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Network Topologies and Architectures
Networks come in a few standard forms, and each form is a complete system of compatible hardware, protocols, transmission media, and topologies. A topology is a map of the network. It is a plan for how the cabling will interconnect the nodes and how the nodes will function in relation to one another. Several factors shape the various network topologies, and one of the most important is the choice of an access method. An access method is a set of rules for sharing the transmission medium. This chapter describes two of the most important categories of access methods: contention and token passing. You learn about CSMA/CD and CSMA/CA, two contention-based access methods, and about some of the fundamental topology archetypes. This chapter then looks at Ethernet and Token Ring networks. Ethernet and Token Ring are network architectures designed around the contention and token-passing access methods, respectively.

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