Signaling - Definition and Overview

Telecommunication

In telecommunication, the term signaling has the following meanings:

• The use of signals for controlling communications.
• In a telecommunications network, the information exchange concerning the establishment and control of a connection and the management of the network, in contrast to user information transfer.
• The sending of a signal from the transmitting end of a circuit to inform a user at the receiving end that a message is to be sent.

The term may also refer to railway signaling.

Source: from Federal Standard 1037C and from MIL-STD-188

Economics

In economics, more precisely in contract theory, signaling describes the idea that one party (frequently known as the agent), conveys some meaningful information about himself to another party (usually known as the principal.) For example, in Michael Spence's famous job-market signaling model, employees signal the level of their skils to employers by acquiring a certain degree of education.

See Also

• Signal
• Michael Spence