Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
At the destination, the data packets are captured by the packet organizer and re-assembled in their
original order by the message assembler. Even though the recipient is capable of receiving
information at any time, the communications channel is capable of carrying packets to and from
other subscribers. That is, the recipient can receive messages at any time without blocking the use of
the communications channel for other communications. This is in contrast with switched
communications, which holds the channel captive until the subscriber releases it, even if no data are
being transferred. Even though packet communications uses separate channels for two-way
communications, it is nonetheless several orders of magnitude more bandwidth-efficient than
switched communications. This is especially true with intermittent communications with relatively
long periods of idle time, such as sending and receiving e-mail or reading content on the Web.
