Network Topology

Star topology goes across the line and then chooses the direction to where to go to send the information
A star topology involves using a central device, such as a switch, as the connection point for all systems. The advantage of a star topology is that a break in the line affects only the system connected to that cable.

 

Bus topology slows down when heavy traffic and there is lots of data collisions.
A bus topology consists of a main cable (known as a trunk) that all systems connect to. There are terminators at each end designed to absorb the electrical signal off the network. If there were no terminators, the signal would bounce back and collide with other data on the cable. One of the disadvantages of a bus topology is that if there is a break in the trunk, the entire network fails.

 

In a ring topology, hosts are connected to each other forming a large circle. In a single-ring topology, all of the device on the network share a single cable. The disadvantages of a single-ring topology are that data only travels in one direction, and if there is a break in the ring, the entire network will go down. In a dual-ring topology, there are 2-rings made from separate cables. This allows data to be sent in both directions and introduces fault tolerance as there would need to be a break in both lines to cause the network to go down.