BUS TOPOLOGY

The bus topology is used when a network is small,simple,or temporary.

How a bus network works

On a typical bus network, the cable is just one or more wires passing from computer to computer.When one computer sends a signal up and down the wire, all the computers on the network will receive the infomation, but only one (the one with the address that match the one encoded in the message) accept the information. The rest dis regard the message.

Only one computer can send a message at a time, so this will effect the speed of the network. A computer must wait before the bus is free.

In a bus topology there are terminators at the end of the cable so there is no ringing. when echoes back and forth along an unterminated bus it is called ringing.

Advantages of the bus

There are several advantages to a bus topology:

It is simple,easy to use and easy to understand.
It requires least amount of cables to connect the computers and is therefore is less expenisve.
It is easy to extend a bus.

Disadvantages of the bus

A bus topology has the following disadvantages:

Heavy network traffic can slow a bus considerly.
Each connector weakens the electrical signal, and too many prevant the signal from being correctly received all along the bus.