of
bits sent per second.
3.Physical topologies: Physical layer specifies the way in which the different,
devices/nodes are arranged in a network i.e. bus, star or mesh topolgy.
4. Transmission mode: Physical layer also defines the way in which the data flows between
the two connected devices. The various transmission modes possible are: Simplex, half-
duplex and full-duplex.
* Hub, Repeater, Modem, Cables are Physical Layer devices.
** Network Layer, Data Link Layer and Physical Layer are also known as Lower
Layers or Hardware Layers.

The physical layer is responsible for movements of

individual bits from one hop (node) to the next.
 Introduction

A network consists of many switching devices. In order to connect multiple devices, one
solution could be to have a point to point connection in between pair of devices. But this
increases the number of connection. The other solution could be to have a central device and
connect every device to each other via the central device which is generally known as Star
Topology. Both these methods are wasteful and impractical for very large network. The
other topology also can not be used at this stage. Hence a better solution for this situation is
SWITCHING. A switched network is made up of a series of interconnected nodes called
switches.
• In large networks, there may be more than one paths for transmitting data
from sender to receiver. Selecting a path that data must take out of the available
options is called switching. Switching technique is used to connect the systems
for making one-to-one communication.
 Switched Communications Networks

 Long distance transmission between stations (called “end devices”) is typically done over a
network of switching nodes.

 Switching nodes do not concern with content of data. Their purpose is to provide a switching
facility that will move the data from node to node until they reach their destination (the end
device).

 A collection of nodes and connections forms a communications network.

 In a switched communications network, data entering the network from a station are routed to the
destination by being switched from node to node.
Types of Switching Techniques

There are basically three types of switching methods are made available. Out of three
methods, circuit switching and packet switching are commonly used but the message switching has
been opposed out in the general communication procedure but is still used in the networking
application.
1) Circuit Switching
2) Packet Switching
3) Message Switching
Classification Of Switching Techniques
 Circuit Switching

• Circuit switching:

• There is a dedicated communication path between two stations (end-to-end)

• The path is a connected sequence of links between network nodes. On each physical
link, a logical channel is dedicated to the connection.

• Communication via circuit switching has three phases:

• Connection establishment

• Data transfer

• Circuit disconnect/ Deallocate the dedicated resources

• The switches must know how to find the route to the destination and how to allocate
bandwidth (channel) to establish a connection.
• Circuit Switching is generally used in the public networks. It come into existence for handling voice
traffic in addition to digital data. How ever digital data handling by the use of circuit switching methods
are proved to be inefficient. The network for Circuit Switching is shown in figure.
• Here the network connection allows the electrical current and the associated voice with it to flow in
between the two respective users. The end to end communication was established during the duration
of call.

• In circuit switching the routing decision is made when the path is set up across the given network.
After the link has been sets in between the sender and the receiver then the information is forwarded
continuously over the provided link.

• In Circuit Switching a dedicated link/path is established across the sender and the receiver which is
maintained for the entire duration of conversation.
 Circuit Switching Properties

• Inefficiency

• Channel capacity is dedicated for the whole duration of a connection

• If no data, capacity is wasted

• Delay

• Long initial delay: circuit establishment takes time

• Low data delay: after the circuit establishment, information is transmitted at a fixed data rate
with no delay other than the propagation delay. The delay at each node is negligible.

• Developed for voice traffic (public telephone network) but can also applied to data traffic.

• For voice connections, the resulting circuit will enjoy a high percentage of utilization
because most of the time one party or the other is talking.
• But how about data connections?
 Message Switching

• In case of Message Switching it is not

necessary to established a dedicated
path in between any two
communication devices. Here each
message is treated as an independent
unit and includes its own destination
source address by its own.
• Each complete message is then transmitted from one device to another through internetwork.

• Each intermediate device receive the message and store it until the next device is ready to
receive it and then this message is forwarded to the next device. For this reason a message
switching network is sometimes called as Store and Forward Switching.

• Message switches can be programmed with the information about the most efficient route as
well as information regarding to the near switches that can be used for forwarding the present
message to their required destination.

• The storing and Forwarding introduces the concept of delay. For this reasons this switching is
not recommended for real time applications like voice and video.
Packet Switching Principles

• Problem of circuit switching

• designed for voice service

• Resources dedicated to a particular call

• For data transmission, much of the time the connection is idle (say, web
browsing)
• Data rate is fixed

• Both ends must operate at the same rate during the entire period of
connection

• Packet switching is designed to address these problems.

• In Packet Switching, messages are broken up into packets and each of which includes a
header with source, destination and intermediate node address information. Individual
Packets in packet switching technique take different routes to reach their respective
destination. Independent routing of packets is done in this case for following reasons:

• For a certain link in the network, the link goes down during transmission the remaining
packet can be sent through the another route.
• Data are transmitted in short packets
Longer messages are split into series of packets
Each packet contains a portion of user data plus some control info
• Control info contains at least
Routing (addressing) info, so as to be routed to the intended destination

• Store and forward

On each switching node, packets are received, stored briefly (buffered) and passed on to
the next node.
Packet Switching
 Advantages of Packet Switching

•When traversing the network switches, routers or the other network nodes then the packets are
buffered in the queue, resulting in variable delay and throughput depending on the network’s
capacity and the traffic load on network.

•Packet switching contrasts with another principal networking paradigm, circuit switching, a
method which sets up a limited number of dedicated connections of constant bit rate and constant
delay between nodes for exclusive use during the communication session.
 Packet Switching Technique

• A station breaks long message into packets

• Packets are sent out to the network sequentially, one at a time

• How will the network handle this stream of packets as it attempts to route them through the
network and deliver them to the intended destination?
• Two approaches

• Datagram approach

• Virtual circuit approach

Datagram

• Each packet is treated independently, with no reference to packets that have

gone before.
• Each node chooses the next node on a packet’s path.
• Packets can take any possible route.
• Packets may arrive at the receiver out of order.
• Packets may go missing.
• It is up to the receiver to re-order packets and recover from missing packets.
• Example: Internet
 Datagram

•Datagram packet switching is a packet

switching technology by which each
packet is treated as a separate entity and
are called as datagram.

•Packets have their own complete

addressing information attached.

•Each packet follows different routes to

reach the destination.

•So, the packets may arrive at different

times, and may be in a disturbed order.
In this case reordering is done.
Virtual Circuit

• In virtual circuit, a preplanned route is established before any packets are sent, then all packets
follow the same route.

• Each packet contains a virtual circuit identifier instead of destination address, and each node on
the preestablished route knows where to forward such packets.

• The node need not make a routing decision for each packet.
 Virtual Circuit

A route between stations is set up

prior to data transfer.
All the data packets then follow
the same route.
But there is no dedicated
resources reserved for the virtual
circuit! Packets need to be stored-
and-forwarded.
 Virtual Circuits vs Datagram

 Datagram
 No call setup phase
 Good for bursty data, such as Web applications
 More flexible
 If a node fails, packets may find an alternate route
 Routing can be used to avoid congested parts of the network

 Virtual circuits
 Network can provide sequencing (packets arrive at the same order) and error control (retransmission between
two nodes).
 Packets are forwarded more quickly
 Based on the virtual circuit identifier
 No routing decisions to make
 Less reliable
 If a node fails, all virtual circuits that pass through that node fail.
Thank You