Intro to network topologies

When our thirst for more calculating power brought us new computers and when we needed to combine their power with the existing ones, we discover the ‘network’. The ability to connect and communicate two or more devices. Here are some examples of how they connect.

Bus topology was the first way of a network connection. It has easy installation and is the less expensive connection between devices because they share one network cable.

Unfortunately, this is also it’s disadvantage. Computers on bus networks communicate in half-duplex mode, meaning that you can either send or receive at any given time but cannot send and receive simultaneously. Also, when two or more computers attempt to transmit at the same time, they make a collision which makes every device to stop any kind of communication and start again in a clear time.

Today, we find this tech usually inside the cars.

The star network topology, also known as a hub-and-spoke network, is composed of a central network device, such as an Ethernet switch, connected to various network devices, such as servers, computers, and printers, by individual network cables.

All device-to-device communication is sent through the switch at the center of the network and then forwarded by the switch to the proper destination.

One key advantage of this topology is versatility. This gives the network administrator the flexibility to move computers around the office without re-cabling the network. This also means that a break in a single network cable will only impact one network device rather than the entire network.

Today, star networks are the most common type of network found in local area network (LAN) environments, but also, is used in some forms of Wide Area Networking (WAN), where many remote offices are connected to a central headquarters location.

The Mesh topology is the kind of connection that doesn’t require cables for connectivity. Every device is connected each other and this makes mesh the most complicated topology. But it is also the most secure of all, because every node learns how to bypass a problematic node and keep communicate with the others.

This behavior is often referred to as a self-healing network.

Common use cases include wireless networks at home and in the office as well as large collections of routers such as on the internet.

Another typical network topology is the ring, but it was only as improvement to the bus topology.

In conclusion every topology has a different purpose and as the technology evolves, we trying to make communication between the devices more stable, quicker and secure.

Overall, I hope I gave you an idea what is the network topologies, trying not to confuse you with a lot of details and get the main picture of how devices connect and communicate.

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