Bus or Linear Topology

Bus topology uses a backbone cable or drawing and all devices are connected with this.

In other words, you can say that the bus topology consists of a single length of the transmission medium normally coaxial cable onto which the various nodes are attached.

The bus or linear topology is used in traditional data communication network where the host at one end of the bus communicates with several terminals attached along its length.

The transmission from any station travels the length of the bus, in both directions, and can be received by all the other stations. The bus has terminators at either end which absorb the signal, removing it from the bus.

In bus top, there is a use of t-connectors, and there is its terminator connected at the end of this.

At earlier time, there was a thin net and thick net also called 10base-2 and 10base-5, uses this technique and that was so popular. In this type of technique, there was a use of coaxial cable.

Advantages of Bus Topology

Below are some main advantages of using the Bus topology:

• It is easy to install because there is a requirement of only one cable. Therefore, it uses less cable and simple wiring layout.
• And in bus topology any networking or specialized devices is not required. It only requires LAN cards, t-connectors, and terminators.
• Additional nodes can be connected to an existing bus network at any point along its length. More extensive additions can be achieved by adding extra segments connected by a type of signal amplifier known as repeater.

Disadvantages of Bus topology

Below are some main disadvantages of using the Bus topology:

• In bus topology, if at any place, a cable disconnected or disconnection form the cable, then total network stops working. Then it becomes hard to fix the problem.
• In bus topology, if you want to add new computer to replace old computer. Then at that time of adding new computer to replace old computer, network stops working.
• Each node on the network is directly connected to the central bus. This means that some way of deciding who can use the network at any given time must be performed in each node

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