Lan Topologies

LAN Topologies

Brandy Meilhon

IT/240

2/26/2012

David Lindsey

Question #11 is an example of a mesh topology. It’s a mesh topology because each server is connected to other servers. Looking below you can see that every computer is connected to each other. While this topology is not very common in LANs, it is common in WANs, where it connects remote sites over telecommunication links. It is difficult to install and reconfigure because the number of cables increases geometrically with each added computer.

Question #12 is an example of a star topology. Below, each device is connected to the main central point, such as hub or a switch. The main central point acts as a multipoint connector. It is the most popular topology. Star networks are relatively easy to install and manage but time consuming, because each computer requires a cable that runs back to the central point. Examples of star networks include Ethernet 10BaseT and 100BaseTX.

For question #13, the logical topology of the network is that of a ring topology and the physical topology is a star topology. The reason why the logical topology is a ring topology is because the token packet which is used to identify the system allows transmitting over the network medium. A ring topology has all devices connected to one another in a closed loop. Each device is connected directly to two other devices. Typically in a ring, each node checks to see if the packet was addressed to it and acts as a repeater (duplicates the data signal, which helps keep the signal from degrading) for the other packets. There