Network Topologies

• Point to Point (Achieved via direct connection)
• Bus (Achieved via network addressing)
  • This topology is similar to the spinal cord
• Ring (Achieved via network addressing in combination with transceivers on each device)
  • Achieved by Daisy Chaining
  • Linear Daisy chaining is also similar, but each computer requires two receivers and transmitters (for two directions)
• Star (Achieved via direct connection to a central node)
• Tree (Achieved via hierarchical connections, which can also be seen as chaining stars)
• Mesh (Achieved via direct connections between multiple nodes)
• Hybrid (Combination of any of the other networks)

Centralization

• Star Topology is centralized
• Tree topology is a hierarchical connection of Star topologies

Decentralization

• Mesh topology is decentralized.
  • A limited hop mesh topology has a hypercube topology
    • This is similar to how in grid networks (e.g. Electrical), a linear or ring topology is used.
    • Multidimensional rings have a toroidal topology (remember the 3 houses and 3 supplies problem?)
  • Military networks use Point to Point connections between all nodes to get maximum reliability.