EEL4595 University of Florida Fall 2004

EEL4595
Data and Computer Comm.
Professor George
Stallings – Chapter 10
Circuit Switching and
Packet Switching
NOTE: Many figures and other materials in this presentation are borrowed from
required and reference textbooks cited on the class web page.

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Switching Networks
Long-distance transmission is typically
done over a network of switched nodes
Nodes not concerned with content of data
End devices are stations
 Computer, terminal, phone, etc.
A collection of nodes and connections is a
communications network
Data routed by being switched from node
to node
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Switching Nodes
Nodes may connect to other nodes only
(internal), or to stations and other nodes
Node-to-node links usually multiplexed
 FDM or TDM
Network is usually not fully connected
 Partially connected
 Some redundant connections desirable for reliability

Two different switching technologies

 Circuit switching

 Packet switching

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A Simple Switched Network

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Circuit Switching
Basic Concepts

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Circuit Switching
Dedicated communication path provided between two stations
Three phases
 Circuit establishment
Free channel must be allocated for each leg in the route
 Data transfer
Data may be analog or digital, depending upon network type
Digital transmission for voice and data becoming dominant
Typically full-duplex
 Circuit disconnect
As requested by one of two stations involved
Action propagated to deallocate the dedicated resources
Must have switching capacity and channel capacity between each
pair of switching nodes on path to establish connection
Switches must have intelligence to make allocations and device
route through network
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Circuit Switching - Applications

Inefficient
 Channel capacity dedicated for duration of connection
 When no data, capacity wasted
Setup (connection) takes time
 But once connected, transfer is transparent!
Developed for voice traffic (phone)
 Now widely used for data traffic
 Best-known example is public telephone network
Substantial data traffic from modems
Gradually being converted to digital network
 Another example is private branch exchange (PBX)
Interconnect phones within a building or office
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Public Circuit-Switched Network

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Telecomm Network Components

Subscriber
 Devices attached to network
Local Loop
 a.k.a. subscriber loop or local loop
 Connection to network
Exchange
 Switching centers within the network
 End office – switching center supporting subscribers
 Intermediate switching nodes in-between
Trunks
 Branches between exchanges
 Carry multiple voice-frequency circuits via FDM or
synchronous TDM
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Circuit Establishment

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Elements of a Circuit-Switching Node

Digital Switch
 Provide transparent signal path
between devices
Network interface
 Functions and hardware to connect
digital devices (computers, digital
telephones) to network
 Analog phones can also be attached if
interface logic includes converter
Control logic
 Establishes connections on demand of
attached device
Handle and acknowledge requests
Must determine if destination free and
construct path through switch
 Maintains connections
 Terminates connections at request of
attached device or for its own reasons
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Blocking vs. Non-blocking

Blocking
 A network is unable to connect stations because all
paths are in use
 A blocking network allows this situation to occur
 Used on voice systems
Tolerance when assuming short-duration calls
Non-blocking
 Permits all stations to connect (in pairs) at once
 Used in some data applications

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Space-Division Switching
Background
 Originally developed for analog environment, but carried over
into digital realm
Principles same whether switch carries analog or digital signals
 Separate physical paths (divided in “space”)
 Each connection requires establishment of physical path through
switch dedicated to data transfer between 2 endpoints
 Basic building block is crossbar switch
Crossbar switch
 Number of crosspoints grows as square of number of stations
 Loss of crosspoint prevents connection
 Inefficient use of crosspoints
All stations connected, yet only a few crosspoints in use
 Non-blocking

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Crossbar Switch

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Multistage Switch
Designed to overcome crossbar limitations
 Scalability
 Resilience to failed crosspoints
 Utilization of crosspoints
Characteristics
 Reduced number of crosspoints
 More than one path through network
Increased reliability
 But, more complex control scheme required
 May be blocking
 Can be made non-blocking by increasing number
and/or size of intermediate switches
At increased cost

