Cell Switching

lCell switching is a form of packet switching.

lThe main difference between a packet-switched network and a cell-switched network is the size of the cell.

lCells are extremely small and do not vary in size. Their size makes them fast and provides for a network with a low latency.

lAn example of a cell-switched network is Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM).

lThe cell in an ATM network is 53 bytes in length, including the data portion.

lBecause a cell does not vary in size, each router in the cell-switched network knows how much data to expect with each cell and is built to take advantage of it.

lThe tiny cell is small enough to be stored in random access memory, whereas a packet-switching router must store a packet to disk.

lBecause the router need only switch the cell in and out of its fastest memory, there is little latency in a cell-switched network.