UNIT-1

Switching
 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.
 One solution is to make a point-to-point connection between each pair of devices (a mesh
topology) or between a central device and every other device (a star topology).
 These methods, however, are impractical and wasteful when applied to very large
networks.
 The number and length of the links require too much infrastructure to be cost-efficient,
and the majority of those links would be idle most of the time.
 A better solution is switching. A switched network consists of a series of interlinked
nodes, called switches. Switches are devices capable of creating temporary connections
between two or more devices linked to the switch.
 In a switched network, some of these nodes are connected to the end systems (computers
or telephones, for example). Others are used only for routing. Figure shows a switched
network.

Why is Switching Concept required?

Switching concept is developed because of the following reasons:
 Bandwidth: It is defined as the maximum transfer rate of a cable. It is a very critical and
expensive resource. Therefore, switching techniques are used for the effective utilization
of the bandwidth of a network.
 Collision: Collision is the effect that occurs when more than one device transmits the message
over the same physical media, and they collide with each other. To overcome this problem,
switching technology is implemented so that packets do not collide with each other..

Advantages of Switching:
 Switch increases the bandwidth of the network.
 It reduces the workload on individual PCs as it sends the information to only that device
which has been addressed.
 It increases the overall performance of the network by reducing the traffic on the
network.
 There will be less frame collision as switch creates the collision domain for each
connection.
 We can then divide today's networks into three broad categories: circuit switched
networks, packet-switched networks, and message-switched. Packetswitched
networks can further be divided into two subcategories-virtual-circuit networks and
datagram networks as shown in Figure.

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.
 In circuit switching, the resources need to be reserved during the setup phase; the
resources remain dedicated for the entire duration of data transfer until the teardown
phase

Three Phases
The actual communication in a circuit-switched network requires three phases:
connection setup, data transfer, and connection teardown.
 Setup Phase
 Before the two parties (or multiple parties in a conference call) can communicate, a
dedicated circuit (combination of channels in links) needs to be established.
 Connection setup means creating dedicated channels between the switches.
 For example, in Figure, when system A needs to connect to system M, it sends a setup
request that includes the address of system M, to switch I. Switch I finds a channel
between itself and switch IV that can be dedicated for this purpose. Switch I then sends
the request to switch IV, which finds a dedicated channel between itself and switch III.
Switch III informs system M of system A's intention at this time.
 In the next step to making a connection, an acknowledgment from system M needs to be
sent in the opposite direction to system A.
 Only after system A receives this acknowledgment is the connection established.

Data Transfer Phase

After the establishment of the dedicated circuit (channels), the two parties can transfer
data.

Teardown Phase
When one of the parties needs to disconnect, a signal is sent to each switch to release the
resources.

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.

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. The total delay is due to the
time needed to create the connection, transfer data, and disconnect the circuit.

Switching at the physical layer in the traditional telephone network uses the circuit-
switching approach.

MESSAGE SWITCHING

o Message Switching is a switching technique in which a message is transferred as a

complete unit and routed through intermediate nodes at which it is stored and forwarded.

o In Message Switching technique, there is no establishment of a dedicated path between

the sender and receiver.
 o The destination address is appended to the message. Message Switching provides a
dynamic routing as the message is routed through the intermediate nodes based on the
information available in the message.
o Message switches are programmed in such a way so that they can provide the most
efficient routes.

o Each and every node stores the entire message and then forward it to the next node. This
type of network is known as store and forward network.
o Message switching treats each message as an independent entity.

Advantages Of Message Switching

o Data channels are shared among the communicating devices that improve the efficiency
of using available bandwidth.

o Traffic congestion can be reduced because the message is temporarily stored in the
nodes.

o Message priority can be used to manage the network.

o The size of the message which is sent over the network can be varied. Therefore, it
supports the data of unlimited size.