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Three-Stage Switch

NOTE: 48 crosspoints instead of 100 in crossbar switch 16

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Time-Division Switching
Characteristics of Time-Division Switching
 Partition lower-speed bit stream into pieces that share higher-speed
stream with other streams
 Slots manipulated by control logic to route data from input to output
 Simple and common example is TDM bus switching
TDM bus switching
 Based on synchronous TDM; recurring frame of slots
Source and destination of data in each slot is known
 # of slots = # of inputs; slots may be a bit, byte, or larger block
 Each station connects through controlled gates to high-speed bus
 For duration of each slot
One input line’s gate is enabled allowing small burst of data onto bus
Meanwhile, another line’s gate enabled for output at same time
Thus, data switched from enabled input line to enabled output line
Control memory in switch indicates which gates enabled during each
time slot

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TDM Bus Switch

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CSN Control Signaling Functions

Means by which network is managed and calls are established,
maintained, and terminated
Info. exchanged between
 Subscriber and switch
 Among switches
 Between switch and network management center
For large public telecomm network, complex scheme required
Control Signaling Functions
 Audible communication with subscriber (e.g. dial tone, ringing, busy)
 Transmission of dialed number to switching offices
 Call cannot be completed indication
 Call ended indication, path can be disconnected
 Signal to ring phone
 Billing info
 Equipment and trunk status info
 Diagnostic info
 Control of special equipment (e.g. satellite)

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Example: Control Signal Sequence

Typical telephone connection sequence form one line to
another in same central office
 Both phones on hook
 Subscriber lifts receiver (off-hook)
 End office switch signaled
 Switch responds with dial tone
 Caller dials number
 If target not busy, sends ringer signal to target subscriber
 Feedback to caller
Ringing tone, busy tone, unobtainable message
 “I’m sorry, but your call cannot be completed as dialed.” 
 Target accepts call by lifting receiver
 Switch terminates ringing signal and ringing tone
 Switch establishes connection
 Connection release when source subscriber hangs up
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Switch-to-Switch Signaling
Switch-to-switch signaling functions required
when called and caller subscribers attached to
different switches
 Originating switch seizes idle interswitch trunk
channel
 Originating switch sends off-hook signal on trunk,
requesting digit register at target switch (for address)
 Terminating switch sends off-hook signal followed by
on-hook (wink) to show register ready
 Originating switch sends address
 Other steps same as before

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Location of Signaling
Two key locations
 Subscriber to network
Depends on subscriber device and switch
 Within network
Entirely computer-to-computer
Management of subscriber calls and network itself
More complex set of commands, responses, and
parameters

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In-Channel Signaling (1)

Use same channel for both signaling and call
 Same channel used to carry control signals as calls to which they relate
 Requires no additional transmission facilities
 Two forms: inband and out-of-band signaling
Inband
 Uses same frequencies as voice signal
 Advantages
Can go anywhere a voice signal can go
Impossible to set up a call on a faulty speech path
Out-of-band
 Voice signals do not use full 4 kHz bandwidth they are allotted
 Separate narrow signal band within 4 kHz used for control
 Advantages
Can be sent whether or not voice signals present on line
Thus, permits continuous supervision and control of call
 Disadvantages
Need extra electronics
Slower signal rate (narrow bandwidth)
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In-Channel Signaling (2)

Drawbacks of In-Channel
 Limited transfer rate
Inband, only available when no voice
Out-of-band, narrow frequency band
 Delay
From time subscriber enters address (i.e. dials #) until
connection established
A significant part of total transaction time for some cases,
such as computer-controlled calls for transaction processing
 Overcome by use of common channel signaling

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Common-Channel Signaling
Control signals carried over paths independent of voice channel
 Physically separate signal path
One control signal channel can carry signals for many subscriber channels
 Common control channel for these subscriber lines
More powerful and complex
 Configured with bandwidth needed to carry control signals for rich variety of
functions
 Increasingly attractive as hardware costs drop
 Note: even so, some inchannel signaling still needed (e.g. dial tone, ring, busy)
Two modes of operation
 Associated Mode
Common channel closely tracks interswitch trunk groups along entire length between
endpoints
But, still on different channels from subscriber signals
Control signals routed directly to control signal processor
 Disassociated Mode
Network augmented with additional nodes (signal transfer points)
Effectively two separate networks with links between to exercise control
More complex
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In-Channel vs. Common Channel

