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(networking) A means of directing digitally encoded information in a communication network from its source to its destination, in which messages may be divided into smaller entities called packets, each of which travels independently through the network in paths based on moment-to-moment routing decisions made by the nodes through which they pass.

This animation illustrates a network model in which consecutive packets between hosts take differing routes. Out-of-order delivery is, however, detrimental to the performance of several network protocols, including TCP, so the Internet attempts to route packets associated with the same data stream along the same path most of the time.

(networking) A means of directing digitally encoded information in a communication network from its source to its destination, in which messages may be divided into smaller entities called packets, each of which travels independently through the network in paths based on moment-to-moment routing decisions made by the nodes through which they pass.

The "message block", designed by Paul Baran in 1962 and refined in 1964, is the first proposal of a data packet.

(networking) A means of directing digitally encoded information in a communication network from its source to its destination, in which messages may be divided into smaller entities called packets, each of which travels independently through the network in paths based on moment-to-moment routing decisions made by the nodes through which they pass.

Packet-switching cost performance trends, 1960-1980.