A High Throughput Packet-Switched Network Technique Without Message Reassembly

A new packet-switching network technique is described which, while utilizing certain aspects of the ARPANET technology, introduces a substantially different technique for handling traffic which is longer than a single packet in length. The technique is keyed to a common-user network environment, where a wide variety of subscriber types, ranging from computers to simple terminals, are to be serviced. Subscribers in most cases would be remotely located from the network switching nodes. By splitting the buffering between the originating and destination nodes and by essentially eliminating the segment reassembly process, substantial reductions in on-line buffering can be achieved, while still maintaining short response times for interactive messages and large bandwidths for long data exchanges. In this paper we describe the network operational concepts and traffic flow for various subscriber types, show specific examples and timing diagrams for message flows, and present a comparative analysis of the buffer sizing, throughput, and delay for this new technique compared to the well-known ARPANET technique of packet switching.