In master-slave networks, the master can listen to only one slave at a time.

Study for the Internet of Things (IOT102) Test. Access comprehensive flashcards and multiple choice questions, each with hints and explanations. Get prepared for your exam!

In a master-slave network, the shared communication channel is controlled by the master, typically using polling or addressing to grant each slave a turn to talk. Because the bus is shared and often operates in a half-duplex mode, only one device can drive the line at a time without causing signals to interfere with each other. The master’s role is to listen for data from a specific addressed slave, then switch to listening to the next one after that slave finishes. This turn-taking ensures clear, ungarbled data.

If slaves could talk without being individually addressed, their transmissions could collide on the same bus. If the master could listen to many slaves at once, the bus would need multiple parallel receive paths, which isn’t the case for these networks. Saying the master cannot listen to any slave contradicts the whole communication model, since the master is supposed to receive responses from slaves to collect data.