Chapter .

5
COMMUNICATION
SWITCHINGTECHNIQUES
5.1INTRODUCTION

A network consists of a large number of computers and various other

intermediate devices. All these devices and computer need to be connected so
as to transfer data from one computer to other in the network.

B D E

IV

J H G

Fig. 5.1 Switched Network

In order to provide one to one communication between the computers, one

possible way is to mke point-to-point connection between the each pair of
devices i.e. every computer in the network is having a link with every other
 ONMMUNICATION SwITCHING TECHNIQUES
5.2 COMMUNICATION SWITCHING TECHNIQU
physical connection or
computer. However, this method requires a lot of wiring and will path is
Cost.
increaseth device.
circuit switched
established between the sending and 5.3

. Another technique that can determine how connections are nade netbetween
works,twoa set of switches are receiving
devices and how data movement is handled is switching,
" Aswitched network consists of series of interlinked nodes called
betweent Jinks. A connection
morelinks. stations dedicatedconnected by physical
is a
path made of one or
Switches are hardware and/or software devices that are capable of swicrtceatheing Figure 5.3 Shows a circuit
switched network
E, F and inG which
are connected to Computer D.
temporary connections between two or more devices linkedtothe switcht computers are to be via four computerA, Band C
connected
dedicated lines are requircd which with a
point-to-point switches.
In a switched network, some of these nodes are connected to the end sue. If these
or communication devices like computer or telephone. will incur high connections,
12
Ahe four switches connecting these line cost.
A switched network is shown in fig. 4.1. Here the various end systeme.
communicating devices are labeled as A, B, C, D, E and so on and by reducing the line cost. Here I, IL, III computers
thus
and IV are provide dedicated links
nodes. Nodes I, IH, IV are the circuit
switches are labeled as I, I, III, IV and V. Each switch is connected. connected to computers while II is
switches or
multiple links. node. only routing

5.2 TYPES OF SWITCHING TECHNIQUES

D
There are three switching techniques (see fig. 5.2):
1. Circuit switching
2. Packet switching
3. Message switching

Switching

Circuit Packet Message

Switching Switching Switching
Fig. 5.3 Circuít Switched network
circuit switching the routing decision is made when path is set up across
the
Virtual Circiut Datagram network. After the link has been set between the sender and receiver, the
approach approach
iThenformation is forwarded.
dedicated
continuously over the link.
path established between the sender and the receiver is
Fig. 5.2 Types of switching maintained for entire duration of conversation.
1. Circuit Switching
This link or path is released ony when data transmission between sender and
It is the simplest method of data communication in which a dedica
Teceiver is over.
Circait switching takes place at the physical layèr.
 COMMUNICATION SWITCHING TECHNIQU
5.4
make a
Before starting communication, the stations must
communication. These resourCes
reservation
during the
resources to be used
processing time, switch input/Uoutput ports. The
switch buffers, switch transfer
dedicated during the entire duration of data
resources remain
between the two stations are not packetized (i.e. in .
Data transferred flow sent by the source
of packets). The data
are a continuous
of
station
silençe.
an
destination station and there may be periods
received by the
addressing involved in data transfer. The switches rroute the
There is no time slot (TDM). However, tte!
band (FDM) or
based on their occupied
phase.
end-to-end addressing used during set up
switching is used.
In telephone systems circuit
communication in a circuit switched network takes place in three phases
The
1.Circuit establishment or setup phase.
2. Data transfer phase.
3.Circuit disconnect or tear down phase. Adva
The a
1. Circuit establishment or setup phase
place,
In circuit switched network, before actual data transfer takes
receiver.
dedicated circuit or path is established between the sender and
are A and D
For example, as shown in fig. 5.3 if two communicating devices
to
then a dedicated path will be set up from A to I, Ito II, II to III and II
first.
(End-to-End addressing (i.e. source and destination address) is required fd
creating aconnection between two end systems.)
isa
2. Data transfer phase
Actual data transfer between the source and destination takes place after
dedicated path is set up between them.
The data flows are continuous between sender and receiver. There may
periods of silence in between.
Generally all the internal çonnections are duplex.
3, Circuit disconnect or teardown phase.
Switch
|When on of tthe parties needs to disconnect, asignal is sent to each
release the resources.
 TECHNiIoOn
servat
cOMMUNICATION

