TIME DIVISION MULTIPLE ACCESS (TDMA) BASIC DEFINITION AND INFORMATION

What Is TDMA? 


Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) divides wireless conversations by frequency and time to increase the capacity of the network. TDMA uses a single voice channel for multiple calls by taking each call, breaking it into timed sections of a digital transmission to the tower, and reassembling the call based on the timeslot.

For example, call A has all its parts put into timeslot A, call B has its parts put into timeslot B, and each are sent in one transmission to the tower, where the calls are put back together for transmission to the other party. TDMA was one of the original digital systems used and has gone through many revisions to make sure it utilizes the network to the best of its abilities.

Based on a limited number of time slots for each call in a channel, TDMA has no accommodations for silence in a telephone conversation. In other words, once a call is initiated, the channel/timeslot pair belongs to the phone for the duration of the call.

Each channel using TDMA technology for wireless calls is further divided into time slots. Each timeslot is assigned to a different user.The transmitter transmits information for all time slots at the same frequency and the receivers receive all the timeslots but listen only to the time slot they have been allocated.

The net effect is that the efficiency of the channel is increased by a multiple of the number of timeslots that are being used. Most common second-generation TDMA phone systems use three timeslots.


Benefits of TDMA
TDMA was one of the first technologies to expand analog’s voice capabilities beyond one call per channel.TDMA has many other benefits:

Provides advanced features like caller ID, text messaging

Economizes bandwidth

Provides voice clarity and overall call quality, even over long distances

Is difficult to decode, therefore only minimal eavesdropping is possible

Uses less battery power (when compared to analog)

Offers voice privacy