software handshaking

<communications> The transmission of extra data on a channel in order to control the device sending data in the other direction on that channel. For an EIA-232 connection, this means sending Control-S and Control-Q characters to stop and start transmission.

Since software handshaking requires the transmission and processing of extra data it can be less efficient than hardware handshaking.

Nearby terms:
software enabling « software engineering « Software Engineering Environment « software handshaking » software interrupt » Software in the Public Interest, Inc. » software laser