It is considered as backbone of any network connection we work on. Switching helps us in connecting multiple devices.consider the below example which makes us understand in what way switching is better when compared to traditional approach of connecting a multiple devices having a point to point connection with the all other devices individually which is certainly a tedious task.
Whenever we want to establish n number of point to point network connections each devices needs to point to other device to successfully complete the network processing to each device it wants to make a connection with. During this task , Whole network experiences increase in the number of connections which we don’t want to face. Here comes the concept of switching which helps us to overcome the issue of n number of connections.
How exactly switching works ?
The solution here is , We will have a central device which act as main hub where each device is connected to each other via this central device. These central hub is generally is called as star topology in which we don’t have to make point to point connection to each device. Means each device which got connected to central device has an individual node called switch between them which takes the data from the device and sends to central device. Later , central device has all the necessary data and decides where it want to send the data to and fro using the device MAC address. These whole process of connecting different devices via the central device is represented as switching and the central device is technically named as switch. Keep in mind that switch only works when we are connecting all the devices on the same network.
Switching techniques
Circuit Switching, Packet Switching and Message Switching are the major types of switching techniques which guides during the data transfer from any device we work with. Lets discuss
Message switching :
It is one of the oldest form of data transfer process which we used long back where each data that is ready to transfer to desired device is considered as independent unit also has destination MAC address. When the complete single unit of data gets transferred to another desired device through inter network where sometimes we will be having multiple switches called as intermediate switches. These intermediate switches first stores the full data unit and forwards to the next desired device through intermediate switch . Until the data reaches to the destination , Switch does the process of store and then forward which we call it as store and forward switching.
Advantages of Message switching technique :
This is not dependent of data / message length. No limitation of data size.
More devices can be used in the same network line.
Congestion can be reduced.
Disadvantages of Message switching :
Not reliable due to security issues . Can be hacked easily.
It has voice and video compatibility issues.
Each node we work for data transferring needs to store lot of memory . So it becomes costly.
Circuit Switching :
It came into existence for managing voice data in mobile phones and other suitable data gadgets. Circuit switching usually preferred in public networks in which we will be establishing a particular path / pre designated path before sending data to the receiver from the sender. This dedicated path is maintained consistently across the sender and the receiver then the data is forwarded continuously on that path.
This approach results in low latency as the existing nodes in the defined path has the information about sender and receiver to where the data needs to send and from where it is placed.Thus circuit switching extremely helps in real time communication. On the whole , Physical connection initiates first and next takes the call and finally sends the data.
Advantages of circuit switching technique :
As the process it follows , Clearly says that it is suitable for long continuous transmission.
Data rate is constant here, which helps in real time communication.
Good thing is switch already knows where to send the data before starting the data transfer , So no waiting time in this approach.
Disadvantages of circuit switching :
Main drawback resides in establishing a physical link which usually takes too long time as it needs to check each and every node whether it is available for new connection or not.
One link which is already in active cannot be used by other person because consumption of bandwidth gets increased if multiple persons or devices use same channel / link for data transfer.
Packet switching :
This new way of transferring data in network connection is highly and commonly used in todays time. Unlike circuit and message switching , Packet switching helps us in improving the efficiency of data transfer by dividing the data into small fixed size items irrespective of the path/link we work on. This small items called as packets in networking terminology.
As discussed message switching transfers the data to the receiver as a whole independent single unit where as circuit switching uses dedicated path to transfer the data before initiating the transfer call. But Packet switching does not do any of these , It won’t worry about the network link/path where data is passed and what data it is holding . Only task of packet switching is dividing the initial data into number of fixed data items as packets and then transfer those packets to the receiver side where receiver knows the sender details on the basis of packet headers.
If one wants to connect with the device/s that is the receiver which is somewhere else outside of the network we need routers to connect and packets for data transfer. But if we want to communicate within the same network we need frames for transferring the data. Each packet has its own fixed size and the network in which the packets are sent has defined its own limitation of packet sizes. Whenever any data is sent into any network connection, Data gets divided into number of packets and further moves to the receiver side but the order of packets may or may not be the same as the initial sender order. For example , packet 1 which first initiated the call can be the last one on the receiver know. Order of packets in sender side cannot be same on the receiver side sometimes. Later the final data is converted back its original form with the information from the each packet header.
Advantages of packet switching technique :
Results in high data transmission because we are not waiting for establishing any connection whenever data transferred is required , It jumps and finds any path and any node and initiates the call.
We don’t need any dedicated path for this approach which is a biggest plus.
Highly suitable for voice and video calls for its efficient use of data by converting them into packets.
Efficient network communication as we don’t need to worry about having any fixed path or fixed node.
As packet is small , No big memory is required and hence the usage cost is also less.
Disadvantages of packet switching :
Everytime there will be a transmission delay because router takes time to decide , to which link/router the packets needs to be sent.Whenever any data gets transferred in the form of packets , the order gets mismatched.
Security concerns are raised due to packet sniffing , Man in the middle attack and other cyber attacks.
Sometimes network connection which we work on experiences packet drop/loss.
There will be implementation cost for configuring network protocols and algorithms.
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