TDMA

As the name suggests, TDMA is a time based access. Here, we give certain time frame to each channel. Within that time frame, the channel can access the entire spectrum bandwidth

Each station got a fixed length or slot. The slots, which are unused will remain in idle stage.

Suppose, we want to send five packets of data to a particular channel in TDMA technique. So, we should assign them certain time slots or time frame within which it can access the entire bandwidth.

In above figure, packets 1, 3 and 4 are active, which transmits data. Whereas, packets 2 and 5 are idle because of their non-participation. This format gets repeated every time we assign bandwidth to that particular channel.

Although, we have assigned certain time slots to a particular channel but it can also be changed depending upon the load bearing capacity. That means, if a channel is transmitting heavier loads, then it can be assigned a bigger time slot than the channel which is transmitting lighter loads. This is the biggest advantage of TDMA over FDMA. Another advantage of TDMA is that the power consumption will be very low.

Note − In some applications, we use the combination of both TDMA and FDMA techniques. In this case, each channel will be operated in a particular frequency band for a particular time frame. In this case, the frequency selection is more robust and it has greater capacity over time compression.