Circuit switch Vs packet switch?

[copyright_1978]

Can someone please give me some detailed explanation or locate me to some information on the difference between circuit switch and packet switch network. Thank you very much.

[christo418]

Circuit-switched: like plain old telephone system, same physical path is used for the duration of the call until you break the connection by hanging up. On a network, bandwidth is reserved and end-to-end connection established for the duration of the session.
Packet-switched: no physical end-to-end connection, each individual packet of data can take a different path (referred by Cisco as connectionless technology).

[bob]

copyright_1978 for your sig how about "patent pending"

[Blankman]

Packet switching:
Networking method in which nodes share bandwidth with each other by sending packets.

Circuit switching:
Switching system in which a dedicated physical circuit path must exist between sender and receiver for the duration of the "call." Used heavily in the telephone company network. Circuit switching can be contrasted with contention and token passing as a channel-access method, and with message switching and packet switching as a switching technique.


Here are some plain text definitions just FYI...hope it helps

[wolzi]

Websites like www.whatis.com are really good for this kind of thing. I've always found it to be a good resource for information / definitions etc.