Is line efficiency greater in packet switching?

Packet Switching

The short answer is "no." The longer answer is that "packet switching" is the way the internet works. If you send a very short message, it might end up as a single "packet." A packet consists of a sandwich that contains your message as the filling. The beginning contains routing information - where you want the message to go, and eventually where the message has been (how many stops it made along the way and what their address is). The end contains information to keep the message "clean" and be sure we don't drop some words or letters, or add some.
If your message is long, it will probably be divided into several packets, and each packet is identified with a unique message identifier showing it is your message in a number of pieces and a sequence within the message. Each packet is then sent out over the internet. Each packet will probably follow a different route through the internet, stopping at different places along the way to the destination. At the destination, the receiving machine will recognize that a packet is part of a bigger message, and store it until all the parts are received. It will then assemble it as a single message and pass it on to your application, usually your internet browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox.
So...a line is more efficient when you fill it with large blocks of data. When you use packets you are duplicating a lot of information in each packet, and generating information to identify the packet and the data within it.

Therefore, packets are inherently NOT effiicient for line usage. However...They are extremely effective in allowing the internet to get large amounts of data to/from places in a short amount of time by being able to process all your packets in "parallel" mode. So if your message takes 6 packets, those 6 packets can be sent from point A to point B through 6 different routes using a lot of different machines along the way. The message gets to you quicker than sending it all at once, which is line efficient but not network efficient.

Packet Loss

By the way, you may have heard the term "packet loss." You can now figure out that that means one of the packet's in a message never made it to the receiving machine. When the receiving machine receives a packet for a message, it starts a clock on that message. If it doesn't receive the rest of the packets in a reasonable amount of time, it flags the message as incomplete and logs the packet loss.

You now know a bit of how the internet works.

First answer by ID1198137091. Last edit by ID1198137091. Question popularity: 12 [recommend question]