Advantages and Disadvantages of Ring Network Topology

Ring Topology

In Ring topology, each computer is connected to the next computer such that last computer is connected to the first. Every computer is connected to next computer in the ring. Each computer retransmits what it receives from the previous computer. Suppose, computer A needs to send data to computer D. Now the computer A sends data to computer B. As computer B is not the destination computer, so it will retransmit data to computer C. Finally, Computer C will transfer data to computer D, the destination computer. When a node sends a message, the message is processed by each computer in the ring. If a computer is not the destination node, it will pass the message to the next node, until the message arrives at its destination.

Advantages of Ring Network Topology

1. It is relatively less expensive than a star topology network.
2. In a Ring topology, every computer has an equal access to the network.
3. Performs better than a bus topology under heavy network load

Disadvantages of Ring Network Topology

1. Failure of one computer in the ring can affect the whole network.
2. It is difficult to find faults in a ring network topology.
3. Adding or removing computers will also affect the whole network since every computer is connected with previous and next computer.
4. Sending a message from one computer to another takes time according to the number of nodes between the two computers. Communication delay is directly proportional to number of nodes in the network.

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7	Advantages and Disadvantages of Ring Network Topology
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