Circuit Switching and Packet Switching confusion !

Question

I'm really confused about the use of circuit and packet Switching networks example : if i have a Local Area Network and two devices were to establish a connection, they would lock out all the other devices for a long period of time. so It makes more sense to chop the data into small pieces and send them one at a time. Then, if two other devices want to communicate, their packets can be interspersed, and everyone can share the network.

but my question is this : on Local Area Network we use a switch right and the main function of the switch that it enables a lot of computers to talk to each other at the same time
so does circuit Switched networks use Special network medium ??? i hope someone could explain Circuit Switching better and thank you so much in advance.

Answer 1

The most common example for a circuit switched network is the traditional telephone system - you dial a number, the connection is established end-to-end and you can use it until you terminate it. While you're on the phone the line is busy for other callers.

Packet switching works very differently. As you stated, the data stream is separated into small data packets which are transported one by one to the destination (each one is carrying the destination address). This allows the end nodes (and in fact the whole network) to use multiplexed lines that can be used to support a much larger number of logical connections at the same time.