Multiplexing - A Brief Introduction

In this post I continue discussing some of the different legacy technologies used by the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). Today let's take a quick look at what multiplexing is.

Before the invention of the telephone both Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison were experimenting with ways to transmit more than one telegraph signal at a time over a single wire. They both realized this was a critical piece if any communications network was to grow in the number of users.

Multiplexing

There are three ways to multiplex or combine multiple signals on the telephone network. They are analog or frequency multiplexing, digital multiplexing and wavelength division multiplexing. I'll dig pretty deep into each in upcoming legacy posts.