telecommunications Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

, a master station is a station that controls or coordinates the activities of other stations in the system. Examples: *In a data network, the control station may designate a master station to ensure

data transfer Data communication, including data transmission and data reception, is the transfer of data, transmitted and received over a point-to-point or point-to-multipoint communication channel. Examples of such channels are copper wires, optical ...

to one or more slave stations.

Federal Standard 1037C Federal Standard 1037C, titled Telecommunications: Glossary of Telecommunication Terms, is a United States Federal Standard issued by the General Services Administration pursuant to the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949, ...

Such a master station controls one or more

data link A data link is a means of telecommunications link, connecting one location to another for the purpose of transmitting and receiving digital information (data communication). It can also refer to a set of electronics assemblies, consisting of a t ...

s of the data communications network at any given instant. The assignment of master status to a given station is temporary and is controlled by the control station according to the procedures set forth in the operational protocol. Master status is normally conferred upon a station so that it may transmit a

message A message is a unit of communication that conveys information from a sender to a receiver. It can be transmitted through various forms, such as spoken or written words, signals, or electronic data, and can range from simple instructions to co ...

, but a station need not have a

to send to be designated the master station. * In navigation systems using precise time dissemination, the master station is a station that has the

clock A clock or chronometer is a device that measures and displays time. The clock is one of the oldest Invention, human inventions, meeting the need to measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units such as the day, the lunar month, a ...

that is used to synchronize the clocks of subordinate stations. * In basic mode link control, the master station is a data station that has accepted an invitation to ensure a

to one or more slave stations. At a given instant, there can be only one master station on a data link.

Operation modes

In data transmission, a master station can be set to not wait for a reply from a slave station after transmitting each message or transmission block. In this case the station is said to be in "continuous operation".Federal Standard 1037C, entry for "Continuous operation".

References

{{FS1037C Telecommunications systems