Time to Rethink the Power of Packet Switching

Abstract

Communication specialists all around the world are facing the same problem: shifting from circuit switching (CS) to packet switching (PS). Communication service providers are favoring “All-over-IP” technologies hoping to boost their profits by providing multimedia services. The main stakeholder in this field of the paradigm shift is the industry itself: packet switching hardware manufacturers are going to earn billions of dollars and thus pay engineers and journalists many millions for the promotion of the new paradigm. However, this drive for profit is tempered by life itself. This article is devoted to the discussion of the telecommunications development strategy. We will provide examples to illustrate the difficulties that complicate the transition from CS to PS and the move to hybrid CS+PS solutions. We are considering three areas: (1) network-on-a-chip (NoC), (2) the telecom strategy: how to build the core of the network, (3) the transition of the U.S. Defense Information System Network from SS7 signaling to IP protocol.