Choosing a Topology
Which topology is right for this job?
- Match topologies to real-world scenarios
- Justify a choice with cost, reliability and scale
- Sketch a chosen design
Overview
Choosing a topology is a design decision, not a matter of taste. Budget, reliability need, and how the network will grow are the deciding factors.
Decision factors
How many devices? How critical is uptime? How much budget for cables and switches? Will the network grow? Answer honestly and one or two topologies will stand out.
Worked examples
4-PC home: star with one small router. 60-PC school lab: tree — one main switch, several classroom switches. Bank HQ: partial mesh between servers plus tree to end users. Undersea fibre network: ring for redundancy.
Design Justification
- In pairs, pick one of: (a) 10-PC clinic, (b) 200-PC secondary school, (c) national bank HQ.
- Choose a topology and write a 3-sentence justification.
- Sketch the topology.
- For a 200-PC school with several buildings, which topology fits best?
Reveal answer
Tree (with star inside each building).
- Give one reason a bank uses partial mesh.
Reveal answer
High fault tolerance — no single link failure takes the bank offline.
- Why is star popular in homes?
Reveal answer
Cheap, simple, and one PC's problem doesn't affect others.
Redraw the school-lab topology with any improvements you would make and explain them.