Message Switching:

In telecommunications, message switching was the precursor of packet switching, where messages were routed in their entirety, one hop at a time. It was first introduced by Leonard Kleinrock in 1961. Message switching systems are nowadays mostly implemented o er packet! switched or circuit!switched data networks. "op!by!hop #ele$ forwarding and %%&' are e$amples of message switching systems. (!mail is another e$ample of a message switching system. )hen this form of switching is used, no physical path is established in ad ance in between sender and recei er. Instead, when the sender has a block of data to be sent, it is stored in the first switching office *i.e. router+ then forwarded later at one hop at a time. (ach block is recei ed in its entity form, inspected for errors and then forwarded or re!transmitted. , form of store!and!forward network. -ata is transmitted into the network and stored in a switch. #he network transfers the data from switch to switch when it is con enient to do so, as such the data is not transferred in real!time. .locking can not occur, howe er, long delays can happen. #he source and destination terminal need not be compatible, since con ersions are done by the message switching networks. , message switch is /transactional0. It can store data or change its format and bit rate, then con ert the data back to their original form or an entirely different form at the recei e end. Message switching multiple$es data from different sources onto a common facility. 1ince message switching stores each message at intermediate nodes in its entirety before forwarding, messages e$perience an end to end delay which is dependent on the message length, and the number of intermediate nodes. (ach additional intermediate node introduces a delay which is at minimum the alue of the minimum transmission delay into or out of the node. 2ote that nodes could ha e different transmission delays for incoming messages and outgoing messages due to different technology used on the links. #he transmission delays are in addition to any propagation delays which will be e$perienced along the message path.