There are many ways of sending data through a network. The simplest, known as circuit switching, is the way a phone system does it: a set of switches creates a dedicated circuit for signals to go back and forth for the duration of the conversation, and the connection remains open, even during long pauses. Another method is message switching or, as the telegraph operators called it, store-and-forward switching. In this system, an entire message is given an address header, sent into the network, and then passed along from node to node as it wends its way to its destination. An even more
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