Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) Practice Exam 2025 – All-in-One Guide to Mastering Your Certification!

In a circuit-switched network, a dedicated circuit is established between two nodes for the duration of their communication. This method is fundamental to how circuit-switching works, as it reserves a specific communication path and bandwidth for the entire session, ensuring consistent and reliable transmission of data.

This dedicated connection means that once the circuit is established, it remains exclusively available to the two nodes until the communication ends, unlike other methods that utilize shared channels where multiple conversations may overlap. The continuous availability of the dedicated circuit allows for predictable delay and enables real-time communications such as voice calls.

The other options provided do not accurately describe circuit-switched network functionality. A shared channel suggests that multiple connections can use the same transmission medium simultaneously, which applies to packet-switched or other networking methods. A wireless connection may or may not utilize circuit-switching and relates more to the transmission method rather than the type of switching architecture. Lastly, packet switching involves breaking down messages into packets that are transmitted individually over the network, which is fundamentally different from the dedicated path concept of circuit switching.