Packet Switching and VOIP

If all information relays were connected by circuits, the rate of transfer would be extremely slow. For example, computers are extremely reliant on Packet Switching to make timely use of data transmission. It is one thing to send a sound message across great distances, as sound constitutes a very small amount of bandwidth. However, not only sound but images with high resolutions, Flash animations, and other forms of data are sent on the Internet millions of times daily. A circuit would not be able to handle such a load. As a result, Packet Switching is necessary.

In contrast to Circuit Calling, which maintains a constant connection during which information is constantly relayed, Packet Switching bundles information into a payload that is attached to a packet with a specific address. The payload can be any form of data or information, be it an mp3 file, a photograph, or text. Instead of having to be connected to the receiving computer constantly, it simply sends the packets to a router. It is from there sent over the Internet to the receiving computer, with the original computer doing nothing. The packets contain instructions for reassembly, which is done by the receiving computer.

Packet Switching is an extremely efficient way to transmit information. It allows the network to decide what the best bath (least congested, most bandwidth) is and get the data to its destination the fastest. It also frees up time on both computers. Rather than the wasting that occurs during a telephone conversation, in which information goes both ways when it need not be, the receiving computer is free while the first computer sends the packets to the router and the first free while the other receives.

Packet Switching allows for more calls on the same network space that only one PSTN call could go through on. The periods of silence that would actually be transmitted silence from phone to phone in circuit calling is, when using Packet Switching actual silence, since silence isn’t transmitted. If you also consider that bandwidth requirement is halved, since transmissions are one-sided unless both people are talking at once, it’s possible to make 3 or 4 calls with Voice –Over IP rather than one with PSTN. And that does not even take into consideration data compression, which can further reduce the size of calls.

For an in-depth, technical history and overview of packet-sharing, visit this site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_switching