In telecommunications, 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 to one or more slave stations.[1] Such a master station controls one or more data links 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, but a station need not have a message 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 that is used to synchronize the clocks of subordinate stations.[1]
  • In basic mode link control, the master station is a data station that has accepted an invitation to ensure a data transfer to one or more slave stations.[1] At a given instant, there can be only one master station on a data link.

Operation modes

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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".[2]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Federal Standard 1037C
  2. ^ Federal Standard 1037C, entry for "Continuous operation".

  This article incorporates public domain material from Federal Standard 1037C. General Services Administration. Archived from the original on 22 January 2022.