Half-duplex

A real world example of a half-duplex system would be a walkie-talkie. In this scenario, one party speaks and then waits for a response from another party. The parties must communicate one at a time because they are communicating on the same frequency. Another example would be a one-lane road with traffic controllers positioned on both ends. This allows traffic to flow one at a time in both directions as defined by the controllers. In a LAN (local area network) that uses a half-duplex transmission system, a workstation can transmit data on a single line and instantly receive data on the line from the same direction in which it was sent. In a full-duplex, a system allows communication in both directions. In contrast to a half-duplex, it allows this to occur at the same time. An example of a full-duplex system is a land-line telephone network that allows two callers to simultaneously speak and be heard.