Circuit Switching

Circuit Switching

Circuit switching establishes a path that remains fixed for the duration of a connection (see Figure 2.4). Much as telephone switching equipment establishes a route between two telephones, circuit-switching networks establish a path through the internetwork when the devices initiate a conversation.

Circuit switching provides devices with a dedicated path and a well-defined bandwidth, but circuit switching is not free of disadvantages. First, establishing a connection between devices can be time-consuming. Second, because other traffic cannot share the dedicated media path, bandwidth might be inefficiently utilized. Finally, circuit-switching networks must have a surplus of bandwidth, so these types of switches tend to be expensive to construct.