a technique for switching packets of data around a network. The data packet contains a header which specifies the address of the destination, and a trailer which marks the end of the packet. This is fairly standard for any packet switching system, but the method of directing or switching the packet is the aspect which attracts the 'wormhole' description.
At each routing station or node, the header is stripped off and read, and the onward routing is set up before the rest of the packet arrives. The contents of the packet are routed through to the next node, until the trailer is detected. The routing path is then closed leaving, as it were, no trace of the packet or the path it took. This is said to be suggestive of the way a worm burrows through the soil without leaving an open path behind it.
I was struck by the ...
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