A method of data transmission in which the time interval between individual bits is accurately determined by some form of clock signal. The clock signal may either be generated locally at both the transmitter and the receiver, with a separate channel that provides a means of maintaining accurate synchronization between the two clocks, or the actual data signal may be encoded by the transmitter in such a way that a clock signal can be recovered from it at the receiver. Synchronous transmission has the advantage that it is not necessary to insert start and stop indications between successive bytes, and is normally used for higher data rates. See also asynchronous transmission.