SWITCHED NETWORK

Is the opposite of dedicated bandwidth on the information highway. It is analogous to having a bridge that opens certain lanes in one direction to accommodate traffic flows in the morning rush hours and then changes the directions to accommodate evening rush traffic. In the case of switched networks, the bandwidth dedicated to flows of data, voice, video, and audio can be changed as needed. For example, video may require a temporary widening that limits data and audio flows. (See also Bandwidth , Information highway , and Video server )