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Common Channel Signaling Modes

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Signaling System Number 7 (SS7)

Most widely used scheme for common channel
signaling, international standard, ISDNs
Characteristics
 Optimized for network of 64 kbps digital channels
 Call control, remote control, management and maintenance
 Reliable means of transfer of info in sequence w/o loss or
duplication
 Will operate over analog channels and below 64 kbps
 Supports point-to-point terrestrial and satellite links
In SS7, control messages routed through network to
perform call mgmt. and network mgmt. functions
Network being controlled is circuit-switched, but control
signaling implemented using packet switching
 SS7 defines functions but not a particular h/w implementation
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SS7 Signaling Network Elements

Signaling point (SP)
 Any point in the network capable of handling SS7
control message
Signal transfer point (STP)
 A signaling point capable of routing control messages
Control plane
 Responsible for establishing and managing
connections
Information plane
 Once a connection is set up, info is transferred in the
information plane

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SS7 Signaling and

Information Transfer Points

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Signaling Network Structures

Several parameters influence design of network
and # of levels implemented
 STP capacities
Number of signaling links that can be handled by STP
Signaling message transfer time
Message throughput capacity
 Network performance
Number of SPs
Signaling delays
 Availability and reliability
Ability of network to provide services when STP failures

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Example: Softswitch Architecture

Recent trend in circuit-switching technology is Softswitch
 General-purpose computer running software to make it a smart
phone switch
Lower costs and greater functionality in addition to
handling traditional circuit-switching functions
 Packetizing of digitized voice data
 Allowing voice over IP
Most complex part of telephone network switch is
software that controls call processing
 Call routing
 Call processing logic
 Typically running on proprietary processor
Difference with Softswitch
 Separate call processing from h/w switching function of switch
 Physical switching performed by media gateway (MG)
 Call processing performed by media gateway controller (MGC)
 MG and MGC perhaps from different vendors; standard protocol
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Traditional Circuit Switching

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Softswitch

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Packet Switching
Basic Concepts

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Principles
Circuit switching designed for voice
 Resources dedicated to a particular call
 Fairly high utilization with talking
 Shortcomings with data connections
Much of the time the line is idle
 Inefficient use of resources
Data rate is fixed
 Both ends must operate at same rate
 Limits utility in interconnecting variety of host computers
Packet switching is far better for data

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Basic Operation of Packet Switching

Data transmitted in small packets

 e.g. packet length of 1000 octets
 Longer messages split into series of packets
 Each packet contains a portion of user data from
message, plus some control info
Control info
 Routing (addressing) info
At each switching node
 Each packet received, stored briefly (buffered), and
passed on to next node
 Store and forward

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Use of Packets

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Advantages
Line efficiency
 Single node-to-node link can be shared by many
packets over time
 Packets queued and transmitted as fast as possible
Data rate conversion
 Each station connects to local node at its own speed
 Nodes buffer data if required to equalize rates
Packets accepted even when network is busy
 Unlike blocking of calls in circuit switching
 But, delivery may slow down (i.e. increased delay)
Priorities can be used
 Useful when packets queued, as can send higher-
priority packets first when output link available
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Switching Technique
Station breaks long message into packets
Packets sent one at a time to the network
Packets handled in one of two approaches
 Datagram
 Virtual circuit

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Datagram
Basic characteristics
 Each packet treated independently
 Packets can take any practical route
 Packets may arrive out of order
Some get through faster than others
 Packets may go missing
e.g. momentary crash of switching node may
cause all queued packets on it to be lost
 Up to receiver to re-order packets and recover
from missing packets

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Example:
Datagram

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Virtual Circuit
Basic characteristics
 Not a dedicated path
 Preplanned route is established before any data
packets sent
 First, call request and call accept packets establish
connection (handshake)
 Then, each data packet contains a virtual circuit
identifier (VCI) instead of destination address
No routing decisions required for each packet
 Clear request packet used to drop circuit

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Example:
Virtual
Circuit

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Virtual Circuit vs. Datagram

