frequency division multiplexing (communications) (FDM) The simultaneous transmission of multiple separate signals through a shared medium (such as a wire, optical fibre, or light beam) by modulating, at the transmitter, the separate signals into separable frequency bands, and adding those results linearly either before transmission or within the medium. While thus combined, all the signals may be amplified, conducted, translated in frequency and routed toward a destination as a single signal, resulting in economies which are the motivation for multiplexing. Apparatus at the receiver separates the multiplexed signals by means of frequency passing or rejecting filters, and demodulates the results individually, each in the manner appropriate for the modulation scheme used for that band or group.
Bands are joined to form groups, and groups may then be joined into larger groups; this process may be considered recursively, but such technique is common only in large and sophisticated systems and is not a necessary part of FDM. Neither the transmitters nor the receivers need be close to each other; ordinary radio, television, and cable service are examples of FDM. It was once the mainstay of the long distance telephone system. The more recently developed time division multiplexing in its several forms lends itself to the handling of digital data, but the low cost and high quality of available FDM equipment, especially that intended for television signals, make it a reasonable choice for many purposes. Compare wavelength division multiplexing, time division multiplexing, code division multiplexing. Last updated: 2001-06-28
