Editing Circuit switching (section)

{{Short description|Digital network in which two nodes establish a channel through the network before they communicate}}
{{More footnotes needed|date=June 2009}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2022}}

'''Circuit switching''' is a method of implementing a [[telecommunications network]] in which two [[network nodes]] establish a dedicated [[communications channel]] ([[telecommunication circuit|circuit]]) through the network before the nodes may communicate. The circuit guarantees the full bandwidth of the channel and remains connected for the duration of the [[communication session]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schneps-Schneppe |first=M. A. |date=2015-01-01 |title=Circuit switching is coming back? |url=http://link.springer.com/10.3103/S0146411615010083 |journal=Automatic Control and Computer Sciences |language=en |volume=49 |issue=1 |pages=57–65 |doi=10.3103/S0146411615010083 |s2cid=15237860 |issn=0146-4116|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The circuit functions as if the nodes were physically connected as with an [[electrical circuit]].

Circuit switching originated in analog [[telephone network]]s where the network created a dedicated circuit between two telephones for the duration of a [[telephone call]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Metcalfe |first1=Robert M. |title=Packet Communication |date=May 1973 |pages=1-1,1-2 |publisher=MIT |location=Cambridge|quote=When you make a telephone call, for example, the telephone system establishes an electrical path between you and the person you're calling by joining available telephone cables -- circuits -- end-to-end. To complete your "connection", the telephone system's exchanges -- switching nodes -- allocate cable-miles in the form of circuits and maintain this allocation for the duration of your call. Thus, in circuit-switching, we say, circuits are allocated to carry connections. In pure circuit-switching, the making of a connection requires a number of distant switching nodes to piece together a continuous path from end to end; and, for the life of the connection, its constituent circuits are dedicated to carrying a conversation.}}</ref> It contrasts with [[message switching]] and [[packet switching]] used in modern digital networks in which the [[trunking|trunklines]] between switching centres carry data between many different nodes in the form of [[data packet]]s without dedicated circuits.