19 April 2024

Circuit switching techniques | Characteristics | Types | Advantages | Applications

Circuit switching is a network configuration operates almost the same way as the telephone system works. In this network configuration, two network endpoints are connected via a dedicated physical path for the duration of the dedicated connection.  Before communication to occur, there needs to be a complete end-to-end channel. Regular telephone service makes use of circuit switching. 

There are three phase of circuit switching which are as follows:

Circuit Establishment:

A dedicated physical route is established between the sender and the receiver. The path may include a number of intermediate switching centers.

Transfer of Data:

After the establishment or setup phase, data is transferred through the dedicated path.

Circuit Disconnect:

Once the data transfer is done, the circuit is disconnected from one of the ends. All the intermediate links are disconnected in this phase. 

Circuit Switching
Circuit Switching

Circuit Switching Example:

  • Analog telephone network
  • Optical mesh network
  • Physical switch telephone network(PSTN)

Characteristics of Circuit switching:

  • It is fixed amount of data is transferred.
  • Circuit switching is capable of handling both data as well as voice signals.
  • The data is process at the source end.
  •  It implemented at the physical layer.
  • A dedicated connection is required for circuit switching.
  • It is usually used for voice communication.
Types of switches in Circuit Switching:

Space Division Switches
  • Space division switching, the paths in the circuit are separated from each other.
  • The main reason of the space division was for the analog network. 
  • It is mostly used for both analog and digital switching.
  • It is mostly find application like digital communication and semiconductors gates.
  • Switching in space division has a great capacity and speed. as well as non-blocking switches.
Time Division Switches
  • In the time division switching method, the number of connections travels along the same trunk line.
  • Time division multiplexing is used to divide the streams into segments and ensure that the segments are supplied at specific times. 
  • The detection of the elements happens with the help of de-multiplexer.

Following are the Advantages of Circuit Switching:

  • Circuit switching has fixed bandwidth
  • This type of switching the communication channel is dedicated.
  • Circuit switching are more secure than packet switching.
  • This types of switching reordering is not required.
  • It also applied for data traffic.
Following are the Disadvantages of Circuit Switching:
  • Circuits switching takes long time to establish connection approx 10 seconds.
  • They required more bandwidth in setting up dedicated channels.
  • It need to requires a dedicated circuit between the communicating devices, so circuit switching is not flexible.
  • This type of switching technology the establishment time is high.
  • Circuit switching is expensive technology as compared to other type of switching technology.
  • Circuit switching is not suitable for bursty traffic.

Circuit Switch Applications:


It is used in variety of application. Some uses of it are as follows:
  • It is mostly used in mobile communication.
  • This type of switching is widely used for long distance communication is required for long period of time. 
  • Public switch telephone network(PSTN).
  • It is used in Landline telephones.
  • It is communally used in private wide area network.
  • Internet via dial up service which in turn uses landline cables.

Differences between Circuit Switching and Packet Switching

  • In circuit switching there is no concept of store and forward transmission, whereas in packet switching network, each node may store incoming packets and forward them after use.
  • Circuit switching is more reliable whereas the packet switching is not more reliable.
  • In circuit switching, bandwidth is fixed because it is reserved in advance, whereas in packet switching it require bandwidth is dynamic because it can be released as it is needed.
  •  Circuit switching is mainly preferred for voice transmission, on the other hand Packet switching is mainly preferred for data transmission.
Explore more information: