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Packet switching is a network communications method that splits data traffic (digital representations of text, sound, or video data) into chunks, called packets, which are then routed over a shared network. To accomplish this, the original message/data is segmented into several smaller packets. Each packet is then labeled with its destination or connection ID. In each network node, packets are queued or buffered, resulting in variable delay and throughput, depending on the traffic load in the network. This contrasts with the other principal paradigm, circuit switching, which sets up a specific circuit with a limited number of constant bit rate and constant delay connections between nodes for exclusive use during the communication session.
Packet mode or packet-oriented communication may be utilized with or without a packet switch, in the latter case directly between two hosts. Examples of that are point-to-point data links, digital video and audio broadcasting or a shared physical medium, such as a bus network, ring network, or hub network.
Packet mode communication is a statistical multiplexing technique, also known as a dynamic bandwidth allocation method, where a physical communication channel is effectively divided into an arbitrary number of logical variable bit-rate channels or data streams. Each logical stream consists of a sequence of packets, which normally are forwarded by a network node asynchronously in a first-come first-serve fashion. Alternatively, the packets may be forwarded according to some scheduling discipline for fair queuing or differentiated and/or guaranteed Quality of service. In case of a shared physical media, the packets may be delivered according to some packet-mode multiple access scheme.
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Connectionless and connection oriented packet switching
The service actually provided to the user by networks using packet switching nodes can can be either be connectionless (based on datagram messages), or virtual circuit switching (also known as connection oriented). Some connectionless protocols are Ethernet, IP, and UDP; connection oriented packet-switching protocols include X.25, Frame relay, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), and TCP.
In connection oriented networks, each packet is labeled with a connection ID rather than an address. Address information is only transferred to each node during a connection set-up phase, when an entry is added to each switching table in the network nodes.
In connectionless networks, each packet is labeled with a destination address, and may also be labeled with the sequence number of the packet. This precludes the need for a dedicated path to help the packet find its way to its destination. Each packet is dispatched and may go via different routes. At the destination, the original message/data is reassembled in the correct order, based on the packet sequence number. Thus a virtual connection, also known as a virtual circuit or byte stream is provided to the end-user by a transport layer protocol, allthough intermediate network nodes only provides a connectionless network layer service.
Packet switching in networks
Packet switching is used to optimize the use of the channel capacity available in digital telecommunication networks such as computer networks, to minimize the transmission latency (i.e. the time it takes for data to pass across the network), and to increase robustness of communication.
The most well-known use of packet switching is the Internet and local area networks. The Internet uses the Internet protocol suite over a variety of data link layer protocols. For example, Ethernet and frame relay are very common. Newer mobile phone technologies (e.g., GPRS, I-mode) also use packet switching.
X.25 is a notable use of packet switching in that, despite being based on packet switching methods, it provided virtual circuits to the user. These virtual circuits carry variable-length packets. In 1978, X.25 was used to provide the first international and commercial packet switching network, the International Packet Switched Service (IPSS). Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) also is a virtual circuit technology, which uses fixed-length cell relay connection oriented packet switching.
Datagram packet switching is also called connectionless networking because no connections are established. Technologies such as Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) and the Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP) create virtual circuits on top of datagram networks. Virtual circuits are especially useful in building robust failover mechanisms and allocating bandwidth for delay-sensitive applications.
MPLS and its predecessors, as well as ATM, have been called "fast packet" technologies. MPLS, indeed, has been called "ATM without cells" [1]. Modern routers, however, do not require these technologies to be able to forward variable-length packets at multigigabit speeds across the network.
History of packet switching
The concept of packet switching was first explored by Paul Baran in the early 1960s, and then independently a few years later by Donald Davies (Abbate, 2000).
Leonard Kleinrock conducted early research in queueing theory which would be important in packet switching, and published a book in the related field of digital message switching (without the packets) in 1961; he also later played a leading role in building and management of the world's first packet switched network, the ARPANET.
