What is a disadvantage of serial transmission?

Serial transmission involves the sending of data bits one after another over a single channel. While this method is efficient for certain applications, it does have disadvantages, particularly in terms of speed and synchronization.

When data is transmitted serially, each bit must wait its turn to be sent through the channel, which can result in slower overall transmission speeds compared to parallel transmission, where multiple bits are sent simultaneously. Additionally, since the bits are sent one after another, maintaining proper synchronization between the sender and receiver becomes crucial. If the timing is not correctly managed, bits may arrive out of order or be misinterpreted, leading to errors in data interpretation.

This characteristic makes it imperative to employ specific protocols to ensure that the data arrives correctly, adding complexity to the communication process. Therefore, the issue of being slower and having synchronization challenges makes this option the most accurate in describing a disadvantage of serial transmission.