Bus Topology

Description:

• Main wire with many connecting wires.
• Each connecting wire has a terminator at the end.
• The terminator then connects to the device.

Advantages:

• Inexpensive to set up.
• If one device fails, the rest will not.

Disdvantages:

• Signal collisions can occur if too many devices are connected.
• If the main bus cable fails, the whole network fails.
• Security concerns.

Star Topology

Description:

• All devices are connected to a single switch to create one network.

Advantages:

• Hard to overload.
• If there is a fault in one of the devices, it is easy to identify.
• Devices are secure because there is no transmission mediums shared between all the devices.

Disdvantages:

• Additional hardware required - the hardware that is capable of marshalling the signals around the network.
• If the switch fails the whole network fails.