Paket

Packet-switching is a specific method for data transmission in a network. Therefore information is split up into smaller packets and transmitted as datagram or via a previously established virtual connection. Packet-switching is generally used as a connectionless service; however it also offers connection oriented services, just like a circuit-switching connection, where a specific route for the packets has to be determined.
The development of the packet-switching concept can be traced back to two men. Paul Baran from RAND Corporation and Donald Davies Watts, a British physicist worked simultaneously on the concept of packet-switching.

Completely independent from each other, both had the idea of splitting information into smaller blocks or packets. Thanks to the parallel studies of Paul Baran and Donald Watts Davies, 1964 saw a paradigm switch in the telecommunications sector from circuit-switched to packet-switched concepts.
One example for packet-switching is the frame relay method, which can submit packets with a dedicated line as well as a circuit-switched connection with several virtual channels.