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 below shows
a switched network.
Three Methods of Switching
-Traditionally, three methods of switching: circuit switching, packet switching, and message
switching. The first two are commonly used today. The third has been phased out in general
communications but still has networking applications.
-Packet switching can further be divided into two subcategories—virtual circuit
approach and datagram approach—as shown in Figure below.

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Figure Taxonomy of switched networks

CIRCUIT-SWITCHED NETWORKS
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-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
-Figure below shows a trivial circuit-switched network with four switches and four links. Each
link is divided into n (n is 3 in the figure) channels by using FDM or TDM.
 Figure A trivial circuit-switched network

The end systems, such as computers or telephones, are directly connected to a switch. We have
shown only two end systems for simplicity. When end system A needs to communicate with end

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system M, system A needs to request a connection to M that must be accepted by all switches
as well as by M itself. This is called the setup phase; a circuit (channel) is reserved on each link,
and the combination of circuits or channels defines the dedicated path. After the dedicated path
made of connected circuits (channels) is established, the data-transfer phase can take place.
After all data have been transferred, the circuits are torn down.
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We need to emphasize several points here:
➢ Circuit switching takes place at the physical layer.
➢ Before starting communication, the stations must make a reservation for the resources
to be used during the communication. These resources, such as channels (bandwidth
in FDM and time slots in TDM), switch buffers, switch processing time, and switch
input/output ports, must remain dedicated during the entire duration of data transfer
until the teardown phase.
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➢ Data transferred between the two stations are not packetized (physical layer transfer
of the signal). The data are a continuous flow sent by the source station and received
by the destination station, although there may be periods of silence.
-There is no addressing involved during data transfer. The switches route the data
based on their occupied band (FDM) or time slot (TDM).

Setup Phase
Before the two parties (or multiple parties in a conference call) can communicate, a dedicated
circuit (combination of channels in links) needs to be established. The end systems are normally
connected through dedicated lines to the switches, so connection setup means creating
dedicated channels between the switches.
Data-Transfer Phase
After the establishment of the dedicated circuit (channels), the two parties can transfer data.
Teardown Phase
When one of the parties needs to disconnect, a signal is sent to each switch to release
the resources.

PACKET SWITCHING
-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.
-In packet switching, there is no resource allocation for a packet. This means that
there is no reserved bandwidth on the links, and there is no scheduled processing time
for each packet. Resources are allocated on demand.
-The allocation is done on a first- come, first-served basis. When a switch receives a packet, no
matter what the source or destination is, the packet must wait if there are other packets being
processed. We can have two types of packet-switched networks: datagram networks and

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virtual-circuit networks.
Datagram Networks
-In a datagram network, each packet is treated independently of all others. Even if a packet is
part of a multipacket transmission, the network treats it as though it existed alone. Packets in
this approach are referred to as datagrams.
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-Datagram switching is normally done at the network layer.
-Figure below shows how the datagram approach is used to deliver four packets from station A
to station X. The switches in a datagram network are traditionally referred to as routers.
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Figure A datagram network with four switches (routers)

-The datagram networks are sometimes referred to as connectionless networks. The term
connectionless here means that the switch (packet switch) does not keep information about the
connection state. There are no setup or teardown phases. Each packet is treated
the same by a switch regardless of its source or destination.
Routing Table
-If there are no setup or teardown phases, how are the packets routed to their destinations in a
datagram network? In this type of network, each switch (or packet switch) has a routing table
which is based on the destination address.
-The routing tables are dynamic and are updated periodically. The destination addresses and
the corresponding forwarding output ports are recorded in the tables. This is different from the
table of a circuit- switched network in which each entry is created when the setup phase is
completed and deleted when the teardown phase is over. Figure below shows the routing table
for a switch.

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Figure Routing table in a datagram network
-The destination address in the header of a packet in a datagram network remains the same
during the entire journey of the packet.
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Efficiency
The efficiency of a datagram network is better than that of a circuit-switched network; resources
are allocated only when there are packets to be transferred. If a source sends a packet and there
is a delay of a few minutes before another packet can be sent, the resources can be reallocated
during these minutes for other packets from other sources.
Delay
There may be greater delay in a datagram network than in a virtual-circuit network. Although
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there are no setup and teardown phases, each packet may experience a wait at a switch before
it is forwarded. In addition, since not all packets in a message necessarily travel through the
same switches, the delay is not uniform for the packets of a message. Figure below gives an
example of delay in a datagram network for one packet.

Figure Delay in a datagram network

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.
1. As in a circuit-switched network, there are setup and teardown phases in addition
to the data transfer phase.
2. Resources can be allocated during the setup phase, as in a circuit-switched network,
or on demand, as in a datagram network.
3. As in a datagram network, data are packetized and each packet carries an address in
the header.
.4. As in a circuit-switched network, all packets follow the same path established during
the connection.
5-A virtual-circuit network is normally implemented in the data-link layer, while a
circuit-switched network is implemented in the physical layer and a datagram net-
work in the network layer. But this may change in the future.

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Figure below is an example of a virtual-circuit network. The network has switches that
allow traffic from sources to destinations. A source or destination can be a computer,
packet switch, bridge, or any other device that connects other networks.
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Figure Virtual-circuit network