PAcket /Circuit switched?

Can anyone explain this in laymans terms please-many thanks

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gregg johnstone
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Packet - The unit of data sent across a network Circuit - A communications path Switched - To connect, disconnect, or divert (an electric current) by operating a switch

Packet/circuit Switched - A dedicated communication path established between the sender and receiver along which all packets travel. The telephone system is an example of a circuit switched network. Also called connection-oriented

The Dude

Reply to
The Dude

Think of circuit switched like the old telephone system where operators from one city would call another city and each one in sequence would move a cable on a patch pannel.

This one "circuit" was created end to end. While this happens with big phone switches governed by SS7 now, it still operates with the same basic principle. There is communication from A to B by an administrative system before a connection is set up. Your "circuit" is private and you have dedicated bandwidth.

Packet switched: The network knows how to get from A to B at all times. So you can drop any piece of correctly addressed information on the wire and expect it to get to the remote end. However you have no dedicated bandwidth once the data is in the core network, except as provided by specialized techniques like Frame CIR.

Cell switched is the same as packet switched except the "cells" are fixed length, and have some more fancy traffic management features.

Generally:

Circuit: ISDN, Modem Packet: Frame Relay, Ethernet Cell: ATM

What do you call an MPLS tagged packet?

-Matt

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shrike

Reply to
gregg johnstone

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