Circuit switch
SWITCHING TECHNIQUES 5.5

urces Can circuit switch is a device that creates atemporary connection

porsfèr,s, , input link and output link..
A circuit switch usually has n input lines and m
between an
output lines i.e. number of
(i.e. in tn
e station input lines and number of output lines may not be equal.
A circuit switch is shown in fig. 5.4
lence.
oute the . 1

ever, he 2
1

hree ph n
m
E

Fig. 5.4 Acircuit switch

Advantages of circuit switching

The advantages of circuit switching are:
kes nle 1. Rhe dedicated path/circuit established between sender and receiver
provides
ceiver. a guaranteed data rate.
are Aaxd Bonce the circuit is established, data is transmitted without any delay as there
andIl! is no waiting time at each
switch.t
3. Since a dedicated continugus transmission path is established, the method is
require suitable for long continuous transmission,
Disadvantages of circuit switching
The various disadvantages of circuit switching are:
acea t lAs the connection is dedicated it cannot be used to transmit any other data
even if the channel is free.
2. It is inefficient in_terms of utilization of system
here resources. As resources are
allocated for the entire duration of connection, these are not available to
other connections.
3.- Dedicaed channels require more bandwidth. ,
4. Prior to actual data transfer, the time
2 cs
hu
required to establish a physicai link
...between the two stations is too long.
5.6 COMMUNICATION SWITCHING TECHNIQU

2. Packet Switching
npacket switching, message is broken up into packets of fixed or
size)
variah
Each packet includes a header that contains source address,
address and other control information. destinati
The size of a packet depends upon the type of network and protocol used.
Unlike circuit switching, in packet switching no resources are allocated
packet in advance., Resources are allocated on demand on a first come fir
serve basis.

The packets are sent over the network node to node.

Af each node, the packet is stored briefly and then routed according to t
information in its header. These types of networks are called store and
forward networks.

Individual packets may follow different routes to reach the destination.

There are two different types of packet switching :
1.Datagram Packet Switching
2.Virtual Circuit Packet Switching Tirtual ci

Datagram Packet Switching

In this approach, a message is divided into a stream of packets. Each pack
is separately addressed i.e. contains the destination address in its header an
is treated independently.)
Even if apacket is apart gf pulti-packettransmissionthe network treats it
though it existed alone.) Packets in this approach are called datagrams
" Datagramswitching is done at the network layerJ
Figure 5.5 show how a datagram approach is used to deliver four packe
from station A to station D. Allthe four packets belong to same message
they may travel via different paths to reach the destination i.e. station D.
Datagram approach can cause the datagrams to arrive at their destination
of order with different delays between the packets.
Packets may also be lost or droppèd because of lack of resources.
Th
 COMMUNICATION SWITCHING TECHNIQUES
5.7
The datagram networks are also referred
asfconnectionless networks.}Here
connectionless means that the switch does not keep
connection state. There are no connection information about
desti establishment or tear down phass.
-4321
\stocaComEte

ording
d store
A321
ation.
Datagram network

Fig. 5.5 Datagram packet switching

Virtual circuitpacket switching
In' phís approach,ja logical connection called yirtual
sender and
circuit is set up between
Eachg receiver before any data transfer talkes place.)
S heade A

rktres
Tams

fourp R
Imess D

tion
D

stinatit

Set up phase
This approach preserves the relationship
a message. between all the packets belonging to
 COMMUNICATION SWITCHING TECHNIQU
5.8
Just like circuit switching, virtual circuit approach has a set up, data transle

and tear down

Resources canphases.
be allocated during the set up phase, as in circuit switched
network.
networks or on demand, as in a datagram established
All the packets of a message follow the same path during t
connection.
network is normally implemented in the data link lav
LA virtual circuit
circuit switched network is implemented in the physical layer ana.
while a
)
datagram network in the network layer.

D'sad

3-2-0 321>

data transfer phase.

Com

tear down phase

Fig. 5.6 Phases in virtual circuit packet-switching of yirt'

shows the setup phase, transfer phase and tear down phase
data trans
data
Fig. 5.6
circuit approach.
 COMNGArON SWITCHING TECHNIQUES 5.9

ata t Advantages of packet switching

Theeaddvantages of packet switching are:
switching node can route the packets as and when required.)
2 Asthe routing is done on packet basis, the intermediate nodes do not have to
dutng wait for the entire message; hence the transmission is very fast.
Storage requirement for buffering the packets at intermediate nodes is
ink minimal as packets are of small & fixed size.
layet brs 4. t increases the bandwidth of the network by allowing many devices to
communicate through the same network channel.
5The method is fast enough for interactive/real time application_. It is thus
more Suitable for bursty computer to computer communication.
Disadvantages of packet switching
The various disadvantage of Packet switching
1Packets may be lost on their route, so sequence numbers are required to
identify missing packets.
s2. Switching nodes requires more processing power as the packet switching
protocols are more complex.
Switching nodes for packet switching require large amount of RAM -to
handle large quantities of packets.
Comparison of circuit switching and packet switching
The various differences between círcuit switched network and packet switch network
are tabulated below:

