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Circuit Switching and Packet Switching Networks

Circuit switching establishes a dedicated circuit between communicating devices before information can be exchanged, while packet switching breaks information into packets that can take different paths and be reassembled at the destination. Both methods are still used, as circuit switching works well for dedicated connections like phone lines while packet switching allows shared networks to have many simultaneous users. Modern networks often combine the two approaches.

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Devendhar Naik
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155 views

Circuit Switching and Packet Switching Networks

Circuit switching establishes a dedicated circuit between communicating devices before information can be exchanged, while packet switching breaks information into packets that can take different paths and be reassembled at the destination. Both methods are still used, as circuit switching works well for dedicated connections like phone lines while packet switching allows shared networks to have many simultaneous users. Modern networks often combine the two approaches.

Uploaded by

Devendhar Naik
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Circuit Switching and Packet Switching Networks 

(Page 1 of 3)

In my “grand overview” of networking, I describe networks as devices that are


connected together using special hardware and software, to allow them to
exchange information. The most important word in that sentence is the final
one: information. As you will see in your exploration of this Guide, there are
many methods for exchanging information between networked devices. There
are also a number of ways of categorizing and describing these methods and
the types of networks that use them.

One fundamental way of differentiating networking technologies is on the


basis of the method they use to determine the path between devices over
which information will flow. In highly simplified terms, there are two
approaches: either a path can be set up between the devices in advance, or
the data can be sent as individual data elements over a variable path.

Circuit Switching

In this networking method, a connection called a circuit is set up between two


devices, which is used for the whole communication. Information about the
nature of the circuit is maintained by the network. The circuit may either be a
fixed one that is always present, or it may be a circuit that is created on an as-
needed basis. Even if many potential paths through intermediate devices may
exist between the two devices communicating, only one will be used for any
given dialog. This is illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Circuit Switching


In a circuit-switched network, before communication can occur between two devices, a
circuit is established between them. This is shown as a thick blue line for the conduit of
data from Device A to Device B, and a matching purple line from B back to A. Once set
up, all communication between these devices takes place over this circuit, even though
there are other possible ways that data could conceivably be passed over the network of
devices between them. Contrast this diagram to Figure 2.

The classic example of a circuit-switched network is the telephone system.


When you call someone and they answer, you establish a circuit connection
and can pass data between you, in a steady stream if desired. That circuit
functions the same way regardless of how many intermediate devices are
used to carry your voice. You use it for as long as you need it, and then
terminate the circuit. The next time you call, you get a new circuit, which may
(probably will) use different hardware than the first circuit did, depending on
what's available at that time in the network.

Packet Switching

In this network type, no specific path is used for data transfer. Instead, the


data is chopped up into small pieces called packets and sent over the
network. The packets can be routed, combined or fragmented, as required to
get them to their eventual destination. On the receiving end, the process is
reversed—the data is read from the packets and re-assembled into the form
of the original data. A packet-switched network is more analogous to the
postal system than it is to the telephone system (though the comparison isn't
perfect.) An example is shown in Figure 2.

 
Figure 2: Packet Switching

In a packet-switched network, no circuit is set up prior to sending data between devices.


Blocks of data, even from the same file or communication, may take any number of
paths as it journeys from one device to another. Compare this to Figure 1

Key Concept: One way that networking technologies are categorized is based on


the path used to carry data between devices. In circuit switching, a circuit is first
established and then used to carry all data between devices. In packet
switching no fixed path is created between devices that communicate; it is broken into
packets, each of which may take a separate path from sender to recipient.

Comparing Circuit Switching and Packet Switching

A common temptation when considering alternatives such as these is to ask


which is “better”—and as usually is the case, the answer is “neither”. There
are places where one is more suited than the other, but if one were clearly
superior, both methods wouldn't be used.

One important issue in selecting a switching method is whether


the network medium is shared or dedicated. Your phone line can be used for
establishing a circuit because you are the only one who can use it—assuming
you can keep that pesky wife/husband/child/sister/brother/father/mother off
the phone.

However, this doesn't work well in LANs, which typically use a single shared
medium and baseband signaling. If two devices were to establish a
connection, they would “lock out” all the other devices for a long period of
time. It makes more sense to chop the data into small pieces and send them
one at a time. Then, if two other devices want to communicate, their packets
can be interspersed and everyone can share the network.

The ability to have many devices communicate simultaneously without


dedicated data paths is one reason why packet switching is becoming
predominant today. However, there are some disadvantages of packet
switching compared to circuit switching. One is that since all data does not
take the same, predictable path between devices, it is possible that some
pieces of data may get lost in transit, or show up in the incorrect order. In
some situations this does not matter, while in others it is very important
indeed.

While the theoretical difference between circuit and packet switching is pretty
clear-cut, understanding how they are used is a bit more complicated. One of
the major issues is that in modern networks, they are often combined. For
example, suppose you connect to the Internet using a dial-up modem. You will
be using IP datagrams (packets) to carry higher-layer data, but it will be over
the circuit-switched telephone network. Yet the data may be sent over the
telephone system in digital packetized form. So in some ways, both circuit
switching and packet switching are being used concurrently.

Another issue is the relationship between circuit and packet switching, and
whether a technology is connection-oriented or connectionless. The two
concepts are related but not the same; the next topic discusses this in much
more detail.

Note: Note that the word “packet” is only one of several terms that are used to
refer to messages that are sent over a network. Other terms you will encounter
include frame, datagram, cell and segment.

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