The slot time is the time between electronic pulses in a half-duplex communication system. It ensures local collisions instead of late collisions and is irrelevant in full-duplex systems. Network interface controllers must account for it when sending information between nodes.
In computer networks, the slot time is the time that must elapse between a first electronic pulse sent and a second following it. It is equal to twice the time it takes for an electronic pulse to travel the theoretical maximum distance between two networked devices. The slot time should only be taken into account during a half-duplex transmission.
A computer network is a group of computers and other devices joined together by wired or wireless connections. This allows communication and sharing of resources between various devices known as nodes. A network interface controller such as a network interface card, network adapter, or LAN adapter allows physical access to a node across the network.
When information is sent from one node to another, the network interface controller must account for the slot time. Since the slot time is twice the time it takes for a pulse to travel across the network, a pulse can never take longer than the slot time to reach its destination. After sending a first pulse, the network interface controller waits at least the length of the slot time before sending a second pulse.
This is important because it creates a local collision instead of a late collision. A local collision is one that occurs between two pulses on the network interface controller. This type of collision can be detected by the network interface controller, which then takes care of the problem. A late collision occurs in the cable and may not be detectable by the network interface controller.
The slot time is only important in a half-duplex communication system. Any system that consists of devices that can communicate with each other in both directions is known as a duplex system. In a half-duplex system, communications can only move in one direction at a time. This means that if one node sends a signal, the other cannot respond until the first one finishes sending. The walkie-talkie is a familiar example of this type of system.
The slot time of a half-duplex system is important because it lets nodes know how long to wait before attempting to respond to a signal. In a full duplex communication system, information can move in both directions simultaneously without interference. In this case, the slot time is irrelevant because the nodes don’t have to wait to respond to each other. Because of this, full-duplex systems tend to be faster than half-duplex systems.
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