VIRTUAL CIRCUIT HANDLING IN PACKET SWITCHED NETWORKS.

The ″virtual circuit″ concept has been widely accepted by both data communication users and packet network designers. However, from a systems point of view, multiple solutions are possible, for the implementation of a packet network based on virtual circuits. This paper aims to present some design possibilities for the definition of the nodal network functions associated with the virtual circuit management. A set of solutions is presented for achieving different levels of virtual circuit performance. In order to take a decision, some complexity parameters are given relating to processing and memory costs in the network nodes. Finally, a solution suitable for virtual circuit handling in public switched data networks is briefly discussed.