Following are the topologies mostly used:
Star Topology
Star topology: It is one of the most commonly used topology. In a star topology, nodes are not connected to each other, instead are connected to a central device called hub or switch. Information sent by a computer is received by hub/switch, which than determines which node that data needs to send.
Bus or Linear Topology
Bus or Linear topology: It is one of the simplest topology used for network. In bus topology, all the nodes are connected to each other through a single cable generally called ‘backbone’.
Information transmitted by a node reach to all the nodes connected to network, but information is processed or taken only by that node which address is matched with address contained within information.
Ring Topology
In Ring or Circular topology all connected nodes form a circular path. Each node is connected to it’s two neighboring nodes.
In this topology Information sent by a node transmits from one node to another node until it reaches to destination node. Usually data is transmitted in half duplex mode in this topology but it can be duplex mode.
Tree Topology
It is popularly called Star-Bus Topology which is not so commonly used. Devices at lower level are connected to devices at next higher level, which resembles a tree like structure. At higher levels of the tree, often point-to-point or point-to-multipoint connections are used.
It creates Parent-child hierarchy as there can be only one connection between two nodes and two nodes can have only one mutual connection.
Mesh Topology
In Mesh topology, all the nodes are connected to every other node individually. Each node is capable to send and receive information to and from another node. Generally, Mesh topology does not implement any central Server/Switch/Hub.
The connections in Mesh topology can be Wired or Wireless.
