A star network topology’s computers are connected to a central point with their own individual cables or wireless connections. You’ll often fi nd that central spot inhabited by a device like a hub, a switch, or an access point.
Star topology offers a lot of advantages over bus topology, making it more widely used even though it obviously requires more physical media. One of its best features is that because each computer or network segment is connected to the central device individually, if the cable fails, it only brings down the machine or network segment related to the point of failure. This makes the network much more fault tolerant as well as a lot easier to troubleshoot. Another great thing about a star topology is that it’s a lot more scalable—all you have to do if you want to add to it is run a new cable and connect to the machine at the core of the star.
Although it is called a star topology, it also looks a lot like a bike wheel with spokes connecting to the hub in the middle of the wheel and extending outward to connect to the rim. And just as with that bike wheel, it’s the hub device at the center of a star topology network that can give you the most grief if something goes wrong with it. If that central hub happens to fail, down comes the whole network, so it’s a very good thing hubs don’t fail often!
Just as it is with pretty much everything, a star topology has its pros and cons. But the good news far outweighs the bad, which is why people often opt for star topology. And here’s a list of benefits advantage of Star network Topology :
- New stations can be added or moved easily and quickly.
- A single cable failure won’t bring down the entire network.
- It’s relatively easy to troubleshoot.
And here are the disadvantages to using a star topology:
- The total installation cost can be higher because of the larger number of cables, even though prices are becoming more competitive.
- it has a single point of failure—the hub or other central device.
There are two more sophisticated implementations of a star topology. The first is called a point-to-point link, where you have not only the device in the center of the spoke acting as a hub but also the device on the other end, which extends the network.