Circuit/Packet Switching

Question 1

What is Circuit Switching?

Answer 1

• A complete circuit is established between two nodes before data transmission occurs, all data follows this route until data transmission is complete
• Establish connection, transfer data, release connection
• Used where there is a high chance of a long-lasting data stream

Question 2

What is Packet Switching?

Answer 2

• At the source computer data is broken up into individual packets, each packet has all the information of where it is going and where it has come from. Address, sequence number
• Each packet is forwarded onto the network and follows its own individual route, depending on network traffic routes will differ for packets and they may arrive out of sequence. The receiving device reassembled the original transmission into the correct order and simply requests and missing packets.
• Much more efficient use of a network