Network Topologies

The arrangement of cabling and access devices is referred to as a network topology . There are four different types of network topologies (see Figure 21.7):

• Bus ” All computers share a common cable. This topology is used by 10Base2 and 10Base5 Ethernet.

• Star ” All computers connect to a central hub or switch (wired) or access point (wireless). This topology is used by 10BaseT, 100BaseT, and 1000BaseT Ethernet and by Wireless Ethernet when configured for the default infrastructure mode.

• Ring ” All computers connect in a ring. This topology is used by token ring.

• Peer-to-peer ” All computers on the network can connect directly to each other. This topology is used by Wireless Ethernet when configured for peer-to-peer mode and Bluetooth.

Figure 21.7. Bus, star, ring, and peer-to-peer topologies compared.

The network goes down if a single computer on a bus-topology network fails, but the other network types stay up if one or more computers fail.