BIT 03204: Communications Systems & Technologies

L5-2: Switched Networks

Stephen Magu Waweru
 Transmission Methods
• Networks supports different transmission methods. Addressing and transmission of data to
intended recipient are important aspects of data communication in Networks .The messages
are differentiated by how they are addressed and the number of recipients.
• The Message Transmission Methods :
i) Unicast Messages: messages sent from one device to another device
ii) Multicast Messages: The message is sent to a group of stations (group of recipients)
that meet a particular set of criteria. These stations are usually related to each other in
some way, such as serving a common function, or being set up into a particular multicast
group.
iii) Broadcast Messages: Messages are sent to every device on a network. They are used
when a piece of information actually needs communicating to everyone on the network,
or used when the sending station needs to send to just one recipient, but doesn't know its

address. In networks, broadcast messages are used for a variety of purposes, including
finding the locations of particular stations or the devices that manage different services.
 Switched Networks
• 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 for connectivity). Switches are those devices that are capable of
creating temporary connections between two or more devices that are linked to them.
• The network device switch is mainly a layer-2 (Data Link Layer )device of the OSI
model.
• Switching is a process of receiving frame from one incoming port (ingress) and then
forwarding through the egress port to a desired destination (egress). This promotes
efficient utilization of bandwidth, supports multimedia data transmission enhanaces
Network traffic management, reduces length and cost of cabling
 Switched Networks cont..
• Network Protocols
• Protocols are divided into two categories based on their use of connections:
• Connection-Oriented Protocols: These protocols define how a connection
should be initiated, negotiated, managed and eventually terminated.
• Usually one device begins by sending a request to open a connection, and the
other responds. They pass control information to determine if and how the
connection should be set up.
• If this is successful, data is sent between the devices. When they are finished, the
connection is broken.
• Connectionless Protocols: These protocols do not establish prior to
communication between devices. As soon as a device has data to send to another,
it just sends it.
 Switched Networks cont..
Switching: In large networks there might be multiple paths linking sender and
receiver. Information may be switched as it travels through various communication
channels. Three techniques are used to decide the best route for digital data
transmission to facilitate one-to-one communication are :

Packet forwarding is done by the switch on the basis of the MAC address.
Thus the Switch mainly transfers the data only to the device that has been addressed
(means having proper mac address). Because verification of destination address is
done by the switch in order to route the packet appropriately.
 Circuit switching cont…
• A Circuit-switched network is defined as a type of network that relies
on a physical connection between two distinct network nodes, which
requires link set up before nodes communication.
• Circuit switching is the oldest form of network and it dates back to the early
telephone system. In circuit switching a path is created between two endpoints by a
physical circuit. For example, those old “switchboards”. The operator used short
cables that had plugs on each end. The switchboard contained an array of sockets.
A line from each telephone in the building terminated at a socket in the
switchboard, so when the operator plugged a lead into two sockets, a bridge was
created that linked the two lines together temporarily. In Circuit Switching:
1. The circuit switching technique is employed in a telephone network.
2. Communication links are connected to switching centers, which connect to one
node to
another on demand.
3. The circuit is established for the entire duration of the communication
4. Circuit switching is suitable for file transfers and similar longer transmissions
 Circuit switching cont…

