There are many different choices that one can make when designing an IT network. These most preferable choices can change depending on your needs, the capabilities that your equipment requires, and perhaps most important, the budget you have available to spend on the network. First, you will have to choose from the various topologies that exist. Second, you will have to determine what type of cable you will use to run your network. Finally you will have to decide if you want to have wireless capabilities. In this paper, you will find a great deal of information that should help you in making your decisions, at the very least, a little easier.

Topologies

There are several different topologies available to choose from, each with its own traits and flaws. The most common are the bus, ring, and star topologies. There are several other examples, but these are the network topologies that will be covered in this paper.

The bus topology is the simplest network topology. also known as a linear bus, in this topology all computers are connected to a single unbroken cable. On a linear bus, each computer determines when the network is not busy and transmits its data as needed. The signal in a bus topology travels down the entire length of the cable, giving its data to each connected device. At the end of the bus is a component called a terminator. The terminator is essentially a resistor that terminates the transmitted data, preventing it from returning back down the bus, which would cause collisions. The downside of the linear bus is if any device on the network malfunctions or becomes unplugged, the bus line gets damaged in any way, or one of the terminators is removed, the entire network will fail.

A ring topology is a network in which all computers are connected to the next forming a circle or “ring”. Each device in the ring receives signals from its