A defined interval, or slot, of time recognizable by devices and designated for a specific purpose or operation. For example, a T1 facility has a signaling rate of 1.544 Mbps.Therefore, the transmitting timedivision multiplexer (TDM mux) creates a signal with every bit occupying a slot of time of 1 / 1,544,000 second, and the receiving mux monitors the circuit to extract the bits at the same pace. The term is also applied to multibit intervals devoted to a single connection, as in a DS-0 time slot, which is an eight-bit slot in an E/T-carrier voice grade channel. See also
channel,
circuit,
DS-0,
E-carrier,
multiplexer,
signal,
signaling rate,
T1,
T-carrier,
TDM, and
voice grade.