CHARU GUPTA

CHINKI AGGARWAL
RAHUL JOSHI
JASPREET KAUR

PACKET SWITCHING
 What is a computer network?
• Two or more connected computers
• Major components in simple network
• Client computer
• Server computer
• Network interfaces (N I Cs)
• Connection medium
• Network operating system
• Hub or switch
• Router
• The Internet - a large network
Network Components
Links Interfaces Switches/routers
Fibers Ethernet card Large router

Wireless card

Coaxial Cable
Telephone
switch

3
Packet Switching
 Packet switching refers to protocols in which
messages are broken up into small packets before
they are sent.
 Each packet contains a header (with address)
 Packet is transmitted individually across the net
 May even follow different routes to the destination.
– Packet forwarding based on the header

– Network nodes may store packets temporarily

 Destination reconstructs the message correctly.

History
 First invented by Paul Baran in the early 1960’s
 When he was asked to perform an investigation into
survivable communications networks for the US Air
Force, building on one of the first wide area computer
networks.
 Term packet switching coined by Donald Davies.
 Baran's papers then influenced Leonard Kleinrock.
 He conducted early research in the related field of
digital message switching, and helped build the
ARPANET, the world's first packet switching network.
 Packet Switching Networks
• Connectionless protocols :
• Ethernet
• IP
• UDP
• Connection oriented packet-switching
protocols :
• X.25
• Frame relay
• Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
• Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)
• TCP. 6
Types of Switching
 Circuit Switched Networks
 Packet Switching
 Datagram
 Virtual Circuit
Circuit Switching
 Circuit switching was designed in 1878 in order to
send telephone calls down a dedicated channel
 There are three phases in circuit switching:
 Establish
 Transfer
 Disconnect
 During a call, no other network traffic can use those
switches.
Circuit vs Packet switching
  Circuit-switched networks require dedicated point-to-point
connections during calls whereas packet-switched networks
move data in separate, small blocks based on the destination
address in each packet.
 Circuit-switched networks were used for phone calls and
packet-switched networks handled data.
 It is easier to double the capacity of a packet
switched network than a circuit network  
Circuit vs Packet switching
 It is cheaper to expand a packet switching system.
 Circuit-switched technologies takes four times as
long to double their performance/cost than packet
switched technologies.
 In circuit switching, bandwidth is guaranteed
whereas in packet switching bandwidth is
dynamically allocated on as-needed basis
Types of Packet Switching
 Station breaks long message into packets
 Packets sent one at a time to the network
 Packets handled in two ways
 Datagram
 Virtual circuit
Datagram
 Each packet treated independently
 Packets can take any practical route
 Packets may arrive out of order
 Packets may go missing
 Up to receiver to re-order packets and recover from
missing packets
Virtual Circuit
 Preplanned route established before any packets
sent
 Call request and call accept packets establish
connection (handshake)
 Each packet contains a virtual circuit identifier
instead of destination address
 No routing decisions required for each packet
 Clear request to drop circuit
 Not a dedicated path
Virtual
Circuit Diagram
Virtual Circuits v Datagram
 Virtual circuits
 Network can provide sequencing and error control
 Packets are forwarded more quickly
 Route established for entire conversation
 Less reliable
 Loss of a node looses all circuits through that node
 Datagram
 No call setup phase
 Better if few packets
 More flexible
 Route established for each packet and can be used to avoid
congested parts of the network
Packet Size
Advantages Of Packet Switching
 Line efficiency
 Single node to node link can be shared by many packets
at same time
 Packets queued and transmitted as fast as possible
 Data rate conversion
 Each station connects to the local node at its own speed
 Nodes buffer data if required to equalize rates
 Packets are accepted even when network is busy
 Delivery may slow down.
Disadvantages Of Packet
Switching
 It takes time to put back the data package as it
changes each time, which can be a problem.
 More processing power is required due to complex
routing protocols.
 Less hard drive space needed but more actual
memory needed.
Research and resources
 http://www.livinginternet.com/i/iw_packet_inv.htm
 www.daxnetworks.com/technology/techdost/td-
042005.pdf
 www.wisegeek.com/what-is-packet-switching.htm