Week 4 - Topology, Protocol & Architecture

Today is our 4th lesson. In this class we started learning about topology and others element of network.

What is topology??

Network topology is the study of arrangement of the nodes of networks.

Physical topology is the way that the devices on a network are arranged and how they communicate with each other.

Logical topology is the way that the data passes through the network from one device to the next devices.



TYPES OF TOPOLOGY

Linear bus topology 


• All devices are connected to a central cable, called the bus
• relatively inexpensive and easy to install for small networks
• System that uses linear bus topology is Ethernet.

Ring topology


• All devices are connected to one another in the shape of a closed loop.
• Relatively expensive and difficult to install.
• Offer high bandwidth and can span large distances.

Star topology


• All devices are connected to a central hub.
• easy to install and manage
• Disadvantage - bottlenecks can occur because all data must pass through the hub.

Tree topology


• combines characteristics of linear bus and star topologies
• consists of groups of star-configured workstations connected to a linear bus backbone cable

PROTOCOL

Protocol is set of rules that govern communication between the computers in network.

Example of protocols:

Ethernet

• use the linear bus topology
• supports data transfer rates of 10 Mbps
• uses the CSMA/CD access method to handle simultaneous demands

Token ring


• use token passing as access method

Local talk


• develop by Macintosh computers
• slow
• popular because they are easy and inexpensive to install and maintain

FDDI


• is Fiber Distributed Data Interface
•      support data rates of up to 100 Mbps
• used as backbones for wide-area networks.



ARCHITECTURE

Have two categories:

Peer to peer architecture


• each workstation has equivalent capabilities and responsibilities
• disadvantage - usually do not offer the same performance under heavy loads.

Client server architecture


• also known as two-tier architectures
• Servers are powerful computers or processes dedicated to managing file servers, print servers, or
        network server

ATM 

• Asynchronous Transfer Mode
• network technology based on transferring data in cells or packets of a fixed size
• small, constant cell size allows ATM equipment to transmit data over the same network
• assure that no single type of data hogs the line