Virtual circuit
 Network can provide sequencing and error control
By design, packets arrive in order
Retransmission request for missing packets
 Data packets forwarded more quickly
No routing decisions to make
 Less reliable
Loss of switching node loses all virtual circuits through that node
Datagram
 No call setup phase
Better if few packets
 More flexible
Routing with each data packet permits it to avoid congested or
failed parts of network

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Packet Size
Relationship between packet
size and transmission time
 Smaller packets provide more
potential for concurrency in
network when multiple hops
Reduces msg. trans. time 
 However, law of diminishing
returns applies as usual
At some point, too small a packet
starts to increase total
transmission time again 
Of course, other factors also in
play with change in packet size
 e.g. smaller packets exhibit
higher ratio of overhead 

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Circuit vs. Packet Switching

Delay factors in performance
 Propagation delay
As we’ve seen, speed of signal through medium
 e.g. 2x108 meters/sec through a wire
A function of distance and medium
 Transmission time
As we’ve seen, time for transmitter to emit block of data
Clearly a function of packet size and data rate
 Node delay
Processing delay of node to switch data
A function of technology and perhaps packet size

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Event Timing

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External and Internal Operation

Can consider datagrams vs. virtual circuits at two levels
 Internal vs. external
 They need not necessarily be the same at both levels
Interface between station and network switching node
 Connection-oriented service
Station requests logical connection (virtual circuit)
All packets identified as belonging to that connection and sequentially numbered
Network delivers packets in sequence
External VC service
e.g. X.25
Different from internal VC operation
 Connectionless service
Packets handled independently
External datagram service
Different from internal datagram operation
 Basically, the logical behavior (VC or datagram) provided by service to upper
layer (“user”) is the external service (DG vs. VC)

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External VC and Datagram

Operation inside the network fabric (i.e. cloud)

is not necessarily the same as external view.
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Internal VC and Datagram

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PSN Example: X.25

Standard approved in 1976
 Revised many times since
 Interface between host and packet-switched network
 Widely used on PSNs and packet switching in ISDN
Defines three layers of protocols
 Physical
 Link
 Packet
 These map to lowest 3 layers of OSI model
Alternative to leased lines
 PSN fabric shared and subscriber charged by usage
ATM and Frame Relay are recent alternatives with more
efficient transmission schemes (i.e. less overhead)

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X.25 – Physical level

3 types of devices
 DTE (hosts)
 DCE (modems and packet switches)
 Packet-switching exchange (PSE)
Basic characteristics
 Interface between station and link to node
 Uses physical layer specification called X.21
 Others also substituted (e.g. EIA-232)

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X.25 – Link level

Basic characteristics
 Reliable transfer across physical link
 Data as sequence of frames
 As with any L2 protocol, node-to-node issues
 Link Access Protocol Balanced (LAPB)
Subset of HDLC

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X.25 – Packet level

Provides external virtual circuits
 Logical connections (virtual circuits) between
subscribers
Packet control info
 ID of particular VC where data associated
 Sequence #s for flow and error control on a VC basis

User Data

X.25 packet

LAPB frame

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X.25 use of Virtual Circuits

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Virtual-Circuit Service
Logical connection between two stations
 External virtual circuit
Specific preplanned route through network
 Internal virtual circuit
Typically one-to-one relationship between
external and internal virtual circuits
Can employ X.25 with datagram-style network
External virtual circuits require logical channel
 All data considered part of stream

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Virtual-Circuit Service
Virtual Calls
 Dynamically established virtual circuit
 Uses call setup and clearing procedure
 a.k.a. Switched Virtual Circuits (SVCs)
Permanent Virtual Circuits (PVCs)
 Fixed, network-assigned virtual circuit
 Same data transfer as with virtual calls
 But no call setup or clearing required
Routing of packets inside network not visible to
user

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X.25 Levels
User data passes to X.25 level 3
X.25 appends control information
 Header
 Identifies virtual circuit
 Provides sequence numbers for flow and
error control
X.25 packet passed down to LAPB entity
LAPB appends further control information

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Events in an SVC
Same format as CR
Includes source and but different VC #
destination addresses, selected from those
and VC # selected for available by DCE
this new VC

