telecommunication Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...

, a master station is a station that controls or coordinates the activities of other stations in the system. Examples: *In a

data network A computer network is a set of computers sharing resources located on or provided by network nodes. The computers use common communication protocols over digital interconnections to communicate with each other. These interconnections are ...

, the control station may designate a master station to ensure

data transfer Data transmission and data reception or, more broadly, data communication or digital communications is the transfer and reception of data in the form of a digital bitstream or a digitized analog signal transmitted over a point-to-point or ...

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, a ...

Such a master station controls one or more

data link A data link is the means of 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 transmitter and a recei ...

s of the data

communications network A telecommunications network is a group of nodes interconnected by telecommunications links that are used to exchange messages between the nodes. The links may use a variety of technologies based on the methodologies of circuit switching, messa ...

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 Protocol may refer to: Sociology and politics * Protocol (politics), a formal agreement between nation states * Protocol (diplomacy), the etiquette of diplomacy and affairs of state * Etiquette, a code of personal behavior Science and technolog ...

. Master status is normally conferred upon a station so that it may transmit a

message A message is a discrete unit of communication intended by the source for consumption by some recipient or group of recipients. A message may be delivered by various means, including courier, telegraphy, carrier pigeon and electronic bus. A ...

, 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 a timepiece is a device used to measure and indicate time. The clock is one of the oldest human inventions, meeting the need to measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units such as the day, the lunar month and t ...

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