Circuit switching is a type of technology used to send data across networks.

Circuit switching establishes channel for transmission via different physical network segments and must use a single unbroken circuit. There are several options to establish a dedicated communications channel for the duration of a transmission. Along with circuit switching there is virtual circuit switching, message switching, and the last means of carrying out this type of communications is packet switching. Every method is used to establish a path for data. Oldest example of circuit switching is telephone service. Earliest examples of this were pioneered in the late 1800s. It should be noted that circuit switching is not limited to just voice communications. Different physical network segments are linked together to form a single unbroken circuit for each phone call. In the past this was done manually but nowadays automatic phone switches are used. Packet Switching Data, regardless of type, content, or structure is broken up into blocks of data called packets. Opens connections long enough for a packet to pass through. Each packet is given enough information to find a path to its intended destination. Different packets end up taking different routes. Once the packet reaches its destination, it Is often out of sequence. Because of this, they need to be put back in their original sequence before processing data. Message switching Is another networking technology related to packet switching developed by Leonard Kleinrock in 1961. It led up to packet switching and its development. Is a data communications technology that delivers whole messages to their destination by individual hops. Eventually the idea of message switching evolved into packet switching. Packet switching sends data in form of packets as opposed to whole messages. Message Switching today is usually known as store-as-forward. The biggest technology using this switching method is email. Virtual Circuit Switching Is an attempt to preserve the efficiency of circuit switched technology while taking advantage of the flexibility packet switching allows. In a larger network such as the Internet, a connection link is established between two points. Additionally the data to communicate is broken into discreet packets, the same as packet switching. Once the link has been established and data broken into packets, they are then sent to the destination computer via the pre-established communications channel.

An advantage to using this method is that its faster because all of the packets are following the same route and are kept organized. In addition to this, since they are following a pre-established path, they do not need to wait in a queue at every router to be processed.