topology
In the topology of networks, a distinction is made between the physical and the logical topology, which do not have to be identical. The physical topology is realized by the configuration of the network nodes and connections, the logical topology by the logical connections of network nodes.
The physical and logical topologies do not have to be identical in networks. In general, the physical topology is the starting point. This is about which node pairs are connected to each other on a physical level.
Network topologies can be divided into two basic configurations. In the first configuration, connections are established from one node to the next, as in the case of a ring topology. In the other configuration, all network nodes are directly connected to the transmission medium, as in the case of a bus topology.
The different topologies have application-specific advantages, which are expressed, for example, in the access behavior, or in the control mechanisms. The access procedures can be stochastic, i.e. random as in the case of Ethernet, others deterministic, whereby the access times are clearly defined. The latter is the case with time-controlled access methods such as Time Division Multiple Access( TDMA), since the transmission channel is made available to each station via a time slot assigned to it. Furthermore, the number of network nodes and the intelligence of the end devices play a role in the choice of topology.
There are topologies that are better suited for wired networks, others that are better suited for wireless networks. The best known network topologies are ring topology, bus topology, tree topology, star topology and line topology. In addition, there are meshed structures in wide area networks, radio and sensor networks, known as meshed topology, in a wide variety of forms as partially meshed or fully meshed structure or as star meshed topology.