Switching

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Table of Contents

1 Switching

2 Circuit Switching

3 Datagram Networks

4 Virtual-Circuit Networks

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 Switching

Switching

∝ How can we connect multiple devices.

X Point to point connection is a solution
∝ A better solution is 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.

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 Switching

Switched Network

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 Switching

Taxonomy of Switched Networks

∝ Message-Switched Network:
X Has beed phased-out in general communication.
X Each switch, stores the whole message and forwards it to the next switch.
X Because of this it is also known as a ‘store-and-forward’ network.

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 Circuit Switching

Circuit Switching
∝ A circuit-switched network is made of a set of switches connected by physical links, in
which each link is divided into n channels using FDM or TDM.
∝ A connection between two stations is a dedicated path made of one or more links.
∝ Switching at the physical layer in the traditional telephone network uses the
circuit-switching approach.

Figure: In the figure, each link is divided into n(n = 3) channels using FDM or TDM.

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 Circuit Switching

Circuit Switching

Setup Phase
If A needs to communicate with M... It
sends a request to M that must be accepted
by all switches and M. This is called setup
phase. A circuit (channel) is reserved on
each link and forms a dedicated path
between A and M.

Data Transfer
After the dedicated path is established, data
transfer, can take place between A and M.

Teardown Phase
Finally the circuit is torn down... called
teardown phase.

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 Circuit Switching

Circuit Switching

In circuit switching, the resources need to be reserved during the setup phase; the
resources remain dedicated for the entire duration of data transfer until the teardown
phase.

The data transferred between two station is not packetized. The data are a continuous
flow sent by the source to the destination.

There is no addressing involved during data transfer. The switches route the data based
on their occupied band (FDM) or time slot (TDM)

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 Circuit Switching

Circuit Switching (Example)

∝ Let us use a circuit-switched network to connect eight telephones in a small area.
Communication is through 4 kHz voice channels. We assume that each link uses
FDM to connect a maximum of two voice channels. The bandwidth of each link is
then 8 kHz. Telephone 1 is connected to telephone 7; 2 to 5; 3 to 8; and 4 to 6. Of
course the situation may change when new connections are made. The switch
controls the connections.

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 Circuit Switching

Circuit Switching

Efficiency:
∝ Circuit-switched networks are not efficient compared to other two types of network
because resources are allocated during the entire duration of connection.
∝ Alright for telephone network, but not good for computer network.

Delay:
∝ Delay is minimal in this type of network.

∝ During data transfer the data are not delayed since the resources are already allocated
during connection setup phase.

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 Circuit Switching

Delay In A Circuit Switching Network

Total Delay = time needed for the setup phase + data transfer phase + teardown phase

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 Datagram Networks

Datagram Networks

∝ If the message is going to pass through a packet-switched network, it needs to be

divided into packets of fixed or variable size.
∝ In a packet-switched network, there is no resource reservation; resources are allocated
on demand - on a first come, first serve basis.
∝ When a switch receives a packet, the packet must wait if there are other packets
being processes.

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 Datagram Networks

Datagram Networks with Four Switches (Routers)

∝ Each packet is treated independently.

∝ Packet in this approach are referred as datagrams.

∝ Normally done at the network layer.

∝ Sometimes also known as connectionless networks.

∝ No setup or teardown phase.

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 Datagram Networks

Routing Table In A Datagram Network

A switch in a datagram network uses a

routing table that is based on the
destination address.

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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 Datagram Networks

Datagram Networks

Efficiency:
∝ Better than circuit switched networks - resources are allocated only when there are
packets to be transferred.

Delay:
∝ Each packet may experience a wait at a switch before it is forwarded

∝ The delay is not uniform for the packets of a message as they travel via different
switches.

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 Datagram Networks

Delay in a Datagram Network

∝ Switching in Internet is done by using the datagram approach to packet switching at

the network layer.

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 Virtual-Circuit Networks

Virtual-Circuit Networks
∝ Virtual-circuit network is a cross between circuit-switched & datagram network.
∝ It has characteristics of both.
X As in circuit-switched network, there are setup and teardown phases

X Resources can be allocated during setup phase as in circuit-switched network or on demand

as in datagram network
X Data are packetized and each packet carries an address having local jurisdiction (i.e., the
next switch and the channel on which the packet is being carried).
X As in circuit switched network, all packets belonging to the same source and destination
travel the same path
X A Virtual-circuit network is normally implemented in the data link layer.

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 Virtual-Circuit Networks

Virtual-Circuit Networks

∝ Addressing: Global and Local (virtual circuit identifier)

X Global addressing: A source and the destination needs to have a global address, used only
to create a virtual circuit identifier.
X Virtual-Circuit Identifier (VCI): It is actually used for data transfer. A VCI, unlike a global
address, is a small number that has only switch scope, it is used by a frame between two
switches.

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 Virtual-Circuit Networks

Virtual-Circuit Networks

∝ Three phases:
X Setup phase: the source and the destination use their global addresses to help switches
make table entries for the connection. It needs two steps: setup request and
acknowledgement.
X Data transfer phase:
X Teardown phase: the source and the destination informs the switches to delete the
corresponding entry.

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 Virtual-Circuit Networks

Tables in a Virtual-Circuit Networks

∝ All switches need to have a table entry for each virtual circuit.

∝ A simple table, shown above, has four columns.

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 Virtual-Circuit Networks

Source-To-Destination Data Transfer in a VC Networks

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 Virtual-Circuit Networks

Setup Request in a VC Networks

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 Virtual-Circuit Networks

Setup Acknowledgment in a VC Networks

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 Virtual-Circuit Networks

Virtual-Circuit Networks

∝ Efficiency:
X Recourses can be reserved in virtual-circuit network during the setup phase or can be on
demand during data transfer phase.
,→ In the first case: the delay of each packet is the same.

,→ In the second case: packets may encounter different delay.

∝ Delay in Virtual-Circuit Networks
X One-time delay for setup and teardown phase.
X If resources are allocated during setup phase, there is no wait time for individual packets.
∝ Virtual-circuit networks are used in switched WANs such as Frame Relay and ATM
networks.

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 Virtual-Circuit Networks

Delay in a Virtual-Circuit Network

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