Disadvantages Of Message Switching

o The message switches must be equipped with sufficient storage to enable them to store
the messages until the message is forwarded.

o The Long delay can occur due to the storing and forwarding facility provided by the
message switching technique.
Packet Switching

o The packet switching is a switching technique in which the message is sent in one go, but
it is divided into smaller pieces, and they are sent individually.

o The message splits into smaller pieces known as packets and packets are given a unique
number to identify their order at the receiving end.

o Every packet contains some information in its headers such as source address, destination
address and sequence number.

o Packets will travel across the network, taking the shortest path as possible.
o All the packets are reassembled at the receiving end in correct order.
o If any packet is missing or corrupted, then the message will be sent to resend the
message.

o If the correct order of the packets is reached, then the acknowledgment message will be
sent.

Approaches Of Packet Switching:

There are two approaches to Packet Switching:

Datagram Packet switching:

 o It is a packet switching technology in which packet is known as a datagram, is considered
as an independent entity. Each packet contains the information about the destination and
switch uses this information to forward the packet to the correct destination.

o The packets are reassembled at the receiving end in correct order.

o In Datagram Packet Switching technique, the path is not fixed.
o Intermediate nodes take the routing decisions to forward the packets.
o Datagram Packet Switching is also known as connectionless switching.

Virtual Circuit Switching

o Virtual Circuit Switching is also known as connection-oriented switching.

o In the case of Virtual circuit switching, a preplanned route is established before the
messages are sent.

o Call request and call accept packets are used to establish the connection between sender
and receiver.

o In this case, the path is fixed for the duration of a logical connection.

Let's understand the concept of virtual circuit switching through a diagram:

o In the above diagram, A and B are the sender and receiver respectively. 1 and 2 are the
nodes.
 o Call request and call accept packets are used to establish a connection between the sender
and receiver.

o When a route is established, data will be transferred.

o After transmission of data, an acknowledgment signal is sent by the receiver that the
message has been received.

o If the user wants to terminate the connection, a clear signal is sent for the termination.

Efficiency

The efficiency of a datagram network is better than that of a circuit-switched network;

resources are allocated only when there are packets to be transferred.

Delay
There may be greater delay in a datagram network than in a virtual-circuit network.
Although there are no setup and teardown phases, each packet may experience a wait at a
switch before it is forwarded. In addition, since not all packets in a message necessarily
travel through the same switches, the delay is not uniform for the packets of a message.

Switching in the Internet is done by using the datagram approach to packet

switching at the network layer.

Advantages Of Packet Switching:

o Cost-effective: In packet switching technique, switching devices do not require massive

secondary storage to store the packets, so cost is minimized to some extent. Therefore,
we can say that the packet switching technique is a cost-effective technique.

o Reliable: If any node is busy, then the packets can be rerouted. This ensures that the
Packet Switching technique provides reliable communication.

o Efficient: Packet Switching is an efficient technique. It does not require any established
path prior to the transmission, and many users can use the same communication channel
simultaneously, hence makes use of available bandwidth very efficiently.

Disadvantages Of Packet Switching:

o Packet Switching technique cannot be implemented in those applications that require low
delay and high-quality services.
 o The protocols used in a packet switching technique are very complex and requires high
implementation cost.

o If the network is overloaded or corrupted, then it requires retransmission of lost packets.

It can also lead to the loss of critical information if errors are nor recovered.
o Differences b/w Datagram approach and Virtual Circuit approach

Datagram approach Virtual Circuit approach

Node takes routing decisions to forward Node does not take any routing decision.
the packets.

Congestion cannot occur as all the Congestion can occur when the node is busy, and it
packets travel in different directions. does not allow other packets to pass through.

It is more flexible as all the packets are It is not very flexible.

treated as an independent entity.

Multiplexing
 It means multiple sources but one link. An alternative approach to it is Direct Point to
Point Connection but it has a number of problems as it requires an I/O port for each
device, a need line for each device, and also a large amount of wiring is needed if on
different floors.
 But instead, if we use a multiplexer approach then all devices are connected to MUX
and one line to host, the link carries multiple channels of information and a number of
lines equal to the number of lines out.