Same format as CA Uses same VC # as

packet, except uses that of the IC packet
VC # specified in
original CR packet

A and B send data and

control packets back
and forth using their
respective VC #s

Either side (A or B)
requests VC
termination, and
other side confirms VC = Virtual Circuit
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X.25 Packet Format (1)

User data packets
 Message segmented into blocks of some max. size
 24-, 32-, or 56-bit header appended to each block to form packet
 Choice of 3-, 7-, or 15-bit sequence numbers
Header begins with special ID (00110000) when using 15-bit
sequence numbers
 Header includes 12-bit virtual circuit number
4-bit group number, 8-bit channel number
 P(S) and P(R) fields for flow and error control on a virtual circuit
basis
Control packets
 Establish, maintain, and terminate virtual circuits
 Each control packet includes virtual circuit #, packet type, and
additional control info

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X.25 Packet Format (2)

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Multiplexing
Key service provided by X.25
 DTE can establish up to 4095 simult. virtual circuits
with other DTEs over single DTE-DCE link
 DTE can internally assign circuits as it sees fit
Individual virtual circuits may correspond to applications,
processes, terminals, etc.
12-bit virtual circuit # in each packet to sort out
 #0 for diagnostics common to all virtual circuits
 Others divided into contiguous ranges for easy
selection at each endpoint

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Flow/Error Control at Packet Level

See HDLC behavior (virtually identical)
Default is 3-bit sequence #
 7- and 15-bit are optional at request of DTE
Flow control is sliding-window
 Default window size is 2 packets
 May be set as high as 7, 127, and 32767 packets for 3-, 7-, and
15-bit seq. numbers, respectively
 Ack. packets (e.g. RR, RNR) and hence packet-level flow control
may have local (D=0, usual case) or end-to-end (D=1)
significance
D=0  acks. between DTE and network, control flow into network
D=1  acks. come from remote DTE
Error control is Go-Back-N ARQ
 Neg. ack. with REJ control packet
 Specified packet retransmitted and all subsequent packets

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Migration Strategies
Transport X.25 traffic via another network
 e.g. PLP over FR, or XOT (X.25 over TCP/IP)

Courtesy
of Cisco

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PSN Example: Frame Relay

Designed to be more efficient than X.25
 Developed before ATM
 Larger installed base than ATM
Key features of X.25
 Call-control packets, in-band signaling
 Multiplexing of virtual circuits at layer 3
 Layer 2 and 3 include flow and error control
Weaknesses
 Considerable overhead
 Not particularly appropriate for modern digital
communications systems with high reliability at high
speed
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Frame Relay – Key Differences

Streamlines the communications process
Call-control signaling carried on separate logical
connection from user data
 Intermediate nodes in fabric relieved of much work in
maintaining state tables and processing
Multiplexing and switching is at layer 2
 Eliminates one layer of processing
No hop-by-hop error or flow control
 End-to-end flow and error control (if used) performed by higher
layer
Single user data frame sent from source to destination
and ACK carried back
 No hop-by-hop exchanges of data and ACK frames

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Advantages and Disadvantages

Lost link by link error and flow control
 Increased reliability makes this less a problem
Streamlined communications process
 Lower delay
 Higher throughput
Better solution for higher data rates,
reliable links

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Protocol Architecture

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Control Plane
Between subscriber and network
Separate logical channel used
 Similar to common channel signaling for circuit-
switching services
Data link layer
 LAPD (Q.921)
 Reliable data link control
 Error and flow control
 Between user (TE) and network (NT)
 Used for exchange of Q.933 control signal messages

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User Plane
End-to-end functionality
Transfer of info between ends
LAPF (Link Access Procedure for Frame Mode
Bearer Services) Q.922
 Called “LAPF Core” for minimum-function protocol
 Frame delimiting, alignment and transparency
 Frame mux and demux using addressing field
 Ensure frame is integral number of octets (zero bit
insertion/extraction)
 Ensure frame is neither too long nor short
 Detection of transmission errors
 Congestion control functions
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User Data Transfer

LAPF Core is similar to LAPB, LAPD, HDLC, etc.
 Except no control field!
There is only one frame type
 User data frame
 No control frame
No inband signaling
 Logical connection carries only data
No sequence numbers
 Neither flow nor error control

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