Question

What are the popular network topologies?

Answer 1

Common network topologies are Mesh, Ring, Bus, Star, and Tree.

• Mesh Topology: In this topology, each communicating device is connected with every other device in the network. Such a network can handle large amounts of traffic since multiple nodes can transmit data simultaneously.
• Ring Topology: In a ring topology, each node is connected to two other devices, one each on either side, thus forming a ring. The link in a ring topology is unidirectional. Thus, data can be transmitted in one direction only (clockwise or counterclockwise).
• Bus Topology: In a bus topology, each communicating device connects to a transmission medium, known as a bus. Data sent from a node are passed on to the bus and hence are transmitted to the length of the bus in both directions.
• Star Topology: In star topology, each communicating device is connected to a central node, which is a networking device like a hub or a switch.