Sunday, September 21, 2014

Mesh Topology and Star Topology

Now we going to see about mesh and star topologies in detail.

MESH TOPOLOGY
In mesh topology, every device has a dedicated point-to-point link to every other devices. The dedicated link carries the traffic only between two devices it connects. To find the number of links connected to the mesh topology use this

                                                          n(n-1)/2

where n is number of devices.

Advantages

  • It guarantees the each connection and thus eliminates the traffic problem.
  • Even if one of the links fails there is always an alternative present. So data transfer doesn’t get affected.
  • It provides privacy and security.
  • Expansion and modification in topology can be done without disrupting other nodes.

Disadvantages

  • There are high chances of redundancy in many of the network connections.
  • Overall cost of the network is very high.
  • Installation and maintenance of this topology is very difficult. Even administration of the network is tough.
STAR TOPOLOGY
In star topology, each device has a dedicated point-to-point link connected to the central controller mainly called hub. The devices are not directly linked to the other devices.

Advantages

  • It is less expensive than mesh topology.
  • It has better performance. Performance of the network is dependent on the capacity of central hub.
  • Easy to connect new nodes or devices.
  • Centralized management. It helps in monitoring the network.
  • Failure of one node or link doesn’t affect the rest of network. At the same time its easy to detect the failure and troubleshoot it.

Disadvantages

  • The dependency of whole topology is on central device. If it fails whole network goes down.
  • The use of hub, a router or a switch as central device increases the overall cost of the network.
  • Performance and as well number of nodes which can be added in such topology is depended on capacity of central device.

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