The process of combining two or more communication paths into one is referred to as
multiplexing (Regis and Donald, 2000; Stallings, 2004; and Ajiboye and Adediran,
2010). In multiplexing, system resources are shared among multiple users. Multiplexing
is an acronym used in networking and it refers to sending two or more signals or
streams of information on a transmission medium or carrier simultaneously. Multiplexer’s
behavior is similar to those of concentrators and contention devices. These devices
enable multiple relatively low speed terminal devices to share a single high capacity
circuit between two points in a network. The advantage of multiplexers is that they
enable carriers and end-users to take advantage of the economies of scale (Horak,
2007). Conversely, demultiplexing is the reverse of multiplexing and refers to the
phenomenon of separation of the multiplexed signals (Held, 2001).
The synchronous time division multiplexing is grossly inefficient in terms of channel
utilization (Stallings, 2004; and Ajiboye and Adediran, 2010). This is because most of
the time slots in a frame are unused and are therefore wasted. According to Stalling
(2004), in a situation where computer terminals are linked together using a shared
computer port, even when all the terminals are working, in most cases, there is no
data transfer at any particular terminal. Therefore, it means that the network will be
on idle mode when there is no data transfer at any time instance.
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