Chapter No 10 –Circuit Switching and Packet Switching

Lecture 18

•TE-2331
•Data Communication &
Networking

Compiled By:
Saima Khadim
Dawood University of Engineering & Technology
Department of Telecommunication Engineering Saima.khadim@@duet.edu.pk
Switching Networks
• Long distance transmission is typically done over a
network of switched nodes
• Nodes not concerned with content of data
• End devices are stations
• Computer, terminal, phone, etc.
• A collection of nodes and connections is a
communications network
• Data routed by being switched from node to node
Nodes
• Nodes may connect to other nodes only, or to
stations and other nodes
• Node to node links usually multiplexed
• Network is usually partially connected
• Some redundant connections are desirable for reliability
• Two different switching technologies
• Circuit switching
• Packet switching
Simple Switched Network
Circuit Switching
• Dedicated communication path between two
stations
• The path is a connected sequence of links
between network nodes.
• On each physical link, a logical channel is
dedicated to the connection.
• The switches must know how to find the route to
the destination and how to allocate bandwidth
(channel) to establish a connection.
Three phases of CS
1.Circuit establishment - Before any signals can be transmitted,
an end-to-end (station-to-station) circuit must be established.
2.Data transfer - Data can now be transmitted through the
network between these two stations. The transmission may be
analog or digital, depending on the nature of the network. As the
carriers evolve to fully integrated digital networks, the use of
digital (binary) transmission for both voice and data is
becoming the dominant method. Generally, the connection is
full duplex.
3.Circuit disconnect - After some period of data transfer, the
connection is terminated, usually by the action of one of the two
stations. Signals must be propagated to the intermediate nodes
to deallocate the dedicated resources.
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 Public Circuit Switched
Network

Subscribers: the devices that attach to the network.

Subscriber loop: the link between the subscriber and the network.
Exchanges: the switching centers in the network.
End office: the switching center that directly supports
subscribers.
Trunks: the branches between exchanges. They carry multiple voice-frequency circuits
using either FDM or synchronous TDM.
Circuit Switching Concepts
• Digital Switch
• Provide transparent signal path between devices
• Network Interface
• Control Unit
• Establish connections
• Generally on demand
• Handle and acknowledge requests
• Determine if destination is free
• construct path
• Maintain connection
• Disconnect
Blocking or Non-blocking
• An important characteristic of a circuit-switching
device is whether it is blocking or nonblocking
• Blocking
Blocking occurs when the network is unable to connect
two stations because all possible paths between them
are already in us

• Non-blocking
• a nonblocking network permits all stations to be
connected (in pairs) at once and grants all possible
connection requests as long as the called party is free
Types of Circuit switching
• Space Division Switching
• Time Division Switching

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Space Division Switching
• Developed for analog environment
• Separate physical paths
• Crossbar switch
• Number of crosspoints grows as square of number of
stations
• Inefficient use of crosspoints
• All stations connected, only a few crosspoints in use
• Non-blocking
Space Division Switch
Multistage Switch
• Reduced number of crosspoints
• More than one path through network
• Increased reliability
• More complex control
• May be blocking
Three Stage Space Division
Switch
Time Division Switching
• Modern digital systems rely on intelligent control of
space and time division elements
• Use digital time division techniques to set up and
maintain virtual circuits
• Partition low speed bit stream into pieces that
share higher speed stream
Time Division Switching
 Disadvantages of Circuit
•Switching
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.
Packet Switching
circuit switching was designed for voice
packet switching was designed for data
transmitted in small packets
packets contains user data and control info
user data may be part of a larger message
control info includes routing (addressing) info
packets are received, stored briefly (buffered) and
past on to the next node
Packet Switching
 Advantages
line efficiency
single link shared by many packets over time
packets queued and transmitted as fast as possible
data rate conversion
stations connects to local node at own speed
nodes buffer data if required to equalize rates
packets accepted even when network is busy
priorities can be used
Switching Techniques
station breaks long message into packets
packets sent one at a time to the network
packets can be handled in two ways
datagram
virtual circuit
Datagram
• Each packet is treated independently, with
no referenceto 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
Diagram
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 eachnode on the pre established
route knows where to forward such
packets.
—The node need not make a routing
decision for each packet.
• Example: X.25, Frame Relay, ATM
Virtual
Circuit
Diagram
Virtual Circuits v Datagram
• 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.
• 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
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