Cisco Networking Essentials, 2nd Edition

Chapter 5Physical and Logical Topologies

A network topology describes the physical connections and logical communication pathways between objects in a network. The term is used to describe a variety of networking concepts. Topologies are used to describe connections among computers (or hosts) in a network, among routers in a network, or even among wide area network connections.

Topologies come in two varieties, physical and logical. A physical topology describes the way in which the devices are connected together. For example, they could be connected end-to-end in a straight line or connected in a circle (or ring). The logical topology describes how the devices communicate or the shape of the communication path. In many cases, the physical ...