No matter what kind of network you use at work, home, or school, they are all built following a plan. Once the cables and everything are in place, there will be a distinct topology of the network.
It may not appear too significant, yet the network topologies can reduce issues and increase network performance. hence, it is crucial to consider your network topology as you design a network.
In essence, this means, with large networks, there is more to it than sticking ends of cables into routers and switches and hoping for the best once they are all connected to a central location.
Here you can find out more about each topology in networking and the different types of networks you may encounter.
What is a Common Network Topology?
Once you begin to look at what is a network topology in the full sense. You will see it is the arrangement of the network in both a physical and logical manner.
Many of the topologies are better used in specific scenarios than others, and to determine the best needs to consider size, scale and overall cost.
In your network topology, you need to think of all the nodes, devices and connections on your network. You can see it as a city in a simple form and how that inter-operates with each component.
What are the Three Most Common Network Topologies?
While you can have a point to point topology, this is basically what you would get with two computers connected. It may be fast, yet it is of little practical use when more nodes connect.
You can also find many other types of networks, yet these are variants of the main ones, such as Tree Topology (based on the bus), hybrid topology, a mix of bus and star, thus giving you a hybrid topology of the Tree. (Read Fastest VPN In Australia)
A hybrid topology is in itself expensive, so only used in specific scenarios where cost is justified.
Here you can now find the three most common topologies in everyday use.
Bus Topology
Bus topology uses one single cable that all nodes directly connect. This main cable acts as the backbone for the complete network, and it is the function of one of the computers on the network to act as a computer server.
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one of the first advantages of a bus topology is it is easy to connect computers or peripheral devices. Second is they come with minimal cable requirements and thus lower costs.
A significant disadvantage being if there is an issue with the main cable, then the entire network falls over and can be hard to troubleshoot.
Because of this, you see a bus topology in smaller installations rather than large networks, which could cover a building.
Star Topology
In a star topology, all computers connect to a central hub via a point-to-point connection.
This central hub of a star topology network may be a computer server that manages this network or a more basic device that allows connections between computers across the network.
Star topologies are a popular choice due to their low start-up costs, despite them using more cables than the bus topology and are therefore more costly. Adding a new node to a star topology network is very easy. (Read About Opera Browser VPN)
This network is resilient in that if one connection between one computer and the hub fails, all other connections remain intact.
But if the main hub breaks down in a Star Topology, the whole star topology network fails.
Ring Topology
In a ring topology, the computers on the network are connected in a circular pattern, and the data travels in one direction.
Each computer in a ring topology is interconnected directly to the next computer, forming a single route for the data signals to travel across the network. Any network based on the ring topology is easy to install and manage.
When there is a problem in the network, the logical ring topology allows you to identify which part of the network is causing the issues. Also, data is transported so far and stops at the point of failure. (Read How to Install Active Directory Users And Computers On Windows 10)
A ring topology is also ideal for processing large amounts of data over long distances because each computer acts as a repeater to the signal.
The disadvantage of a ring topology is that it is more complicated to add more computers to this type of network. If a single computer fails, the entire network fails.
What is the Most Common Type of Network?
When you try to determine the most popular type of network, you need to consider a LAN (Local Area Network). It is these that most individuals will connect.
However, there are a couple of additions, and they quickly turn into a hybrid topology.
Stemming from our LAN, we have a WLAN where we connect via Wi-Fi. Depending on the area, this can be part of a partial mesh topology as every node can communicate with multiple other nodes.
We have a WAN (Wide area network) moving on from a partial mesh, which you can say is a full mesh topology as it spreads to the internet.
The internet is the most basic of all wide area networks with no central point in a star network. However, it may have many different topologies connecting to it in specific areas and will be a hybrid mesh topology.
Once data is on the internet, it can take many different routes to the destination, like a mesh topology.
You can find one other network that sits on top of this mesh topology, a Virtual Private Network or VPN.
A VPN uses a point-to-point network topology type of connection, and as data travels from point A to point B, it undergoes military-grade encryption. Therefore, no one on the mesh topology network of the internet can see what your activities are.
You can see how secure a VPN connection is as it uses a direct link to send data, and it parts itself from the mesh topology. To all the eyes looking on, it is a separate network altogether.
