Q.Fill in the blank : In _________ switching, before a communication starts, a dedicated path is identified between the sender and the receiver.

Concept: Communication switching techniques

In communication networks, two fundamental approaches exist for transmitting data between sender and receiver.

Circuit switching establishes a dedicated physical path before any data transfer begins. This end-to-end connection remains reserved for the entire duration of the communication session — think of traditional telephone calls where a continuous line is held open. The path is set up during a connection phase, used exclusively by those two parties, then torn down when communication ends. …

When two parties need to communicate over a network, there are fundamentally different philosophies for how to move information from source to destination. The question asks about a model where the entire route is locked in before any actual data transmission begins—think of it as reserving a private highway lane for the duration of your journey.

This is the essence of circuit switching: the network allocates a complete, continuous physical path from sender to receiver, and that path remains exclusively theirs until the communication session ends. The classic example is the traditional telephone network. When you dial a number, switches along the way close to form a dedicated circuit; your voice travels along that fixed route, and no one else can use those resources until you hang up.

Contrast this with packet switching (option a), where data is chopped into small packets that independently hop through the network, possibly taking different routes and sharing links with other users' packets. Packet switching is opportunistic and efficient for bursty data traffic—it's how the internet works—but it does not pre-establish a dedicated path.

Options (b) and (d)—graph switching and plot switching—are not standard networking terms.

Let me walk through why circuit switching fits the description:

1. Path reservation: Before any data moves, the network performs a setup phase. Intermediate switches are configured to create a continuous channel from sender to receiver. This is the "dedicated path" mentioned in the question. …