Star Topologies

Star Topologies

Star topologies require that all devices connect to a central hub (see Figure 4.7). The hub receives signals from other network devices and routes the signals to the proper destinations. Star hubs can be interconnected to form tree or hierarchical network topologies.

As mentioned earlier, a star physical topology is often used to implement a bus or ring logical topology (refer to Figure 4.6).

A star physical topology means that the nodes are all connected to a central hub. The path the data takes among the nodes and through that hub (the logical topology) depends on the design of the hub, the design of the cabling, and the hardware and software configuration of the nodes.