TDMA is the technique used for current GSM, TDMA and PDC air interfaces. TDMA air interface technology should not to be mistaken for the digital mobile network standard TDMA.
With TDMA, one frequency carrier is used to carry a number of calls, each call using that frequency carrier at designated periods in time. These periods of time are referred to as time slots (figure below)
tdma
A TDMA frame with 8 time slots.
At any particular instant, several mobiles use the same time slot but on different frequency channels. It is the technique for allocating a time slot to a call that is called TDMA.
Each Mobile Station on a call is assigned one time slot on the uplink frequency and one on the down link frequency. The information sent during one time slot is called a burst. In GSM, a TDMA frame consists of 8 time slots. This means that a GSM radio carrier can carry 8 calls.
TDMA is particularly dominant in the North and South America and Europe.
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