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5.3 Multiplexed Signal Files

Multiplexed signal files may be identified by examining the group fields of the array of WFDB_Siginfo objects returned by isigopen or wfdbinit. Signals belonging to the same group are multiplexed together in the same file. If all signals in a given signal file have been sampled at the same frequency, and there are n signals in the file, then each group of n successive samples in that file contains a sample from each signal, always in the same order (but see section Multi-Frequency Records).

Multiplexed signal files can be useful if the storage device is sequential-access only (e.g., 9-track tape), if the storage device has lengthy seek times (e.g., optical disk), if many signals must be recorded and Unix's per-process limit on open files would otherwise be exceeded, or if very high speed is required while the file is being created (because of sampling constraints). CD-ROM signal files, and those available from PhysioNet, are multiplexed unless the record contains only one signal.


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George B. Moody (george@mit.edu)