Talk:Network topology
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[edit] Glow Topology
Should the Glow topology from wireless networks be added? If yes, i'm willing to contribute a decent paragraph on it. Theroachman 00:20, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
- I think it would be a good idea to start a separate article on the subject. My reasoning is that the main article will be read by beginners to the topic and, therefore, should include only the basic topologies with links to separate articles covering the more advanced topologies. This is only my opinion, however. --mlewis000 06:56, 15 December 2006 (UTC)
- I too think it would be a good idea to add the Glow topology and would be more than willing to contribute. --Leggyman
[edit] DAG
How about a graph image with directed arcs showing a directed asymmetric graph? btw I am using these graphic images in a couple of pages I have edited, they are very effective. Being new, I couldnt figure out from the graphics page who was making them and with what software. They look a bit like they could be made with Pajek, which also does svg and directed arcs--Douglas R. White 22:26, 20 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Readability of the Article
I recently referred my students to Wikipedia for research purposes, however they found the article difficult to read and understand. The text of the article was subjected to a readability text which indicated that the article was of an undergraduate level and therefore not suitable for my students who are aged 16-19. The main problem was that the sentence structure was too long. Would anyone be willing to rewrite the article in more simple English to make it suitable for a wider audience? User:Sarahhcfe 19:58, 23 October 2006
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- There's a special version of wikipedia written for those whose grasp of english is shaky. The articles are much easier to read, relying on simple vocabulary and grammatical constructs. Go to "simple.wikipedia.org". yandman 17:41, 12 November 2006 (UTC)
I looked on simple.wikipedia.org, they have two lines on networks and nothing about the topology. It would have been useless to anyone except someone who has just started using computers and has no idea about it, it does have a link to electron microscopes though
[edit] Lack of references / correctness of article...
I have a link to my wireless mesh topology page which I wrote a number of years back. It good to see that people are using it for reference and are creating terminology that is evolving. This is good but a lot has been written in this description which was used from my basis article that was researched back in 2004 and items that used should actually be referenced. We could also get someone to edit this into english would also help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.186.167.6 (talk) 16:58, 23 November 2007 (UTC)
Could the author(s) of this article please add some citations to references.
Also, it seems that the article could be rewritten so that it is more in line with other references and web resources - i.e., there is no mention in the article about the distinction between physical and logical topologies, why they exist as separate topics in discussions concerning network topology, etc.
Also, many other resources which range from network study guides to university professor's notes use an entirely different approach to the subject which seems to be more conducive to an understanding of the subject i.e., starting with physical topologies and explaining how these topologies came about and then evolving the discussion into more complex subjects (relatively speaking), such as logical topologies.
The article seems to contradict itself in at least one respect in that it first states that "A network topology is the pattern of links connecting pairs of nodes of a network." and then includes physical connections in the statement that "Distances between nodes, physical interconnections, transmission rates, and/or signal types are not a matter of network topology, although they may be affected by it in an actual physical network." which is confusing to a beginner, since the links which connect the nodes of a network are quite often represented entirely by a physical interconnection and determine (in my understanding) a large part of the physical topology of a network.
I thought about rewriting the article myself and taking into consideration the above but, since I am not an expert on the subject, I would be writing from the viewpoint of a student with references to the appropriate authors and an almost complete rewrite of the article. I am hesitant to do this because the original author or authors may have superior knowledge of the subject (e.g., I am not a mathematician) and some information may be lost in the rewrite.
Is there some place where a person can post a rewrite of the article without superseding the current article until it has been discussed and some consensus reached? It seemed inappropriate to post a rewrite in the discussion page due to the potential length of the article and I do not want to write the article on the simple.wikipedia.org site as I would be using (as another commenter stated) higher level language and would have a difficult time choosing other words. --mlewis000 06:04, 10 December 2006 (UTC)
- I'd suggest you just go ahead with the rewrite. If you make any mistakes, someone else can fix them — at worst, if your rewrite really sucks, someone will just revert the article back to the old version. Nobody owns articles on Wikipedia. If you want to make a "draft" version first, you can do so on a subpage of your user page, for example at User:Mlewis000/Network topology draft. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 12:59, 10 December 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Confusion concerning terminology...
I have rewritten this article to the best of my ability given my reference sources but am still confused concerning some aspects of the terminology used in this subject, especially concerning the correct usage of the term 'physical'. In some instances the term seems to be used to describe the actual arrangement of the layout of the cabling and the nodes in a network and in other instances it seems to be referring to the physical layer of the OSI model.
For example, the star network, which could exhibit, from a signal standpoint, any number of topologies while physically it is a star with reference to the central node being linked to the peripheral nodes in a hub and spoke fashion with cables. This topology could be used to implement the 802.4 Token Bus network if I am not mistaken but in this implementation (at the PHY layer) it is a physical bus and at the logical layer it is a logical ring which results in three topologies (i.e., physical star [cabling level], physical bus [PHY layer], logical ring) instead of the two referred to in most references (i.e., physical bus / logical ring). I am confused as to how to describe this network in network topology terms. My best attempt would be to describe it as a physical star, signal bus, and logical ring but can find no reference to this type of usage of the terminology.
