In a packet switched network, burst switching is a capability in which each network switch extracts

routing Routing is the process of selecting a path for traffic in a network or between or across multiple networks. Broadly, routing is performed in many types of networks, including circuit-switched networks, such as the public switched telephone netw ...

instructions from an incoming packet header to establish and maintain the appropriate switch connection for the duration of the packet, following which the connection is automatically released. In concept, burst switching is similar to

connectionless mode transmission Connectionless communication, often referred to as CL-mode communication,Information Processing Systems - Open Systems Interconnection, "Transport Service Definition - Addendum 1: Connectionless-mode Transmission", International Organization for ...

, but differs in that burst switching implies an intent to establish the switch connection in

near real time Real-time computing (RTC) is the computer science term for hardware and software systems subject to a "real-time constraint", for example from event to system response. Real-time programs must guarantee response within specified time constrai ...

so that only minimum buffering is required at the node switch. A variant of burst switching used in optical networks is optical burst switching.

References

*Source: from Federal Standard 1037C. {{compu-network-stub Computer networks