Chapter 8

Switching

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 Chapter 8: Outline

8.1 INTRODUCTION

8.2 CIRCUIT-SWITCHED NETWORK

8.3 PACKET-SWITCHING

8.4 STRUCTURE OF A SWITCH

 Chapter 8: Objective

 The first section introduces switching. It mentions three

methods of switching: circuit switching, packet switching, and
message switching. The section then defines the switching
methods that can occur in some layers of the Internet model.
 The second section discusses circuit-switched networks. It first
defines three phases in these types of networks. It then describes
the efficiency and delay of these networks.
 The third section briefly discusses packet-switched networks. It
first describes datagram networks. The section then describes
virtual circuit networks.
 The last section discusses the structure of a switch. It first
describes the structure of a circuit switch. It then explains the
structure of a packet switch.
 8-1 INTRODUCTION

A network is a set of connected devices.

Whenever we have multiple devices, we have
the problem of how to connect them to make
one-to-one communication possible. The
solution is switching. A switched network
consists of a series of interlinked nodes, called
switches.

8.4
 Figure 8.1: Switched network

8.5
 8.8.1 Three Methods of Switching

Traditionally, three methods of switching have

been discussed: 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
applications. Packet switching can further be
divided into two subcategories, virtual-circuit
approach and datagram approach, as shown in
Figure 8.2.

8.6
 8.8.2 Switching and TCP/IP Layers

Switching can happen at several layers of the

TCP/IP protocol suite: at the physical layer, at the
data-link layer, and at the network layer.

8.7
 Figure 8.2: Taxonomy of switched networks

8.8
 8-2 CIRCUIT-SWITCHED NETWORKS

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, as discussed in Chapter 6.

8.9
 Figure 8.3: A trivial circuit-switched network

8.10
Example 8.1
As a trivial 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. Figure 8.4 shows
the situation. 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.

8.11
Example 8.2
As another example, consider a circuit-switched network
that connects computers in two remote offices of a private
company. The offices are connected using a T-1 line leased
from a communication service provider. There are two 4 × 8
(4 inputs and 8 outputs) switches in this network. For each
switch, four output ports are folded into the input ports to
allow communication between computers in the same office.
Four other output ports allow communication between the
two offices. Figure 8.5 shows the situation.

8.12
 Figure 8.4: Circuit-switched network used in Example 8.1

8.13
 8.2.1 Three Phases

The actual communication in a circuit-switched

network requires three phases: connection setup,
data transfer, and connection teardown.

8.14
 Figure 8.5: Circuit-switched network used in Example 8.2

8.15
 8.2.2 Efficiency

It can be argued that circuit-switched networks

are not as efficient as the other two types of
networks because resources are allocated during
the entire duration of the connection. These
resources are unavailable to other connections. In
a telephone network, people normally terminate
the communication when they have finished their
conversation.

8.16
 8.2.3 Delay

Although a circuit-switched network normally has

low efficiency, the delay in this type of network is
minimal. During data transfer the data are not
delayed at each switch; the resources are allocated
for the duration of the connection. Figure 8.6
shows the idea of delay in a circuit-switched
network when only two switches are involved.

8.17
 Figure 8.6: Delay in a circuit-switched network

Data transfer

8.18
 8-3 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.

8.19
 8.3.1 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.

8.20
 Figure 8.7: A Datagram network with four switches (routers)

3 1
4 3 2 1
4
1

2 3
1
4
2 2 3 4 1

8.21
 Figure 8.8: Routing table in a datagram network

8.22
 Figure 8.9: Delays in a datagram network

8.23
 8.3.2 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.

8.24
 Figure 8.10: Virtual-circuit network

8.25
 Figure 8.11: Virtual-circuit identifier

8.26
 Figure 8.12: Switch and table for a virtual-circuit network

8.27
 Figure 8.13: Source-to-destination data transfer in a circuit-switch
network

8.28
 Figure 8.14: Setup request in a virtual-circuit network

8.29
 Figure 8.15: Setup acknowledgment in a virtual-circuit network

8.30
 Figure 8.16: Delay in a virtual-circuit network

8.31
 8-4 STRUCTURE OF A SWITCH

We use switches in circuit-switched and packet-

switched networks. In this section, we discuss
the structures of the switches used in each type
of network.

8.32
 8.4.1 Structure of Circuit Switches

Circuit switching today can use either of two

technologies: the space-division switch or the time-
division switch.

8.33
 Figure 8.17: Crossbar switch with three inputs and four outputs

8.34
 Figure 8.18: Multistage switch

8.35
Example 8.3
Design a three-stage, 200 × 200 switch (N = 200) with k = 4
and n = 20.

Solution
In the first stage we have N/n or 10 crossbars, each of size
20 × 4. In the second stage, we have 4 crossbars, each of
size 10 × 10. In the third stage, we have 10 crossbars, each
of size 4 × 20. The total number of crosspoints is

2kN + k(N/n)2, or 2000

crosspoints. This is 5 percent of the number of crosspoints

in a single-stage switch (200 × 200 = 40,000).
8.36
Example 8.4
Redesign the previous three-stage, 200 × 200 switch, using
the Clos criteria with a minimum number of crosspoints.
Solution
We let n = (200/2)1/2, or n = 10. We calculate k = 2n – 1 =
19. In the first stage, we have 200/10, or 20, crossbars, each
with 10 × 19 crosspoints. In the second stage, we have 19
crossbars, each with 10 × 10 crosspoints. In the third stage,
we have 20 crossbars each with 19 × 10 crosspoints. The
total number of crosspoints is 20(10 × 19) + 19(10 × 10) +
20(19 × 10) = 9500. If we use a single-stage switch, we need
200 × 200 = 40,000 crosspoints. The number of crosspoints
in this switch is 24 percent that of a single-stage switch.

8.37
 Figure 8.19: Time-slot interchange

8.38
 Figure 8.20: Time-space-time switch

8.39
 8.4.2 Structure of Packet Switches

A switch used in a packet-switched network has a

different structure from a switch used in a circuit-
switched network. We can say that a packet switch
has four components: input ports, output ports, the
routing processor, and the switching fabric, as
shown in Figure 8.28.

8.40
 Figure 8.21: Packet switch components

8.41
 Figure 8.22: Input port

8.42
 Figure 8.23: Output port

8.43
 Figure 8.24: A banyan switch

8.44
 Figure 8.25: Example of routing in a banyan switch (Part a)

8.45
 Figure 8.25: Example of routing in a banyan switch (Part b)

8.46
 Figure 8.26: Batcher-banyan switch

8.47