Network Topology: How Does Your Network Layout Affect Performance?

Businesses around the globe spend nearly $4 trillion on technology each year. Most business owners understand that in order to stay on top, they need to stay on the cutting edge of technology. The new tech tools you find and purchase will be useless if you don’t have a strong network to support and power them.
Most business owners fail to realize just how important it is to plan out their network topology. Simply placing pieces of crucial network hardware anywhere can lead to lots of problems. The physical layout of your network is referred to as its topology. If you need more answers to the question what is network topology, take some time to do some online research. Adequately planning out this topology will require you to consult with knowledgeable IT professionals.

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Without a great topology, you will struggle to keep your business network fast and reliable. Read below to find out more about the various network topologies and how they can be utilized.
 

The Mesh Topology

If you are looking for a network design that will help you achieve maximum reliability and functionality, then the mesh topology is a great option. With this topology, your network devices will connect with a variety of other nodes on the network. By having separate connections to each of your network nodes, you can avoid problems should one of the nodes go out.
In most cases, the mesh network topology allows the data trying to travel to and through the down node to take another route. This means you and your team will not have to worry about lower than normal productivity levels should an outage occur. Instead of letting disabled services and nodes affect your efficiency, you need to embrace mesh network topology.
 

The Star Topology

Most business owners like the idea of being able to control their network from a single station. If this is your main concern, then using start topology is probably a good idea. With this topology, all of your devices will be ran to one centralized node.
Most companies use this topology as a way to ease the stress on the network administrator. The only problem with this topology is that when the centralized station is down, it will knock out all of the devices connected to it.
 

The Ring Topology

Another very commonly used network topology is referred to as the ring. This topology connects devices in sequential order. All of the data transferred on the network with this topology will have to pass through each device in this ring. Businesses gravitate towards this network topology because it is both easy to setup and maintain.
Before you start setting up this topology, you need to decide whether it will be devised in a unidirectional or bidirectional manner. In most cases, you will want to use the bidirectional option because it can make the network more functional in the event of a node outage.
 

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Providing Your Team With a Functional Network is Crucial

Some business owners make the mistake of rushing through the network topology selection process. This may lead to problems in the future. The only way to ensure the right decision is made is by consulting with professionals. These professionals will be able to consider the needs your business has and your budget before making suggestions regarding how your network topology should be arranged.
It is probably a good idea to allow these same professionals to maintain and monitor your network once it is up and going. By paying professionals to do this work, you can discover network issues before they cause too much damage.