• Circuit switching is a WAN switching method in which a dedicated

physical circuit is established, maintained, and terminated through a
carrier network for each communication session
([Link]).
• According to Joe (2003) Circuit switching accommodates two types of
transmissions: datagram transmissions and data-stream transmissions.
Circuit switching operates much like a normal telephone call in
telephone company networks.
• An example of circuit-switching WAN technology is Integrated
Services Digital Network (ISDN) which is more like a phone call setup.
Data transfer cannot occur before the establishment of the end-to-end
connection. It uses dial-up modems and ISDN and it is also used for
low-bandwidth data transfers.
 Circuit switching cont…
• Circuit switching was designed in 1878 to send telephone calls down a dedicated channel.
• Routing decisions must be made when the circuit is first established, but there are no
decisions made after that time.
• A channel used in circuit switching is kept reserved and applied only when the two users
need to communicate.
• Circuit switching connections are into two categories half-duplex or full-duplex. Half-duplex
communications can be allocated just one channel, while full-duplex interfaces can be
assigned two channels. Three Phases of Circuit Switching:
1. Circuit Establishment : A dedicated circuit or path is established between the sender and
receiver through a number of switching centers or nodes before the actual data transfer.
End-to-End addressing i.e. source address and destination address, is required for creating
a connection between two physical devices. The sender from the source side and the
receiver from the destination side transmit communication signals to request and ACK of
circuit’s establishment. The intermediate switches are connected by the physical links.
• Example: Telephone switching equipment, for example, establishes a path that connects the
caller's telephone to the receiver's telephone by making a physical connection.
 Circuit switching cont…
2. Data Transfer.
• Data and voice are traveled from the source to the destination. This
connection remains till the communication is the end. Data transfer only starts
after the setup phase is completed and a physical, dedicated path is
established. The data flow is continuous and there may be periods of silence in
data transmitting.
• In routing the data from the sender to the receiver the switches use Time
Division Multiplexing (TDM) where multiple signals are transmitted by
occupying different time slots and Frequency Division Multiplexing ( FDM)
signals with different frequencies are assigned logical channels over the
common physical channel.
3. Disconnect or Teardown Phase:: When the data transfer is completed, the
circuit disconnects the connection. The example of a circuit-switch network is
a telephone network. When one of the subscribers (either the sender or the
receiver) needs to disconnect, a disconnect signal is sent to each switch to
release the resource and break/disconnect the connection.
 Circuit switching cont…
Example of Circuit switching is a telephone.
• Suppose two persons A and B both want to communicate
with each other and located at a distance far from each
other.
• Person A makes a call to Person B i.e. (setup phase )
• After the establishment of the connection and call pick up
by B; they both communicate i.e. data transfer phase.
• Once the communication is complete one of them can cut
the call or break the connection i.e. teardown phase.
Benefits of switched networks
• creating collision domain for each connection in the networks.
• Reducing chances of frame collision.
• Increasing the performance of networks .
• Increasing in the available bandwidth on the network
• Reducing workload on the individual PC
• A dedicated channel ensures a steady rate of data transfer .
 Circuit switching cont…
• Drawbacks of using switches :
• Cost of switches make the network becomes expensive.
• It’s difficult to trace the connectivity issues in the network through a switch.
• Dedicating one channel to a single usage makes it unavailable to other services. It
provides an entire channel to one service and one individual path
• It requires more Bandwidth.
• The time required to establish the connection between the source and destination is
high and there is no communication until the connection is established and the
resources are available.
• It is more expensive than other switching techniques.
• It mainly used in voice traffic so not suitable for data transmission
• examples of Circuit-Switched Networks: Public Switched Telephone
Network(PSTN), Optical Mesh Network, ISDN B-channel, Circuit-Switched
Data(CSD) and High-speed Circuit-Switched Data(HSCSD) services in the
cellular system like GSM
 Circuit switching cont…
1. Space-Division Switching(SPS): This is a technique of Circuit
Switching where the paths in the circuits are separated from each other
spatially. This technology is used for analog as well as digital networks.
In this following switches are used for the connection:
– Crossbar Switch: This switch contains n input lines and n
output lines and it has n2 intersection points
– Multistage Switch: The Multistage is made by first splitting
the crossbar switches into smaller units and then
interconnecting them. In case of failure of one path, there is
the possibility of another path.
• The speed of Space Division switching is high
• Space division switching contains nonblocking switches.
 Circuit switching cont…
2. Time-Division Switching :
It is a digital switching technique. There is no need for crosspoints in
this switching. In Time-Division Switching, the incoming signals, as
well as outgoing signals, are received and re-transmitted in a different
time slot.
• One of the main differences between space-division multiplexing and time-
division multiplexing is the sharing of Crosspoints. There are no Crosspoints
shared in space division switching, whereas crosspoints can be shared for shorter
periods in time-division multiplexing.
• The Time-Division switches are used by modern devices.
• In this technique, there is the use of time-division multiplexing inside the switch
and it is known as Time Slot Interchange(TSI).
• NB/ Circuit switching majorly takes place in the physical layer while packet
switching is achieved in the network layer of the OSI model.
 Circuit switching cont…

• Examples of where circuit switching :

• Continuous connections. used for connections that must be
continuous for long periods of time, such as long-distance
communication. Traditional telephone systems i.e.,
landlines .
• Dial-up network connections. computers connect to the
internet via a dial-up service, it uses the PSTN to establish a
connection to an ISP by dialing a telephone number (to carry
IP data packets)
• Optical circuit switching. Data center networks also use
circuit switching with electrical packet switches that are
interconnected via optical fibers. It is used to scale traditional
data centers and meet growing bandwidth requirements.
 Message switching

• A message is a logical unit of the information that can be of any

length.
• The entire message is sent from the source node through intermediate
hops to destination
• Message-Switched data networks are also known as hop-by-
hop systems.
• The communication technique has no dedicated path between the
sender and receiver.
 Message switching
• A switch receives the whole
message and buffers it until there
are resources available to transfer
it to the next hop.
• Destination address is added to the
message by the sender node.
• If the next hop does not have
enough resource, the message is
stored and the switch waits.
• It is made up of a number of routing devices that forward
on messages along different branches of a network .
• Message exist only in one location in the network
 Message switching cont..

