Analogous to a private telephone connection for which there is a dedicated physical connection between the communication nodes. The receiver collects the packets, strips off the container info and pieces the original message back together. In ATM communication there is no guarantee that the packets will arrive in any particular order of even that they will arrive at all. The Internet is the largest of all the MINs. Circuit switching networks typically communication synchronously.
Distributed control is used to manage packet switching networks.
Packet switching or message passing networks usually communicate asynchronously. This is also called the communication distance and is the number of nodes that a message must pass through between the two most distance nodes. The amount of data that can be sent over the network per unit time. This is a measure of the rate of information transfer only and DOES NOT include the parity, control or routing ID bits of the packet. This is the time required for a message to pass between two points in the network.