Types of Multiplexers:
1. Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM) –

 The frequency spectrum is divided among the logical channels and each user has
exclusive access to his channel. It sends signals in several distinct frequency ranges
and carries multiple video channels on a single cable.
 Each signal is modulated onto a different carrier frequency and carrier frequencies
are separated by guard bands.
 The bandwidth of the transmission medium exceeds the required bandwidth of all
the signals. Usually, for frequency division multiplexing analog signaling is used in
order to transmit the signals, i.e. more susceptible to noise.
  Assignment of non-overlapping frequency ranges to each user or signal on a
medium. Thus, all signals are transmitted at the same time, each using different
frequencies.
 A multiplexer accepts inputs and assigns frequencies to each device. The
multiplexor is attached to the high-speed communication line.
 A corresponding multiplexor or de-multiplexor is on the end of the high-speed line
and separates the multiplexed signals.
 The frequency spectrum is divided up among the logical channels where each user
hangs onto a particular frequency.
 The radio spectrum is an example of the media and the mechanism for extracting
information from the medium.

The disadvantage of FDM:

 One problem with FDM is that it cannot utilize the full capacity of the cable.
 It is important that the frequency bands do not overlap.
 Indeed, there must be a considerable gap between the frequency bands in order to
ensure that signals from one band do not affect signals in another band.

Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) –


Each user periodically gets the entire bandwidth for a small burst of time, i.e.
entire channel is dedicated to one user but only for a short period of time.
 It is very extensively used in computer communication and telecommunication.
 Sharing of the channel is accomplished by dividing available transmission time on a
medium among users.
 It exclusively uses Digital Signaling instead of dividing the cable into frequency
bands. TDM splits cable usage into time slots.
 The data rate of transmission media exceeds the data rate of signals. Uses a frame
and one slot for each slice of time and the time slots are transmitted whether the
source has data or not.

There are two types of TDMs which are as follows:

a. Synchronous Time Division Multiplexing:

It is synchronous because the multiplexer and the de-multiplexer have to agree
about the time slots.
 The original time-division multiplexing.
 The multiplexor accepts input from attached devices in a round-robin fashion
and transmits the data in a never-ending pattern.
 Some common examples of this are T-1 and ISDN telephone lines.
 If one device generates data at a faster rate than other devices, then the
multiplexor must either sample the incoming data stream from that device more
often than it samples the other devices or buffers the faster incoming stream.
 If a device has nothing to transmit, the multiplexor must still insert a piece of
data from that device into the multiplexed stream.
 b. Statistical Time Division Multiplexing:

Time-division but on-demand rather than fixed, reschedule link on a per-packet
basis and packets from different sources interleaved on the link.
 It allows the connection of more nodes to the circuit than the capacity of the
circuit.
 Works on the premise that not all the nodes will transmit at full capacity at all
times.
 It must transmit a terminal identification i.e destination id no. and may require
storage. A statistical multiplexor transmits only the data from active
workstations.
 If a workstation is not active, no space is wasted on the multiplexed stream. It
accepts the incoming data streams and creates a frame containing only the data
to be transmitted.

2. Wavelength Division Multiplexing –

 It is the same as FDM but applied to fibers, only the difference is that here the
operating frequencies are much higher actually they are in the optical range.
 There’s great potential for fibers since the bandwidth is so huge. Fibers with
different energy bands are passed through a diffraction grating prism.
 Combined on the long-distance link and then split at the destination. It has got high
reliability and very high capacity.
 It multiplexes multiple data streams onto a single fiber optic line. Different
wavelength lasers (called lambdas) transmit multiple signals. Each signal carried on
the fiber can be transmitted at a different rate from the other signals.
 Dense wavelength division multiplexing combines many (30, 40, 50, or more)
channels onto one fiber. DWDM channels have a very high capacity and it keeps on
improving.
 Coarse wavelength division multiplexing combines only a few lambdas. In this,
channels are more widely spaced and are a cheaper version of DWDM.
Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN)
 These are a set of communication standards for simultaneous digital
transmission of voice, video, data, and other network services over the
traditional circuits of the public switched telephone network.
 Before Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), the telephone system was
seen as a way to transmit voice, with some special services available for data.
The main feature of ISDN is that it can integrate speech and data on the same
lines, which were not available in the classic telephone system.
 ISDN is a circuit-switched telephone network system, but it also provides
access to packet-switched networks that allows digital transmission of voice and
data. This results in potentially better voice or data quality than an analog phone
can provide. It provides a packet-switched connection for data in increments of
64 kilobit/s. It provided a maximum of 128 kbit/s bandwidth in both upstream
and downstream directions. A greater data rate was achieved through channel
bonding. Generally, ISDN B-channels of three or four BRIs (six to eight 64
kbit/s channels) are bonded.
 In the context of the OSI model, ISDN is employed as the network in data-link
and physical layers but commonly ISDN is often limited to usage to Q.931 and
related protocols.
 These protocols introduced in 1986 are a set of signaling protocols establishing
and breaking circuit-switched connections, and for advanced calling features for
the user. ISDN provides simultaneous voice, video, and text transmission
between individual desktop videoconferencing systems and group
videoconferencing systems.

