Design Ideas (contd)
- Time slots have no meta-data (header) associated. All relevant meta-data is inferred from timing and state installed during circuit/connection-setup.
Packet-switching: packets with meta-data (header) and store-and-forward type transmission.
- Very efficient – can exploit multiplexing gains both in space and time (see below).
- Cost: self-descriptive header per-packet, buffering and delays for applications. (tradeoff space and time for money)