In networking, access method can refer to several concepts. It can refer to the way that network devices access the network medium at the physical layer. It can also mean software in an SNA processor that controls the flow of data through a network. A computer network is a system for communication between computers. ... The physical layer is level one in the seven level OSI model of computer networking. ... A computer network is a system for communication between computers. ...
Access method is also a databases term referring to the algorithms used to retrieve, update, insert and delete records on a storage medium. A database is an organized collection of data. ...
In communications, a channel accessmethod is used to share a communications channel or physical communications medium between multiple users.
Note that hybrids of these techniques can be and frequently are used: for example, GSM combines the use of frequency division duplex to prevent interference between outward and return signals, with TDMA to allow multiple handsets to work in a single cell.
In the OSI seven layer model, channel accessmethods are typically placed at layer 1, the physical layer.