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Networking Beginner

What is Network Topology?

The physical or logical arrangement of nodes and connections in a computer network, such as star, mesh, ring, or bus configurations.

Network topology describes how devices are interconnected. Physical topologies include star (all nodes connect to a central switch — most common in LANs), mesh (every node connects to every other — used in WANs for redundancy), ring (nodes form a circular chain), and bus (all nodes share a single cable — legacy). Logical topologies describe data flow patterns regardless of physical layout. Modern data center topologies include spine-leaf (two-tier switching fabric for low latency) and fat-tree architectures. Topology choice impacts performance, redundancy, scalability, and cost.

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