Pace_T said:
iv only heard of packet switching. its somewhere in my notes. can soemone please explain the other two??
thanks.
For anyone who doesn't have these...
'Circuit Switching': A continuous line of links from origin to destination is allocated for the data transmission for the duration of the transfer. This prevents those links from being used by other data, and may therefore stop all data traffic in the network. The PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) operates in this manner.
'Message Switching' involves sending information on a store and forward basis. Messages can be stored at any node and held there until the adjacent node is free, then the data is forwarded onto the next step to its destination. Message switching is a method of receiving a message over a communications network, transmitting it to an intermediate point, storing it until proper outgoing line is available and then transmitting it again to destination.
'Packet Switching': This method also uses a store and forward technique. However the network operating system breaks up each message into standard sized packets which are transmitted independantly through the networks and re-assembled at the destination.
