Wired Network Topology

• Physical Topology:

  • How devices are physically connected by media.

• Logical Topology:

  • How the actual traffic flows in the network

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• Bus Topology

  • Uses a cable running through area that required network connectivity.

  • Each device "taps" into the cable using either a T connector or vampire tap.

  • Devices on cable form a Single Collision Domain. Meaning if they all try to talk each other at the same time then there would be a collision.

• Ring Topology

  • Uses a cable running in a circular loop

  • Each device connects to the ring, but data travels in a singular direction.

  • FDDI (Fiber networks) used two counter-rotation rings for redundancy.

  • On token ring networks, devices wait for a turn to communicate on ring by passing a token.

• Start Topology

  • Most popular physical LAN topology.

  • Devices connect to a single point.

  • Most commonly used with Ethernet cabling, but wireless or fiber are also used.

  • If the central device fails, the entire network fails.

• Hub and Spoke Topology

  • Used for connecting multiple sites

  • Similar to Star, but with WAN links instead of local are network connections.

  • Not redundant, if central office (hub) fails, the whole network can fail.

• Full Mesh Topology (Mesh)

  • Most redundant topology

  • Every node connects to every other node

  • Optimal routing is always available

  • Very expensive to maintain and operate

  • Number of connections x = n(n-1)/2

• Partial Mesh Topology (Hybrid)

  • Hybrid of the full-mesh and the hub-and-spoke topologies

  • Provides optimal routes between some sites, while avoiding the expense of connecting every site

  • Must consider network traffic patterns to design it effectively