Packet Switching N.W.

Packet Switching N.W.

There are three types of switching used in PSTN network. Circuit switching ,
message switching and Packet switching.
 Circuit switching was designed for voice communication. The circuit
switching also limits the flexibility and not suitable for connecting variety of
digital devices. More efficient utilization of the network requires greater
control channel bandwidth and increased call processing capacities in the
switches. But the circuit switching not providing these capabilities.
 Message switching overcomes the limitations of circuits switching. This
switching stores the incoming messages into a computer memory and forward
it to the destination when available. This causes delay in switching.
 The packet switching overcomes all the limitations of message and circuit
switching. Thus it is highly suitable for the data communication.
 Packet Switching Principles
 The data stream originating at the source is divided into packets of fixed or
variable size.
 The data traffic typically have bursty traffic, that is, time interval between
packets can be variable.
 A typical upper bound on packet length is 512 octets (bytes).
 Each packet contains a portion of the user’s data plus some control information.
 As the bits in a packet arrive at a switch or router, they are read into a buffer.
When the entire packet is stored, the switch routes the packet over one of its
outgoing links.

The packet remains quenced in its buffer until the outgoing link becomes idle.
This technique is called store and forward technique.

Buffer is a memory unit that store incoming Packets for some time
Packet Switching Principles
 Packet Delay

Four source of Delay in Packet switching N.W. :

1- Transmission Delay = (sec)

where :
L Packet Length
rb Data rate of the link ( speed of the link)

Ex.
calculate packet transmission time between
node A and B. where packet length
is 7.5 MB and link speed is 1.5 Mbps.

A
B
2- Packet processing Delay
time required by the switch or routers (node) to process packet,
i.e. time required to read packet data from header and where it should be directed

3- Propagation Delay

in packet switching tpropagation is very small compared to transmission

4- Queuing Delay
The packet may be delayed in the node buffer for some time until nods finishes
processing previous packets.
Ex:
if tprocessing = 1msec, packet length = 1kbit, rb=1Mbps.

find tqueue of packet No. 3 in the Queue ( buffer).

tprocess = 1msec

= ttrans

tq= N (tdproc. + tdtran. )

tq = 2 (1+1)=4msec

then total packet delay = tproc. + ttrans. + tprop + tqueue

 Arrival rate of packets:
number of packet arrived to a certain node in the N. W. per unit time

 If arrival rate exceed links transmission rate for a period of time, this will make
1- packet will wait in the queue.
2- packet may be dropped if Buffer is full.
 If arrival rate is less than transmission rate of the link, queuing (Buffer) delay
can be ignored.

 Impact of packetization of information.

Ex:
Consider a message of 1Mbit to be transmitted between A and B.
How many bits needed to be transmitted to deliver massage correctly?
Case1 pe= 10-6
send whole message as one part.
A B

Probability that 106 bits arrives correctly = (1-10-6)1000000

 Impact of packetization of information.

Ex:
Consider a message of 1Mbit to be transmitted between A and B.
How many bits needed to be transmitted to deliver massage correctly?
pe= 10-6
……
0 1 1 1 0 1
.…… A B

Pe= 10-6 Pc = 1-10-6 Pc = 1-10-6

Case1
send whole message as one part.

Probability that 106 bits arrives correctly = (1-10-6)1000000

Pc ≈ 1/3 per hop

So we need to transmit message 3 times per hop

∴ total Number of bits in case I =3 X 2 X106 = 6 Mbit
Case II
send 10 packet with 100 kbit each

Packet 2 Packet 10
Packet 1 ( 100 kbit )
… … …
0 1 1 1
.… .… .…

Pe= 10-6

for one packet

probability that one packet arrives correct = (1-10-6)100000
Pc ≈ 0.9

∴ total No. of bits required in case II = 1.1 X 2 X 10 X 100k

= 2.2 Mbit

it means a smaller packet is better than longer packet

Packet Routing :-
routing is a mechanism that determine the set of best paths for the packet to follow.
There are two methods for packet routing in packet N. W.

1- Datagram.
• Each packet within a stream is independently routed
• Source / destination addresses are put in OH.
• Packet can take any route
• Packet may arrive out of order.
• Packet may lost ( time out).
• No. hand shaking.
2- Virtual Circuit.
 A fixed route is selected before any data is transmitted in a call setup phase
similar to circuit switched network.
 All packet follow the same path.
 Need call request and accept connection (hand shaking).
 No routing table is required in each node.
 No out of order packet arrival.
 It is called connection oriented.
Comparison between circuit switching and packet switching

Circuit Packet
1 Call setup required Not required

2 Dedicated circuit required Not required

3 Connection Is lost if any link in the May not lost

path is down because packet
follow different
paths

4 information Always information may arrive out of

arrive in order order

5 B. W. fixed dynamic
 Conclusion

 Virtual circuits are more advantages and currently the packet

switching network uses the virtual circuit approach.

 The overhead is comparable to circuit switching. As the packets

arrives in sequence, no resequencing is needed.

 Statistical multiplexing of packets at the router or switch can

achieve better utilization than in circuit switching.

 Since packets contains their virtual circuit identifiers (VCI), the

switch can allocate resources depending on the VCI.