Bus
The key characteristic of the bus topology is the use of a common medium which all the data is transferred along. All nodes (connected device such as a computer) of the communication system is connected to this medium. The main cable (usually called the backbone) on which data is sent through must have a high bandwidth for efficient transmission.
The purpose of the terminators are to ensure no signal is reflected back down the transmission medium.
Advantages
- If one node fails, the other nodes can still communicate
- Nodes can be added easily
Disadvantages
- If the transmission medium is broken the whole system fails
- Not suitable for large amounts of nodes as this causes a large amount of traffic in the transmission medium. This leads to data collisions.