Networking Topologies

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 Introduction
Topologies
● Bus
● Ring
● Star
● Extended Star
● Mesh
● Hybrid

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 Physical vs. Logical Topology
● The actual layout of a network and its media
is its Physical Topology
● The way in which the data access the medium
and transmits packets is the Logical
Topology
● A glance at a network is not always revealing.
Cables emerging from a Hub does not make it
necessarily a Star Topology – it may actually
be a bus or a ring

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 Physical vs. Logical Topology (2)
● Your choice of Logical Topology will affect
the Physical Topology – and vice versa
● Design carefully – it may be difficult to
change part way through the installation
● Your choice will determine cable installation,
network devices, network connections,
protocols (and where you will drill holes in
the building !)

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 Factors
● Cost
● Scalability
● Bandwidth Capacity
● Ease of Installation
● Ease of fault finding and maintenance

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Bus Topology

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 Bus Topology (2)
● Network maintained by a single cable
● Cable segment must end with a
terminator
● Uses thin coaxial cable (backbones will
be thick coaxial cable)
● Extra stations can be added in a daisy
chain manner
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 Bus Topology (3)
● Standard is IEEE 802.3
● Thin Ethernet (10Base2) has a maximum
segment length of 200m
● Max no. of connections is 30 devices
● Four repeaters may be used to a total
cable length of 1000m
● Max no. of nodes is 150
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 Bus Topology (4)
● Thick Ethernet (10Base5) used for
backbones
● Limited to 500m
● Max of 100 nodes per segment
● Total of four repeaters , 2500m,
with a total of 488 nodes
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 Bus Topology (5)
Advantages Disadvantages
● Inexpensive to install ● No longer recommended
● Easy to add stations ● Backbone breaks, whole
network down
● Use less cable than ● Limited no of devices can
other topologies be attached
● Works well for small ● Difficult to isolate problems
networks ● Sharing same cable slows
response rates
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Ring Topology

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 Ring Topology (2)
● No beginning or end (a ring in fact !!)
● All devices of equality of access to media
● Single ring – data travels in one direction only, guess
what a double ring allows !?
● Each device has to wait its turn to transmit
● Most common type is Token Ring (IEEE 802.5)
● A token contains the data, reaches the destination,
data extracted, acknowledgement of receipt sent back
to transmitting device, removed, empty token passed
on for another device to use
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 Ring Topology (3)
Advantages Disadvantages
● Data packets travel ● Requires more cable
at great speed than a bus
● No collisions ● A break in the ring
● Easier to fault find will bring it down
● No terminators ● Not as common as
required the bus – less
devices available
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Star Topology

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 Star Topology (2)
● Like the spokes of a wheel (without the
symmetry)
● Centre point is a Hub
● Segments meet at the Hub
● Each device needs its own cable to the Hub
● Predominant type of topology
● Easy to maintain and expand

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 Star Topology (3)
● Advantages
● Easy to add devices as the
network expands
● One cable failure does not
bring down the entire
network (resilience)
● Hub provides centralised
management
● Easy to find device and cable
problems
● Can be upgraded to faster
speeds
● Lots of support as it is the
most used
● Disadvantages
● A star network requires more
cable than a ring or bus
network
● Failure of the central hub can
bring down the entire
network
● Costs are higher (installation
and equipment) than for most
bus networks
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Extended Star Topology
A Star
Network
which has
been
expanded to
include an
additional
hub or hubs.

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Mesh Topology (Web)

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 Mesh Topology (2)
● Not common on LANs
● Most often used in WANs to interconnect
LANS
● Each node is connected to every other node
● Allows communication to continue in the
event of a break in any one connection
● It is “Fault Tolerant”
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 Mesh Topology (3)
Advantages Disadvantages
● Improves Fault ● Expensive
Tolerance ● Difficult to install
● Difficult to
manage
● Difficult to
troubleshoot
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Hybrid Topology

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 Hybrid Topology (2)
● Old networks are updated and replaced,
leaving older segments (legacy)
● Hybrid Topology – combines two or more
different physical topologies
● Commonly Star-Bus or Star-Ring
● Star-Ring uses a MAU (Multistation
Access Unit (see later slide)
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 Types of Logical Topology
● Previous slides showed Physical Topologies
● Only two Logical Topologies (Bus or Ring)
● Physical Bus or Ring easy to conceptualise
● Physical Star could be either a Bus or
Ring in logical terms
● Confused ? See next slides

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 Logical Bus

•Modern Ethernet networks are Star Topologies (physically)

•The Hub is at the centre, and defines a Star Topology
•The Hub itself uses a Logical Bus Topology internally, to
transmit data to all segments
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 Logical Bus
Advantages Disadvantages
● A single node failure ● Collisions can occur
does not bring the easily
network down ● Only one device can
● Most widely access the network
implemented topology media at a time
● Network can be added
to or changed without
affecting other
stations
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 Logical Ring
● Data in a Star Topology can transmit data
in a Ring
● The MAU (Multistation Access Unit) looks
like an ordinary Hub, but data is passed
internally using a logical ring
● It is superior to a Logical Bus Hub – see
later slide
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Logical Ring (2)

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 Logical Ring (3)
Advantages Disadvantages
● The amount of data ● A broken ring will
that can be carried stop all
in a single message transmissions
is greater than on a ● A device must wait
logical bus for an empty token
● There are no to be able to
collisions transmit

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 Summary
● Bus Topology
● Ring Topology
● Star Topology
● Other Topologies
● Logical Topologies
● Questions and Answers
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