Packet Switching vs. Circuit Switching Assignment

Packet Switching vs. Circuit Switching - Assignment Example Packet switches finds it application mostly in the exchange conducted through the computer or other modern digital devices that make use of bits and packets of data. P.S.T.N enabled transmission is an example of circuit switch technology while VOIP and IP network is an example of Packet switched network(Rahman, Ellis, & Pursell, 2003). The major difference between the two is in the manner in which the information is sent. Circuit switched network has a pre defined and dedicated path for signal transmission. This dedicated transmission takes place in multiple phases starting with establishing of the call, followed by the transfer and finally the termination of link at the end of the call. While packet switch deals with node to node and does not work on the basis of pre allocated path for traffic transmission. Circuit switching relies mostly on T.D.M or F.D.M or at best on C.D.M for channel transmission, while Packet switch uses dynamic I.P network which is far more effective and can accommodate more options compared to its predecessor. Chances of contention are relatively higher in case of circuit switching mode. Routing processes in Packet switching are more concrete and hop to hop basis routing is performed which makes it easy for overall packet transmission and packets are exchanged and extended in form of store and forward mechanism(Kurose, 2005). Line efficiency of packet switched system is far better than the predecessor. In case of traffic congestion, the prioritization process can be adopted this makes the network working unlike circuit switch which is highly prone to congestion and saturation. Packets are handled either through the virtual circuits or through the data gram. Amongst these two, datagram is more flexible. Though relatively slow and limited in options, circuit switches are considered more reliable than the packet switch as the overall transmission is handled from