Network Topology is the arrangement of numerous elements of a computer network and maybe depicted physically or logically. Physical topology is the putting together of a number of components of a network, including cable installation and device location and the logical part shows how data moves through a network irrespective of its design.
Transmission speeds, different signal types, distance from node to node and physical interconnection maybe different between two networks but their topologies could still be the same.
Point To Point Topology
Point to point maybe the simplest topology that has a dedicated link between two nodes. The simplest to understand of the different point to point topology, is a point to point communication channel this looks to the operator to be always associated with the two end nodes. An example of a point to point topology is a phone call, in which one phone is connected with another phone and what is said by one caller can only heard by the other caller.
Bus Topology
In a network where the bus topology is used, every node is connected via a single cable, by interface connectors. The central cable is the spine of the network and is called the bus, that’s why it’s called a bus topology. A signal from the source is sent out in both directions to all computers connected on the bus cable until it finds the recipient it is intended for. If the computers IP address doesn’t match the intended IP address for the data the computer ignores the data or if the IP addresses match the computer accepts the data. Because the bus topology only has one wire, it is relatively quit cheap to implement compared to other network topologies. There is a downside to it been inexpensive to set up that is it has a high cost in maintaining the network because it has only one wire and it can be the single point of failure.
Star Topology
With a local area net that uses a star topology, each host on the network is connected to central switch which has a point to point connection. It can be said that every computer is connected every node indirectly with the use of a switch. With star topology, each node is connected to a central node called a switch, hub or router. The switch is a server and the computers are the clients. Even though it’s called a star topology the design doesn’t always look like a star but all nodes on the network must be connected to a central device. All traffic that travels the network goes through the central switch. The star topology is one of the simplest topology to design and implement. The advantage of a star topology is that’s it’s easy to add more nodes to the network and the disadvantage is that the switch is single point of failure.
Ring Topology
A ring topology is basically a bus topology in a closed ring. Data moves through the ring in one direction. When one computer sends out data to another computer, the data passes through each computer till it reaches its destination. Each computer replicates the data to ensure that the signal stays strong. Each computer is a peer and there is no main computer on the network. The advantage of ring topology is there is no need for a server to control connectivity between computers. The disadvantage of the ring topology is that if on computer goes down the whole network is down.
Mesh Topology
A mesh topology works by using each computer to transmit data for the network. The mesh topology network can transmit messages by using a flooding or routing technique. The advantage of mesh topology is if one computer goes down the network works, the broken computer will simply be ignored and the signal will and will find a new one that is working. The disadvantage of mesh topology is that maintaining the network can be hard. It needs constant looking after due to the fact that redundancy is present in the network.
Hybrid Topology
A hybrid topology is a network that uses two or more different network topologies e.g. bus topology, mesh topology, ring topology and star topology. The advantage of a hybrid topology is its reliability it has a far better fault tolerance. The part where the fault is located could be separated from the rest of the network without stopping the work of the rest of the network. The disadvantage of a hybrid topology network is its complexity due to the fact it has different network topologies working together. This can make managing the network challenging and the installation and configuration needs to be effective.
No comments:
Post a Comment