Packet switching

Packet switching transmits data by dividing it into packets that are routed across a network and reassembled at their destination. Packets can take different routes and arrive out of order.

Internet Protocol: A network-layer protocol that addresses datagrams and routes them between networks. IP supplies the addressing and forwarding rules used to carry packets across the Internet.
Paul Baran: An American engineer who developed distributed communication network designs at RAND in the 1960s. Baran proposed survivable, distributed networks that divided communications into blocks.
Communication protocol: A set of rules that enables devices to exchange data. Packet switching depends on protocols that define packet formats and forwarding behavior.
Circuit switching: A communication method that reserves a dedicated path and capacity for a connection's duration. Unlike packet switching, circuit switching reserves network resources along a fixed path.
Internet: A global system of interconnected networks that communicate using the Internet protocol suite. The Internet is the largest familiar system built around packet-switched communication.
Routing: The process of selecting paths for traffic through a network. Routers choose packet paths hop by hop rather than reserving one end-to-end circuit.
Donald Davies: A British computer scientist who coined the term “packet” and helped develop packet-switched networking. Davies independently developed packet switching and gave its data units their lasting name.
Router: A network device that forwards packets between networks using routing information. Routers are the principal forwarding nodes in packet-switched internetworks.
Virtual circuit: A logical connection that establishes a route before carrying packets through a packet-switched network. Virtual circuits retain packet transport while constraining packets to an established logical path.
Voice over IP: A technology for carrying voice calls over networks using Internet Protocol. VoIP sends real-time voice as packets and must manage delay, jitter, and loss.

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