- Switching based on packets
- Send out a packet into the network, have a queue of packets
- It’s the network’s responsibility to route all the packets to the right places
- Everyone should have a chance to send their packets
- Can do round-robin scheduling
Store and forward: Entire packet must arrive at router (stored in internal memory) before it can be transmitted on next link
- Circuit switching doesn’t do this, it just directly forwards bits
However, introduces delays that weren’t present in circuit switching