Physical Layer: Switching
Dr Samayveer Singh
Dept. of Computer Science and
Engineering
National Institute of Technology
Jalandhar, Punjab, India
samays@nitj.ac.in
NITJ 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.
Figure: Switched network
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.
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
Figure: Taxonomy of switched networks
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.
Figure: A trivial circuit-switched network
Example 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 shows the situation as Telephone 1 is connected to
telephone 7; 2 to 5; 3 to 8; and 4 to 6. Of course situation may change
when new connections are made. The switch controls the connections.
Three Phases
The actual communication in a circuit-switched
network requires three phases:
Connection setup,
Data transfer, and
Connection teardown
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.
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.
Next figure shows the idea of delay in a circuit-
switched network when only two switches are
involved.
Figure: Delay in a circuit-switched network
Data transfer
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.
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.
Figure : A Datagram network with four switches (routers)
3 1
4 3 2 1
4
1
2 3
1
4
2 2 3 4 1
Figure: Routing table in a datagram network
Figure: Delays in a datagram network
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.
Figure: Virtual-circuit network
Figure : Virtual-circuit identifier
Figure: Switch and table for a virtual-circuit network
Figure: Source-to-destination data transfer in a circuit-switch
network
Figure: Setup request in a virtual-circuit network
Figure: Setup acknowledgment in a virtual-circuit network
Figure: Delay in a virtual-circuit network
Figure: Message Switching
Figure: Message Switching
