Data Communication Notes

Chapter 4th – Network Topologies & Devices

A Network Topology is the arrangement with which computer systems or

network devices are connected to each other. Topologies may define both
physical and logical aspect of the network. Both logical and physical topologies
could be same or different in a same network.

Point-to-Point

Point-to-point networks contains exactly two hosts such as computer, switches

or routers, servers connected back to back using a single piece of cable. Often,
the receiving end of one host is connected to sending end of the other and vice-
versa.

If the hosts are connected point-to-point logically, then may have multiple
intermediate devices. But the end hosts are unaware of underlying network and
see each other as if they are connected directly.

Bus Topology
In case of Bus topology, all devices share single communication line or
cable.Bus topology may have problem while multiple hosts sending data at the
same time. Therefore, Bus topology either uses CSMA/CD technology or
recognizes one host as Bus Master to solve the issue. It is one of the simple
forms of networking where a failure of a device does not affect the other
devices. But failure of the shared communication line can make all other
devices stop functioning.

Both ends of the shared channel have line terminator. The data is sent in only
one direction and as soon as it reaches the extreme end, the terminator removes
the data from the line.

Star Topology

All hosts in Star topology are connected to a central device, known as hub
device, using a point-to-point connection. That is, there exists a point to point
connection between hosts and hub. The hub device can be any of the following:

 Layer-1 device such as hub or repeater

 Layer-2 device such as switch or bridge
 Layer-3 device such as router or gateway
As in Bus topology, hub acts as single point of failure. If hub fails, connectivity
of all hosts to all other hosts fails. Every communication between hosts, takes
place through only the hub.Star topology is not expensive as to connect one
more host, only one cable is required and configuration is simple.

Ring Topology

In ring topology, each host machine connects to exactly two other machines,
creating a circular network structure. When one host tries to communicate or
send message to a host which is not adjacent to it, the data travels through all
intermediate hosts. To connect one more host in the existing structure, the
administrator may need only one more extra cable.
Failure of any host results in failure of the whole ring.Thus, every connection in
the ring is a point of failure. There are methods which employ one more backup
ring.

Mesh Topology

In this type of topology, a host is connected to one or multiple hosts.This

topology has hosts in point-to-point connection with every other host or may
also have hosts which are in point-to-point connection to few hosts only.
Hosts in Mesh topology also work as relay for other hosts which do not have
direct point-to-point links. Mesh technology comes into two types:

 Full Mesh: All hosts have a point-to-point connection to every other host
in the network. Thus for every new host n(n-1)/2 connections are
required. It provides the most reliable network structure among all
network topologies.
 Partially Mesh: Not all hosts have point-to-point connection to every
other host. Hosts connect to each other in some arbitrarily fashion. This
topology exists where we need to provide reliability to some hosts out of
all.

Tree Topology

Also known as Hierarchical Topology, this is the most common form of

network topology in use presently.This topology imitates as extended Star
topology and inherits properties of bus topology.
This topology divides the network in to multiple levels/layers of network.
Mainly in LANs, a network is bifurcated into three types of network devices.
The lowermost is access-layer where computers are attached. The middle layer
is known as distribution layer, which works as mediator between upper layer
and lower layer. The highest layer is known as core layer, and is central point of
the network, i.e. root of the tree from which all nodes fork.

All neighboring hosts have point-to-point connection between them.Similar to

the Bus topology, if the root goes down, then the entire network suffers
even.though it is not the single point of failure. Every connection serves as point
of failure, failing of which divides the network into unreachable segment.

Daisy Chain

This topology connects all the hosts in a linear fashion. Similar to Ring
topology, all hosts are connected to two hosts only, except the end hosts.Means,
if the end hosts in daisy chain are connected then it represents Ring topology.
Each link in daisy chain topology represents single point of failure. Every link
failure splits the network into two segments.Every intermediate host works as
relay for its immediate hosts.

Hybrid Topology

A network structure whose design contains more than one topology is said to be
hybrid topology. Hybrid topology inherits merits and demerits of all the
incorporating topologies.

The above picture represents an arbitrarily hybrid topology. The combining

topologies may contain attributes of Star, Ring, Bus, and Daisy-chain
topologies. Most WANs are connected by means of Dual-Ring topology and
networks connected to them are mostly Star topology networks. Internet is the
best example of largest Hybrid topology

Network Devices

1. Repeater – A repeater operates at the physical layer. Its job is to regenerate

the signal over the same network before the signal becomes too weak or
corrupted so as to extend the length to which the signal can be transmitted over
the same network. An important point to be noted about repeaters is that they do
not amplify the signal. When the signal becomes weak, they copy the signal bit
by bit and regenerate it at the original strength. It is a 2 port device.

2. Hub – A hub is basically a multiport repeater. A hub connects multiple wires

coming from different branches, for example, the connector in star topology
which connects different stations. Hubs cannot filter data, so data packets are
sent to all connected devices. In other words, collision domain of all hosts
connected through Hub remains one. Also, they do not have the intelligence to
find out best path for data packets which leads to inefficiencies and wastage.

Types of Hub

 Active Hub:- These are the hubs which have their own power supply and
can clean, boost, and relay the signal along with the network. It serves
both as a repeater as well as wiring centre. These are used to extend the
maximum distance between nodes.
  Passive Hub :- These are the hubs which collect wiring from nodes and
power supply from active hub. These hubs relay signals onto the network
without cleaning and boosting them and can’t be used to extend the
distance between nodes.
 Intelligent Hub :- It work like active hubs and include remote
management capabilities. They also provide flexible data rates to network
devices. It also enables an administrator to monitor the traffic passing
through the hub and to configure each port in the hub.

3. Bridge – A bridge operates at data link layer. A bridge is a repeater, with add
on the functionality of filtering content by reading the MAC addresses of source
and destination. It is also used for interconnecting two LANs working on the
same protocol. It has a single input and single output port, thus making it a 2
port device.

Types of Bridges

 Transparent Bridges:- These are the bridge in which the stations are
completely unaware of the bridge’s existence i.e. whether or not a bridge
is added or deleted from the network, reconfiguration of the stations is
unnecessary. These bridges make use of two processes i.e. bridge
forwarding and bridge learning.
 Source Routing Bridges:- In these bridges, routing operation is
performed by source station and the frame specifies which route to
follow. The host can discover frame by sending a special frame called
 discovery frame, which spreads through the entire network using all
possible paths to destination.

4. Switch – A switch is a multiport bridge with a buffer and a design that can
boost its efficiency(a large number of ports imply less traffic) and performance.
A switch is a data link layer device. The switch can perform error checking
before forwarding data, that makes it very efficient as it does not forward
packets that have errors and forward good packets selectively to correct port
only. In other words, switch divides collision domain of hosts, but broadcast
domain remains same.

5. Routers – A router is a device like a switch that routes data packets based on
their IP addresses. Router is mainly a Network Layer device. Routers normally
connect LANs and WANs together and have a dynamically updating routing
table based on which they make decisions on routing the data packets. Router
divide broadcast domains of hosts connected through it.
6. Gateway – A gateway, as the name suggests, is a passage to connect two
networks together that may work upon different networking models. They
basically work as the messenger agents that take data from one system, interpret
it, and transfer it to another system. Gateways are also called protocol
converters and can operate at any network layer. Gateways are generally more
complex than switch or router.

7. Brouter – It is also known as bridging router is a device which combines

features of both bridge and router. It can work either at data link layer or at
network layer. Working as router, it is capable of routing packets across
networks and working as bridge, it is capable of filtering local area network
traffic.