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The TCP/IP Guide  9  Networking Fundamentals       9  Fundamental Network Characteristics

Protocols: What Are They, Anyway? 1 2 3 Connection-Oriented and Connectionless Protocols

Packet Switching

In this network type, no specific path is used for data transfer. Instead, the data is chopped up into small pieces called packets and sent over the network. The packets can be routed, combined or fragmented, as required to get them to their eventual destination. On the receiving end, the process is reversed—the data is read from the packets and re-assembled into the form of the original data. A packet-switched network is more analogous to the postal system than it is to the telephone system (though the comparison isn't perfect.) An example is shown in Figure 2.

Protocols: What Are They, Anyway? 1 2 3 Connection-Oriented and Connectionless Protocols