Baran developed the concept of packet switching during his research at the RAND Corporation for the US Air Force into survivable communications networks, first presented to the Air Force in the summer of 1961 as briefing B-265 [2] then published as RAND Paper P-2626 in 1962 [1], and then including and expanding somewhat within a series of eleven papers titled On Distributed Communications in 1964 [2]. Baran's P-2626 paper described a general architecture for a large-scale, distributed, survivable communications network. The paper focuses on three key ideas: first, use of a decentralized network with multiple paths between any two points; and second, dividing complete user messages into what he called message blocks (later called packets); then third, delivery of these messages by store and forward switching.
Baran's study made its way to Robert Taylor and J.C.R. Licklider at the Information Processing Technology Office, both wide-area network evangelists, and it helped influence Lawrence Roberts to adopt the technology when Taylor put him in charge of development of the ARPANET.
Baran's packet switching work was similar to the research performed independently by Donald Davies at the National Physical Laboratory, UK. In 1965, Davies developed the concept of packet-switched networks and proposed development of a UK wide network. He gave a talk on the proposal in 1966, after which a person from the Ministry of Defense told him about Baran's work. Davies met Lawrence Roberts at the 1967 ACM Symposium on Operating System Principles, bringing the two groups together.
Interestingly, Davies had chosen some of the same parameters for his original network design as Baran, such as a packet size of 1024 bits. Roberts and the ARPANET team took the name "packet switching" itself from Davies's work.
See also
- Store and forward delay
- Circuit switching
- Message switching
- Public switched data network
- Packet switched network
- Optical burst switching
- Statistical multiplexing
- ALOHAnet
References
- ^ Interview with the author (of an MPLS-based VPN article),G. Pildush
- ^ Stewart, Bill (2000-01-07). "Paul Baran Invents Packet Switching". Living Internet. Retrieved on 2008-05-08.
- Leonard Kleinrock, Information Flow in Large Communication Nets, (MIT, Cambridge, May 31, 1961) Proposal for a Ph.D. Thesis
- Leonard Kleinrock. Information Flow in Large Communication Nets (RLE Quarterly Progress Report, July 1961)
- Leonard Kleinrock. Communication Nets: Stochastic Message Flow and Delay (Mcgraw-Hill, New York, 1964)
- Paul Baran et al., On Distributed Communications, Volumes I-XI (RAND Corporation Research Documents, August, 1964)
- Paul Baran, On Distributed Communications: I Introduction to Distributed Communications Network (RAND Memorandum RM-3420-PR. August 1964)
- Paul Baran, On Distributed Communications Networks, (IEEE Transactions on Communications Systems, March 1964)
- D. W. Davies, K. A. Bartlett, R. A. Scantlebury, and P. T. Wilkinson, A digital communications network for computers giving rapid response at remote terminals (ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles. October 1967)
- R. A. Scantlebury, P. T. Wilkinson, and K. A. Bartlett, The design of a message switching Centre for a digital communication network (IFIP 1968)
- Larry Roberts and Tom Merrill, Toward a Cooperative Network of Time-Shared Computers (Fall AFIPS Conference. October 1966)
- Lawrence Roberts, The Evolution of Packet Switching (Proceedings of the IEEE, November, 1978)
Further reading
- Katie Hafner, Where Wizards Stay Up Late (Simon and Schuster, 1996) pp 52-67
- Janet Abbate, Inventing the Internet (MIT Press, 2000) ISBN 0-262-51115-0
External links
- Oral history interview with Paul Baran. Charles Babbage Institute University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Baran describes his working environment at RAND, as well as his initial interest in survivable communications, and the evolution, writing and distribution of his eleven-volume work, "On Distributed Communications." Baran discusses his interaction with the group at ARPA who were responsible for the later development of the ARPANET.
- Packet Switching History and Design, site reviewed by Baran, Roberts, and Kleinrock
- Paul Baran and the Origins of the Internet
- A Brief History of the Internet
This article was originally based on material from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, which is licensed under the GFDL.
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