- No specific path is used for data transfer
- Instead the data is chopped up into small pieces called packets and sent over the network
- The packets can be routed, combined or fragmented, as required to get them to their eventual destination
- On the receiving end, the process is reversed, the data is read from the packets and re-assembled into the form of the original data
- A packet-switched network is similar to the postal system than it is to the telephone system (but that is not a perfect comparison)
- In a packet-switched network, no circuit is setup prior to sending data between devices
- Blocks of data, even from the same file or communication may take any number of paths as it journeys from one device to another