Channel Access Method (CAM)

What Does Channel Access Method (CAM) Mean?

Channel access method (CAM) is used in telecommunications and computer networks to allow network terminals to share media capacity through a multipoint transmission medium. CAM examples include bus, hub, wireless and ring networks.

A channel access scheme is based on a multiplexing method, which allows several data streams or signals to share the same communication channel or physical medium. Furthermore, it is also based on a multiple access protocol and control mechanism known as media access control (MAC).

Channel access method is also know as multiple access method.

Techopedia Explains Channel Access Method (CAM)

CAM is based on the following protocol features:

• Physical layer multiplexing
• The media access control layer, which handles addressing and collision prevention
• Token passing
• Polling, a continuous slave/master data querying process
• Contention or node network access competition

There are four CAM schemes:

• Frequency division multiple access
• Time division multiple access
• Code division multiple access
• Spatial division multiple access