Simplex vs. Half-Duplex vs.Duplex

Within optical network, devices communicate with one another through various modes of data transmission. There are often simplex, duplex and half-duplex, as well as single-core, dual-core; single-fiber and dual-fiber. So what’s differences between them?

First of all, let's talk about single-core and dual-core; single-fiber and dual-fiber, in terms of optical transceiver module, both are the same, but they are called differently. Both single-core optical modules and single-fiber optical modules are single-fiber bidirectional(BIDI) optical transceiver modules, and dual-core optical modules and dual-fiber optical modules are dual-fiber bidirectional optical transceiver modules.

What’s Simplex?
Simplex means allowing telecommunication in only one direction.It’s a good choice for an application such as printers, radio stations, oil line monitors, etc. Only receive signals or commands, do not send signals.

What’s Half-Duplex?
Half-duplex is bi-directional, meaning that data can be sent between devices both ways, but the data can only go in one direction at a time. Once one device has finished transmitting its data, another device can then send data in response.

What’s Duplex?
Duplex enables bidirectional data transfer. It refers to the transmission of data in two directions at the same time. It is a combination of two simplex communications. It requires that the sending device and the receiving device have independent receiving and sending capabilities at the same time.It’s a good choice for applications such as telecommunications as well as workstations, Ethernet switches, fibre switches and servers, and backbone ports.

In the optical transceiver module, the half-duplex is the BIDI optical transceiver module. It can transmit and receive data through one channel, but only one direction of data transmission can be carried out at a time, and the data can be received only after the data transmission is sent.

The duplex is an ordinary dual-fiber bidirectional optical transceiver module, which has two channels for transmission, and can send and receive data at the same time.