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In telecommunications, a circuit switching network is one that establishes a fixed bandwidth circuit (or channel) between nodes and terminals before the users may communicate, as if the nodes were physically connected with an electrical circuit. The bit delay is constant during the connection, as opposed to packet switching, where packet queues may cause varying delay.

Each circuit cannot be used by other callers until the circuit is released and a new connection is set up. Even if no actual communication is taking place in a dedicated circuit then, that channel still remains unavailable to other users. Channels that are available for new calls to be set up are said to be idle.

Virtual circuit switching is a packet switching technology that may emulate circuit switching, in the sense that the connection is established before any packets are transferred, and that packets are delivered in order.

For call setup and control (and other administrative purposes), it is possible to use a separate dedicated signalling channel from the end node to the network. ISDN is one such service that uses a separate signalling channel while Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) does not.

The method of establishing the connection and monitoring its progress and termination through the network may also utilize a separate control channel as in the case of links between telephone exchanges which use CCS7 packet-switched signalling protocol to communicate the call setup and control information and use TDM to transport the actual circuit data.

Early telephone exchanges are a suitable example of circuit switching. The subscriber would ask the operator to connect to another subscriber, whether on the same exchange or via an inter-exchange link and another operator. In any case, the end result was a physical electrical connection between the two subscribers' telephones for the duration of the call. The copper wire used for the connection could not be used to carry other calls at the same time, even if the subscribers were in fact not talking and the line was silent.

Since the first days of the telegraph it has been possible to multiplex multiple connections over the same physical conductor, but nonetheless each channel on the multiplexed link was either dedicated to one call at a time, or it was idle between calls.

With circuit switching, and virtual circuit switching, a route is reserved from source to destination. The entire message is sent in order so that it does not have to be reassembled at the destination. Circuit switching can be relatively inefficient because capacity is wasted on connections which are set up but are not in continuous use (however momentarily). On the other hand, the connection is immediately available and capacity is guaranteed until the call is disconnected.

Circuit switching contrasts with packet switching which splits traffic data (for instance, digital representation of sound, or computer data) into chunks, called packets, that are routed over a shared network.

Packet switching is the process of segmenting a message/data to be transmitted into several smaller packets. Each packet is labeled with its destination and the number of the packet, precluding the need for a dedicated path to help the packet find its way to its destination. Each is dispatched and many may go via different routes. At the destination, the original message is reassembled in the correct order, based on the packet number. Datagram Packet switching networks do not require a circuit to be established and allow many pairs of nodes to communicate almost simultaneously over the same channel.

• Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)
• ISDN B-channel
• Circuit Switched Data (CSD) and High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data (HSCSD) service in cellular systems such as GSM
• X.21 (Used in the German DATEX-L and Scandinavian DATEX circuit switched data network)

• Packet switching
• Message switching
• Call (telecommunications)
• Clos_network

• Netheads vs Bellheads by Steve Steinberg