ISDN Interfaces:
The following are the interfaces of ISDN:

1. Basic Rate Interface (BRI) –

 There are two data-bearing channels (‘B’ channels) and one signaling channel
(‘D’ channel) in BRI to initiate connections.
 The B channels operate at a maximum of 64 Kbps while the D channel operates
at a maximum of 16 Kbps.
 The two channels are independent of each other. For example, one channel is
used as a TCP/IP connection to a location while the other channel is used to
send a fax to a remote location. In iSeries ISDN supports a basic rate interface
(BRl).
 The basic rate interface (BRl) specifies a digital pipe consisting of two B
channels of 64 Kbps each and one D channel of 16 Kbps.
 This equals a speed of 144 Kbps. In addition, the BRl service itself requires an
operating overhead of 48 Kbps. Therefore a digital pipe of 192 Kbps is
required.

2. Primary Rate Interface (PRI) –


Primary Rate Interface service consists of a D channel and either 23 or 30 B
 channels depending on the country you are in. PRI is not supported on the
iSeries.
 A digital pipe with 23 B channels and one 64 Kbps D channel is present in the
usual Primary Rate Interface (PRI).
 Twenty-three B channels of 64 Kbps each and one D channel of 64 Kbps equals
1.536 Mbps. The PRI service uses 8 Kbps of overhead also. Therefore PRI
requires a digital pipe of 1.544 Mbps.

3. Broadband-ISDN (B-ISDN) –
Narrowband ISDN has been designed to operate over the current communications
infrastructure, which is heavily dependent on the copper cable however B-ISDN relies
mainly on the evolution of fiber optics. According to CCITT B-ISDN is best described
as ‘a service requiring transmission channels capable of supporting rates greater than
the primary rate.

ISDN Services:
ISDN provides a fully integrated digital service to users. These services fall into 3
categories- bearer services, teleservices, and supplementary services.

1. Bearer Services –
Transfer of information (voice, data, and video) between users without the network
manipulating the content of that information is provided by the bearer network. There
is no need for the network to process the information and therefore does not change the
content. Bearer services belong to the first three layers of the OSI model. They are well
defined in the ISDN standard. They can be provided using circuit-switched, packet-
switched, frame-switched, or cell-switched networks.

2. Teleservices –
In this, the network may change or process the contents of the data. These services
correspond to layers 4-7 of the OSI model. Teleservices rely on the facilities of the
bearer services and are designed to accommodate complex user needs. The user need
not be aware of the details of the process. Teleservices include telephony, teletex,
telefax, videotext , telex, and teleconferencing. Though the ISDN defines these
servicesby name yet they have not yet become standards.

3. Supplementary Service –
Additional functionality to the bearer services and teleservices are provided by
supplementary services. Reverse charging, call waiting, and message handling are
examples of supplementary services which are all familiar with today’s telephone
company services.

Principle of ISDN:
The ISDN works based on the standards defined by ITU-T (formerly CCITT). The
Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) coordinates standards for
telecommunications on behalf of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
and is based in Geneva, Switzerland. The various principles of ISDN as per ITU-T
recommendation are:
 To support switched and non-switched applications

 To support voice and non-voice applications

 Reliance on 64-kbps connections

 Intelligence in the network

 Layered protocol architecture

 Variety of configurations

Advantages of ISDN:
 ISDN channels have a reliable connection.
 ISDN is used to facilitate the user with multiple digital channels.
 It has faster data transfer rate.
Disadvantages of ISDN:
 ISDN lines costlier than the other telephone system.
 It requires specialized digital devices.
 It is less flexible.