What does multiplexing mean?

Answer 1

In electronics, telecommunications and computer networks, multiplexing (short muxing) is a term used to refer to a process where multiple analog message signals or digital data streams are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share an expensive resource. For example, in electronics, multiplexing allows several analog signals to be processed by one analog-to-digital converter (ADC), and in telecommunications, several phone calls may be transferred using one wire. In communications, the multiplexed signal is transmitted over a communication channel, which may be a physical transmission medium. The multiplexing divides the capacity of the low-level communication channel into several higher-level logical channels, one for each message signal or data stream to be transferred. A reverse process, known as demultiplexing, can extract the original channels on the receiver side.

Multiplexing technique is designed to reduce the number of electrical connections or leads in the display matrix. Whereas driving signals are applied not to each pixel (picture element) individually but to a group of rows and columns at a time. Besides reducing the number of individually independent interconnections, multiplexing also simplifies the drive electronics, reduces the cost and provides direct interface with the microprocessors. There are limitations in multiplexing due to complex electro-optical response of the liquid crystal cell. However, fairly reasonable level of multiplexing can be achieved by properly choosing the multiplexing scheme, liquid crystal mixture and cell designing.

Answer 2

A process of combining multiple signals or data into one.They can be of different types viz. *Time division mutiplexing *Frequency division multiplexing *Wavelength division multiplexing *Code division multiplexing

Answer 3

The purpose of multiplexing is to provide a model where two end points can reach open multiple full duplex connections to the other endpoint in an environment where only one of the endpoints is able to open such a bidirectional connection using some other facility.(e.g, a TCP connection.)

Answer 4

The range of frequencies is limited, but the number of devices using the system fluctuates. One way to separate the different data streams is each one have it's own frequency (like different radio or TV stations broadcasting).

This works fine when there are a limited number of users. Radio and TV are one-way, so there are a limited number of stations broadcasting. But with cell phones, broadband wireless and other services, the frequency spectrum is crowded. To have multiple users share the same frequency without walking over each other, multiplexing is used so that each user gets its data transmitted in packets. There are various methods of multiplexing available.