• .The intermediate node stores the message and after doing the
requisite checks like destination address, transmission errors etc. ,
delivers the message to the next available intermediate node.
• Message switching is addresses the shortcomings of Circuit
switching
• In-circuit switching when the source does not have enough data to
transmit, the resources are unnecessarily kept idle.
• Message switching is a connectionless network in which the data
from the source to destination is sent in the form of message unit
• Each message must have a header that contains the routing
information like source and destination address. All these pieces of
information are wrapped in the message and then the message is sent
 Message switching cont..
Characteristics of Message switched Networks :
1. Store and Forward:
• Intermediate nodes between sender and the receiver must have the storage
capacity to store message temporarily before transfer to the next node .
• The node inspects for any error and then transfers to the next node on the basis
available free channel.
• Forwarding to next node is done subject to sufficiency of resources and
availability of link between nodes else the message is be stored indefinitely.
• Physical links are allocated dynamically.(established as it travels).Since there
is no dedicated path, destination address is appended to the message for
routing.
• Every message should include a header, which generally contains routing
information such as the source and destination, expiry time, priority level,
 Message switching cont..
2. Message Delivery: Each message must have a header that contains the routing information
( e.g. source and destination address wrapped) before being is sent from the source to
destination.
Example: Suppose we have to send two messages i.e Message 1 and Message 2 from the sender
to the receiver. We will directly send the message without establishing any connection.

Applications: The store-and-forward

method was implemented in telegraph
message switching centers. Today,
although many major networks and
systems are packet-switched or circuit-
switched networks, their delivery
processes can be based on message
switching. For example, in most
electronic mail systems the delivery
process is based on message switching,
while the network is in fact either circuit-
switched or packet-switched
 Message switching cont..
Advantages:
• Channel efficiency can be greater compared to circuit- switched
systems, because more devices are sharing the channel.
• Traffic congestion can be reduced, because messages may be
temporarily stored in route. If the next node or link is not
available then the current node stores the message.
• There is Management of traffic in an efficient way by assigning
priorities to the messages due to store-and-forward technique.
• Message broadcasting can be achieved with the use of broadcast
address appended in the message.
• It requires less bandwidth while broadcasting the messages; thus
it consumes less bandwidth than circuit switching.
• The transfer of message is possible also when the transfer rate of
the sender and receiver is different
 Message switching cont..
Disadvantages of Message Switching:
• The whole network requires a large capacity with each intermediate switching
node requiring large storage capacity as the message is to stored at each
intermediate node.
• This Store and forward method also causes delay, rendering it unsuitable for real
time applications like video conferences.
• The store and forward method cause delay at each node (i.e. processing in each
and every node) resulting in poor performance hence cannot be used for real-time
applications like voice or video calls, video conference
• As the message can be of any length so each node must have sufficient buffer to
store the message( because at each node, first there is a wait till the entire message
is received, then it must be stored and transmitted after processing the next node.
• Message switching is not compatible with interactive
applications.
• Store-and-forward devices are expensive, because they
must have large disks to hold potentially long messages.
 Packet Switching
In this technique, virtual links are made simultaneously.
There are two major types of packet switching:
1. Connectionless Packet (datagram Switching: Multiple packets, each
individually routed.
Each packet contains complete routing information (e.g. source and destination
addresses.
The resources are distributed on demand on a First-Come First-Serve (FCFS) basis when a
packet arrives at a router
Packet Header: In connectionless packet switching the header section contains
i. Source address
ii. Destination address
iii. Total number of packets
iv. Sequence number (Seq#) for reassembly
Once the packets reach their destination via various routes, the receiving devices
rearrange them to form the original message. Its Implemented in Network layer
Packet Switching cont…
The different paths can be chosen depending on the
delay time and congestion on other paths
Packet Switching Example:
• Suppose the data to be sent is divided into three
packets i.e. 1, 2, 3. Now, these packets travel
independently in the network.
• The intermediate nodes forward the nodes
according to the availability of the channel. At
the receiver side, the order of packets can be
different. It is the duty of the receiver to re-
arrange the received packets.

The path taken by:

• packet 1: S → F → A → D → E →R.
• packet 2: S → F → A → B → E → R.
• packet 3: S → F → C → D → E → R.
 Packet Switching cont…

2. Virtual Circuit Packet Switching : (Connection-oriented). It’s a

cross between circuit switched network and datagram network (has
both characteristics).
• A route is set up prior to packets being sent. The packets will all
follow this set up route.
• Thus the routing through the network very easy and the packages
will be received in the correct order.
Characteristics:
• Packets from a single message travel along the same path.
• Three phases to transfer data (set up, data transfer and tear down)
• Resources can be allocated during setup phase
• Data are packetized and each packet carries an address in the header
• Implemented in data link layer
 Packet Switching cont…
Advantages of Packet Switching
• Packets have fixed sizes, so the switching devices do not require large secondary
storage devices. The storage was a problem in message switching which is removed
here.
• It is more efficient for data transmission as it doesn't require any dedicated paths.
• If the link is busy or not available, the packets can be re-routed. This ensures a
reliable connection.
• The same channel can be used by many users simultaneously.
• With improved protocols, packet switching is used for applications like Skype,
WhatsApp, etc.

