In telecommunications and computer networks, a channel access method or multiple access method allows several terminals connected to the same multi-point transmission medium to transmit over it and to share its capacity. Examples of shared physical media are wireless networks, bus networks, ring networks, hub networks and half-duplex point-to-point links.
A channel-access scheme is based on a multiplexing method, that allows several data streams or signals to share the same communication channel or physical medium. Multiplexing is in this context provided by the physical layer. Note that multiplexing also may be used in full-duplex point-to-point communication between nodes in a switched network, which should not be considered as multiple access.
A channel-access scheme is also based on a multiple access protocol and control mechanism, also known as media access control (MAC). This protocol deals with issues such as addressing, assigning multiplex channels to different users, and avoiding collisions. The MAC-layer is a sub-layer in Layer 2 (Data Link Layer) of the OSI model and a component of the Link Layer of the TCP/IP model.
Read more about Channel Access Method: Hybrid Channel Access Scheme Application Examples, Classifications in The Literature
Famous quotes containing the words channel, access and/or method:
“This is what the Church is said to want, not party men, but sensible, temperate, sober, well-judging persons, to guide it through the channel of no-meaning, between the Scylla and Charybdis of Aye and No.”
—Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801–1890)
“Whilst the rights of all as persons are equal, in virtue of their access to reason, their rights in property are very unequal. One man owns his clothes, and another owns a country.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“A method of child-rearing is not—or should not be—a whim, a fashion or a shibboleth. It should derive from an understanding of the developing child, of his physical and mental equipment at any given stage, and, therefore, his readiness at any given stage to adapt, to learn, to regulate his behavior according to parental expectations.”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)