Which form of multiplexing uses separate time slots to share a channel?

Which form of multiplexing uses separate time slots to share a channel?

• A. Time Division Multiplexing
• B. Frequency Division Multiplexing
• C. Code Division Multiplexing
• D. All of the above

Answer: (A)

Sharing a channel by giving each signal its own time window is what this question is getting at. In time-division multiplexing, the channel is divided into repeating time slots, and each user transmits only during its assigned slot. The slots repeat so the sequence can carry data from all users over time. This makes it easy to implement and works well when you know how many users are sharing the channel and their data rates, but it can add latency since a user must wait for its slot and its bandwidth is fixed. This is different from frequency-division multiplexing, which splits the channel into separate frequency bands so signals happen at the same time but in different frequencies, and from code-division multiplexing, which allows multiple signals to share the same time and frequency space but separates them with unique codes.

Sharing a channel by giving each signal its own time window is what this question is getting at. In time-division multiplexing, the channel is divided into repeating time slots, and each user transmits only during its assigned slot. The slots repeat so the sequence can carry data from all users over time. This makes it easy to implement and works well when you know how many users are sharing the channel and their data rates, but it can add latency since a user must wait for its slot and its bandwidth is fixed.

This is different from frequency-division multiplexing, which splits the channel into separate frequency bands so signals happen at the same time but in different frequencies, and from code-division multiplexing, which allows multiple signals to share the same time and frequency space but separates them with unique codes.