SLR 11 - 4 packet and circuit switching

Question 1

what is circuit switching

Answer 1

Creating a temporary and dedicated link of fixed bandwidth between the source and destination that only lasts until the transmission is complete

Question 2

why is circuit switching important?

Answer 2

This guarantees quality of transmission. Its excellent for data that needs a constant link end-to-end.

Question 3

Give a situation where circuit switching is used

Answer 3

Real time video

Question 4

give one disadvantage of circuit switching

Answer 4

A lot of the potential bandwidth can be wasted

Question 5

describe the process of packet switching

Answer 5

Packet switching breaks streams of data into smaller blocks, each sent independently of one another.

At each node packets are sent via the least congested route to maximise bandwidth, this doesn’t guarantee the quality of transmission

Question 6

give a few advantages of packet switching

Answer 6

Packet switching is more affordable and efficient that circuit switching.

Its infrastructure is simple

It can easily respond If parts of the network fail

Question 7

state a few disadvantages of packet switching

Answer 7

since packets can take different routes to their destination, they may arrive out of order

Question 8

compare circuit switching and packet switching.

Answer 8

circuit switching has a physical path between the source and destination whereas packet switching has no physical path

in circuit switching all packets use the same path