TU (Time Unit)

A time unit (TU) is a unit of time equal to 1024 microseconds. It was originally introduced in the meanwhile obsolete IEEE 802.11-1999 standard but continues to be used also in newer issues of the IEEE 802.11 standard.

A whole number of such units are used to describe several intervals in that standard. The use of the term is to avoid using the term "millisecond", which is slightly different. The unit allows for maintaining intervals that are easy to implement in hardware that has a 1 MHz clock (by dividing the clock signal in half ten times, rather than operating a phase-locked loop or digital divider to divide such a clock signal by 1000).

One time unit is equal to one millionth of a kibisecond (1 TU = 10⁻⁶ Kis).