Message switching is a slower data transfer method that sends the entire message as a unit, storing it temporarily on the hard drive. It is still used for email and has benefits such as lower bandwidth costs and better network congestion management. Messages are designated an address and inspected for errors at each hop until they reach their final destination. It is better for sending larger emails and low priority messages.
Message switching is a telecommunications data transfer method first introduced in 1961; unlike subsequent packet switching, message switching sends the entire message as a unit. To transfer the message, the message is first stored and then transferred via hop until it reaches the destination. Most messages are too large for random access memory (RAM), so messages are stored temporarily on your hard drive. While message switching is not the primary method of data transfer, as it is slower and experiences delays when sending, it is still widely used with email sending. The benefits of this method are lower bandwidth costs, better network congestion management, and easy transfer of messages to different destinations.
When a user sends a message using message switching, this method first saves the entire message and then designates an address for the message, so they know where the message is going. Once saved, the message is sent to the router, which passes it on to the first hop, or node. At each hop, the message is inspected for problems or errors before being sent to the next hop. The message keeps bouncing until it reaches its final destination.
In packet switching, a message is transformed into small packets which are sent immediately, but message switching sends the message as a whole unit. Sending the whole unit takes up more memory. To keep your computer from slowing down, these messages are saved to your hard drive, unlike packet switching which stores packets in RAM. Most users won’t even realize that the message has been temporarily saved, because it only takes seconds or minutes for the message to be sent.
Message switching is a slower form of data transfer but is still often used for sending email. Emails are typically longer than bit packets, so this allows users to create larger emails than when using packet switching. This data transfer method can also be used for low priority messages over networks to save bandwidth for high priority messages.
Although it is an older and slower method than packet switching, message switching has some advantages. Because it is slower and messages can be stored on nodes, these messages can easily flow through heavily congested networks. This method is also better for sending a message to several people at once and uses less bandwidth overall.
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