What is Packet Switching in a computer network? In the following, Matob News will provide a more complete explanation of this,
In the process of exchanging information between devices on a computer network , one of the most important stages is when sending information, which if hampered can interfere with the delivery and completeness of the information or data to be conveyed/sent.
For this reason, it is necessary to apply a more effective and efficient method of sending data/information, which in the end is what is called Packet Switching.
Definition of Packet Switching
Packet Switching is a method of sending information in which any information sent over the network will be broken down into several small segments called “packets”, which will then be recombined when they reach their destination.
This is so that information is no longer sent using the First In First Out method, aka FIFO, which proves to be less effective because for example you send 5 data, then the 5th data must wait for the 1,2 data 3 and 4 to finish sending first, while for example the file size of the 5th data is smaller and the 1st data file size is very large.
With Packet Switching, every data sent will be broken down into segments or small pieces and ignore the order of delivery so that all data can be sent simultaneously and generally data with small file sizes will arrive earlier.
In the diagram above, it can be seen that in Packet Switching, data sent from the sending device (Host 1) will be split into several packets which will then move through various nodes (devices such as switches or routers) until finally all the information/data arrives at the destination. destination device (Host 2).
The data flow that is sent uses Variable Bit Rate (VBR), aka each file size can vary in each delivery segment, while the delivery technique used usually uses statistical multiplexing or dynamic bandwidth allocation (using various bandwidth allocations for each user and can be allocated) so the delivery process will be more flexible even though different devices or infrastructure.