TDM is one of the implementation of #Multiplexing where each end station own a particular time slot for the network transmission. This means that each data stream has an assigned slot in a repeating sequence which is more efficient compare to assigning a physical connection to each of them. In the context of optical transmission, this means that several signals are travelling in a single wavelength but is divided into several channels using time slot.
However, this is not without any downside: since the end station own the time slot, other end station could not utilise it for their own advantages when the time slot is in idle which is wasted.
There are several technologies implement the multiplexing scheme or anything similar to this:
- Synchronous Optical Network (SONET)#
- Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)