Q. What are the advantages as well as disadvantages of using circuit switching? For what types of applications is circuit switching a viable strategy?
Answer: Circuit switching assurance that the network resources required for a transfer are reserved prior to the transmission takes place. This makes sure that packets will not be dropped and their delivery would satisfy quality of service requirements. The drawback of circuit switching is that it requires a round-trip message to set-up the reservations and it as well might overprovision resources thereby resulting in suboptimal utilizes of the resources. Circuit switching is a feasible strategy for applications that have constant demands regarding network resources as well as would require the resources for long periods of time thus amortizing the initial overheads.