S. Packet switched
Parameter Circuit switched
No.
A path is created between Avirtual circuit or route
Path or route
two points by setting the is created between two
switches. points.
2.Pedicated or The links that make a .path In virtual circuit the links
sharing are dedicated & cannot be th¡t make a route can be
used other connections. shared by other

a sa
e f
connections..
5.10
COMMUNICATION SWITCHING TECHNIQUES

Store and Not used in circuit switching. Each node

may store
incoming
forward
transmission temporarily & forward
them later.
packes
Bandwidth Required bandwidthis Bandwidth can be
available reserved in advanced. acquired or released as i
Therefore it is fixed. is needed. Therefore, it is
dynamic.
Potentialy Since bandwidth is fixed, Unused bandwidth
wasted unused bandwidth on an maybe utilized by other
bandwidth allocated circuit is wasted. packets from unrelatei
SOurce.

Route/Path It is always same. May Or may not be

followed by different.
packets
ACall setup It is required. Not required.
8.When can Congestion can occur at set Congestion can occur on
up time kota
congestion every packet.
0ccur.

Charging Users are charged on the Users are charged on the

basis of time (per minute) basis of time and number
and on the básis of distance.
of bytes (or packets)
carried & not on the basis
of distance.
H. Application Telephone network for bi- Internet for datagram and
directional. reliable stream Service
between computers.
Layer used for Circuit switched network isA virtual circuit netwon
implementation. implemented at physical is implemented at data
layer. link layer and datagra
network at network layer.

3. Message Switching
A
message is a logical unit of information and can be of any length.
 cOMMUNICATIONSWITCHING TECHNIQUES
5.11
In message switching, iif astation wishes to send a message to another station,

packe itfirst
adds the destination
Message switching
address to the message.
does not establish a
communicating devices i.e. no direct link dedicated path betweeh the two
is established between sender and
receiver.
Each message is treated as an independent unit.
ore, In message switching, each complete message is
to device through the
then transmitted from device
internetwork message is transmitted from the source
i.e.
andwit node to intermediate node.
The intermediate node stores the complete
message
Inrelale arors and transmnits the message to the next node temporarily, inspect it for
based on an
ohannel and its routing information. Because of this reason available free
not message switched
networks are called store and forward network as shown in fig. 5.7

Store and forward Store and forward

0Ccr M2

IV
M2
2d on tt M1
d numte
B
packet
the bas M2 M1}

grama Store and forward Store and forward

1serv
ters.

tnetwt Fig. 5.7 Message switching

d at
datagr The actual path taken by the message to its destination is dynamic as the path
orklave is established as it travels along.
Wnen the message reachs a node, the channel on which it came is released
for use byanother
message.
2.
AS shown in Figure 5.7 message M1 is transmitted from A to D and M2 is
ransmitted Cto B. Message M1 follows the route A ’ I ’ I I ’ II ’ D
 COMMUNICATION SWITCHING TECHNIQUES
5.12

’B depending upon the

and M2 follows the route C ’ IV ’
of free path at that particular moment. availabili
The first electromechanical telecommunication system used
messag
switching for telegrams. The message was punched on paper tape off-line
over a
the sending office and then read in and transmitted
line to the next office along the way, where it was punched outcommuni catlapeion
on papcr
readers.
An operator there tore the tape off and read it in on tape
Advantages of message switching
The varigus advantages of message switching are:
! It provides efficient traffic management/by assigning priorities to t
Ssages to be switched.
2 No physical connection is required between the source & destination as iti
in circuit switching.
3. It reduces the traffic congestion on network because of store & forwaxd
facility. Each node can store the message ntil communication channel
becomes available.
4. Channels are used effectively and network devices share the data channels.
5Itsupport the message length of unlimited size.
Disadvantages of message switching
The various disadvantages of message switching are:
1. As message length is unlimited, each switching node must have sufficien
storage to buffer message.
2. Storing & forwarding facility introduces delay thus making messag
switching unsuitable for real time applications like voice and video.
Comparison of message, circuit and packet swtiching
S. Circuit
Parameter Message switching Packet switching
No.
switching
1. MultiplexingCharacter or Circuit Packet
scheme message multiplexing multiplexing
medis
multiplexing shared
access networks.

2. Addressing Geographical Hierarchical Hierarchical

scheme addresses numbering plan address space
 COMMUNICATION SWITCHING TECHNIQUES
5.13

2 Transmission Digital data over Analog & digital| Digital data over
system different data Over different
transmission media. different transmission
transmission media.
media.
4. Information Morse, Baudot, Analog voice or Binary
type ASCII. PCM digital information.
voice.
5. End terminal Telegraph, teletype Telephone, Computer
modem

6. Routing Manual Route selected Each packet is

scheme
during set up routed
independently.
7.Application Telegraph network| Telephone Internet for
for transmission of network for bi- datagram and
telegrams. directional, real reliable stream
time transfer of service between
voice signal. computers.