Disadvantages of Packet Switching

• They cannot be used for applications that cannot afford delays like high-quality voice calls.
• Protocols used in packet-switching are complex and require higher implementation costs.
If the network is overloaded then the packets may be lost or delayed.
• Sorting of received packets is required at the receiver's side.
• Packet switching was originally designed to overcome the weakness of circuit switching
 Packet Switching cont…
• Virtual Circuit Packet Switching :
(Connection-oriented). Example: Data
flow in Virtual circuit mode with Four users
connected in a four-switch network . The four
switches are connected with each other and
share the communications path with each
other.
• Predefined route S1, S2, S3 are provided
with a unique Virtual Circuit ID to identify
the virtual connection, so the data is bound
by the path & could not choose another
route.

Packet Switching Packet switching is a WAN switching method in

which network devices share a single point-to-point link to transport
packets from a source to a destination across a carrier network.
 Circuit – Switching Packet – Switching
Circuit switching is a method that is used Packet switching is a method of grouping
when a dedicated channel or circuit needs data which is transmitted over a digital
to be established. network into packets.

Circuit switching connections are classified

Packet Switching is a connectionless
into two categories half-duplex or full-
network switching method.
duplex.

You need to establish a dedicated path

You do not need to establish a dedicated
between the source and the destination
path from the source to the destination.
before the transfer of data commences.

It was initially designed for voice transfer. It was initially designed for data transfer.
It is implemented at Physical Layer. It is implemented at Network Layer.

In packet switching, data is processed and

In-Circuit switching, data is processed and
transmitted, not only at the source but also
transmitted at the source only.
at the destination.
 Circuit – Switching Packet – Switching
Packet switching demands high installation
Its initial cost is low.
costs.
The protocols for delivery are simpler. It requires complex protocols for delivery.
Charging happens per minute. Charging happens per packet.
Each packet follows the same route. Each packet does not follow the same route.
It does not store and forward [Link] does store and forward transmission.
Initially designed for Voice
Initially designed for Data Transmission.
communication.
It is an inflexible method because once a It is a flexible method because the route is
path is set, all parts of a transmission created for each packet to travel to the
follow the same path. destination.
In, packet switching message are received
The message is received in the order,
out of order, which is assembled at the
which is sent from the source.
destination.
Reserve the entire Bandwidth in advance. Never reserves the Bandwidth.
You can achieve Circuit switching using
Packet Switching has Datagram Virtual
two technologies 1) Time or 2) Space
Circuit Approach.
Division Switching.
 Connection-oriented vs Connectionless serv
Parameter Connection-oriented Connectionless
It is based on the telephone system in its
Related System It is a postal system-based service.
architecture and development.
It is used to establish an end-to-end
connection between senders and receivers It is used to transport data packets from senders to
Definition
prior to transferring data across the same or a receivers without establishing a connection.
separate network.
It establishes a virtual connection between It does not establish a virtual link between the sender
Virtual Path
the sender and the recipient. and the recipient.
Before transferring data packets to the Before sending data packets, it does not require
Authentication
recipient, it requires authentication. authentication.
All data packets are received in the same
Data Packets Path Same sequence of data packets is not guaranteed.
sequence as they were transmitted.
Bandwidth
It takes more bandwidth to send data packets. The data packets are sent using very low bandwidth.
requirement
It is a more reliable connection service since It is not a reliable connection service since it does not
Data Reliability it assures data packets travel from one end of ensure the passage of data packets from one end to
a connection to the other. the other in order to establish a connection.

There is no congestion since it establishes an Congestion may occur as a result of not establishing
Congestion end-to-end link between sender and recipient an end-to-end connection between the source and
during data transfer. receiver for data packet transmission.

Connectionless services include User Datagram

A connection-oriented service is the
Examples Protocol (UDP), Internet Protocol (IP), and Internet
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP).
Control Message Protocol (ICMP).
 Summary
• Explain the three IP Address Notations
• Explain the following in IP address space
i. IP addresses with the last bits as Zeroes in Host portion
[Link] addresses with the last bits as combination of ones
and zeroes Any number beginning with 127
[Link] number beginning with 127
• Outline the two problems emanating from Hosts being
configured with public addresses for Internet connection
• Outline the Solutions to Exhaustion IP addresses
• Discuss RFC 1918 and NAT
• Explain Virtual packet switched Network
 References
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 References
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and-functions-of-tcp/
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