Which is more reliable star topology or mesh topology?

Content: Star Topology Vs Mesh Topology

1. Comparison Chart
2. Definition
3. Key Differences
4. Advantages
5. Disadvantages
6. Conclusion

Table of Contents Show

Content: Star Topology Vs Mesh Topology
Comparison Chart
Definition of Star Topology
Definition of Mesh Topology
Difference between Star and Mesh Topology
Domain 4: Communication and Network Security (Designing and Protecting Network Security)
Exam Warning
A Comparison of Mesh and Star Networks
Types of Topology

Comparison Chart

Basis for comparison	Star Topology	Mesh Topology
Organisation	The peripheral nodes are connected to the central node(ex. hub, switch or router).	It contains at least two nodes with two or more paths between them.
Installation and reconfiguration	Easier	Difficult
Cost	Comparatively less	Expensive due to extensive cabling.
Robustness	Intermediate	Highly robust
Cabling requirements	Uses twisted pair cables which cover distance up to 100 meters.	Twisted pair, coaxial, fibre optic cable, any of the cable type can be used depending on the type of networks.
Routing mechanism	All the information is routed from the central network connection.	Information is directly routed from one device to another.
Complexity	Simple	Quite complex
Scalability	Good	Poor

Definition of Star Topology

The Star topology connects all of the end devices to a common central node directly. A central controller which is connected to all the other devices through point-to-point links is called a star coupler. It does not flow the traffic between the devices instead the star coupler acts as the mediator, for employing the exchange of the data. If a device wants to communicate or send data to another device, priorly it has to send data to the central controller. Then the central controller relays the data to the intended destination.

The central controller can work in two manners:

In the first approach, it can broadcast the frames to the central node and then central node retransmit it on all the external links so that it can reach to the final node. In this scenario, the organisation of the network nodes looks like star physically, but these are connected in a bus topology, where all the other nodes receive the transmitted data.
The second approach includes switching and routing functions where the central star coupler behaves as a frame-switching device. In this type, the central node buffers the arriving frame then retransmit it to the destination node.

The star topology enables the high-speed data transfer especially when the central controller is utilized as a switch. Here the number of links is equal to the number of nodes. This topology is flexible and maintained efficiently, as compared to other topologies.

Definition of Mesh Topology

Mesh topology links the node in a way that each node is linked to the other node by a dedicated point-to-point link. Therefore, it creates n(n-1)/2 links to connect n number of nodes, which is a bit too much. The form of media used to link the nodes can be twisted pair, coaxial, or optical fibre cable. This type of topology does not require any additional information about the packet such as the source address or destination address because two nodes are connected directly.

The flexibility of the mesh topology is very low and has a poor scalability factor. It requires laying of the links to add a new node so that the new node could be connected to each existing node. This is the reason it is very expensive topology.

Difference between Star and Mesh Topology

NetworkMCAComputers

Both Star and Mesh are the types of network topologies which could be defined as the arrangement of a network which comprises of nodes and connecting lines via sender and receiver. On the basis of nature and characteristics of both we can distinguish between them.

Following are the important differences between Star and Mesh Topology −

Sr. No.	Key	Star Topology	Mesh Topology
1	Definition	Star Topology could be defined as a network topology in which the nodes are connected to the central hub or router through which information is travelled from central hub or router to all the nodes.	On other hand Mesh Topology is the network topology in which the nodes are connected to each other completely via dedicated link in which the information is travelled from nodes to nodes
2	Number of nodes	Star Topology has number of nodes equal to the links present i.e. if there are N links in Star Topology then there are N nodes.	On other hand in case of Mesh Topology there are N(N-1)/2 links where N is the number of nodes.
3	Complex	Star Topology due to its simple structure is less complex as compared to Mesh Topology.	On other hand due to more complexity in nodes arrangement Mesh Topology is considered as more complex.
4	Cost efficient	Star Topology is cost efficient as compared to Mesh Topology.	On the other hand, Mesh Topology is costlier as compared to Star Topology.
5	Information	In Star Topology the information is travel from central hub or router to all the nodes.	On the other hand in Mesh Topology the information is travelled from nodes to nodes.
6	Usage	Star Topology is very good extensible and which can be used in LAN as setup is easy too.	On the other hand Mesh Topology is poor extensible and which can be used in WAN.

Nitin Sharma

Published on 09-Jun-2020 09:10:13

Previous Page Print Page

Domain 4: Communication and Network Security (Designing and Protecting Network Security)

Eric Conrad, ... Joshua Feldman, in CISSP Study Guide (Third Edition), 2016

Star

Star topology has become the dominant physical topology for LANs. The star was first popularized by ARCNET, and later adopted by Ethernet. Each node is connected directly to a central device such as a hub or a switch, as shown in Figure 5.17.

Figure 5.17. Star Topology

Exam Warning

Remember that physical and logical topologies are related, but different. A logical ring can run via a physical ring, but there are exceptions. FDDI uses both a logical and physical ring, but Token Ring is a logical ring topology that runs on a physical star, for example. If you see the word “ring” on the exam, check the context to see if it is referring to physical ring, logical ring, or both.

Stars feature better fault tolerance: any single local cable cut or NIC failure affects one node only. Since each node is wired back to a central point, more cable is required as opposed to bus (where one cable run connects nodes to each other). This cost disadvantage is usually outweighed by the fault tolerance advantages.

View chapterPurchase book

Read full chapter

URL:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128024379000059