For another example, the same star network could be implemented using a switch as the hub or central node and then it would exhibit a mesh (hybrid ?) topology as far as the signal is concerned and could be used to implement some type of a logical ring topology (given the correct software in the nodes), in which case I would describe this network as a physical star, signal mesh, and logical ring.
In my examples, the term 'signal' seems to be replaced by 'physical' in many texts and the fact that the physical and signal topologies (my terminology) are different seems to be entirely overlooked or ignored.
If someone could clarify this for me (with some references that are easily accessible over the internet if possible) I would be happy to incorporate this new (for me) understanding into this article.
Thanks! --mlewis000 19:35, 12 December 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Merge of Star-bus network
As stated in the Star-bus network discussion page, I believe it should be merged into this article. The information provided about the star-bus network on this article is more extensive than the standalone page itself. The Star-bus network article by itself has very little use. --Sadasdas 10:15, 13 February 2007 (UTC)
As nobody objected nor commented to this, I redirected the page.
[edit] Semiprotected
It seems one or more anonymous users keep vandalizing this article with surprising frequency compared to the amount of legitimate editing it receives, often removing or replacing entire sections. The same problem has occurred before; at one point the article had shrunk to less than half its length due to uncaught section blanking before I noticed something funny and dug the lost sections back out of the edit history. To hopefully reduce the likelihood of something similar happening again, I've decided to semiprotect the article, preventing anonymous users from editing it. If you have a legitimate edit you'd like to make to this article, and can't or don't wish to log in or register an account, please leave a note here on this talk page asking me or someone else to make the change for you. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 19:48, 13 June 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Structure of article
I'm confused with the article's structure: I'd expected the descriptions of the various topologies to be presented at the same paragraph level, especially since section 1 "Basic types of topologies" presents a list of, apparently, basic topologies. Furthermore, a distinction between the 3 classifications of network topologies is being presented in section 2, however it seems to be mixed up with the basic topologies. In my opinion the structure should be something along the following lines:
- Basic types of topologies
- bus
- ring
- star
- mesh
- etc. etc.
- classifications of network topologies
- physical topologies
- signal topologies
- logical topologies
Whether the current structure is a result of vandalizing (as suggested by Ilmari Karonen, however unfortunately not solved by the semi-protection) or that it's a legitimate and serves a well-thought purpose, cannot be distinguished. Hence: either correct the structure and take corrective actions to prevent further vandalism, or more explicitly describe the purpose of this structure. --139.63.221.6 (talk) 19:22, 30 March 2008 (UTC)
[edit] updating
Anyone interested in updating this article a bit? There seems to be a lot in here about technologies that are obsolete. I realize that these are used as examples to illustrate the network topology, and not the technology itself; but I worry about the relevance of these examples when no one is operating a token ring network today except perhaps a few corner-cases with 20-year old network gear. If there needs to be a section added on the history of network topology, or something more current, i'm open to helping out. Nothingofwater (talk) 06:31, 9 May 2008 (UTC)
hey i read your given information i am fully knowledge .thanks for the help —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.241.15.109 (talk) 02:18, 10 May 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Semiprotection again
Sigh. I've just reverted this article back to a revision from two months ago. Again, multiple sections had been vandalized or deleted outright, and no-one had spotted the problem. I tried to check that I wasn't reverting any legitimate changes, but it's possibly that some may have been made in the mean time and later undone by vandals, in which case I may have missed them; if so, sorry.
I don't know why such an obscure article keeps getting hit by vandals so frequently and repeatedly, but it doesn't seem to show any sign of stopping. The average edit rate seems to be about one edit per day, which is fine, but a large fraction of them seems to be vandalism that is only sporadically caught, which isn't. The only break was last summer, when this article was semiprotected from June 13 to August 20. During that time there were a total of nine edits by five users, all of which were useful and one of which actually introduced a whole new section. That looks more like the edit rate an article like this should be getting.
I think, on the whole, that the editing this article has been constantly subject to counts as "heavy and persistent vandalism" as stated in the semi-protection policy linked to above. Semi-protection has been tried before, and it worked, but the problems resumed as soon as it was removed. Thus, per the rough guide to semi-protection and my subjective evaluation of the history of this article, I've decided to semi-protect this article indefinitely.
Semi-protection means that the article will not be editable by new or unregistered users. If you would like to make an improvement or correction to this article, but cannot edit it yourself, please leave a note here on this discussion page. Another editor will notice it and, if it seems reasonable, make the changes for you. If the issue is urgent, prefix your message with "{{editprotected}}"; this should rapidly summon an administrator who will review the issue and make any necessary changes. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 13:42, 11 May 2008 (UTC)
