CompTIA A+® Certification All-In-One For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

1.6. Piecing Together the Network Architectures

A network architecture describes a network technology that uses a specific topology, cable type, and access method. This section describes the major types of architectures and their characteristics.

NOTE

Many people use the term architecture to mean topology, stating that the three main types of architectures are bus, star, and ring. However, bus, star, and ring are properly defined as topologies, not architectures. Be careful not to confuse the two terms. A topology defines the network layout, whereas an architecture is made up of a topology, cable type, and access method.

1.6.1. Ethernet

Ethernet is probably the most popular type of network architecture in use. Ethernet is an example of a network architecture that comes in multiple flavors. If someone says to you, "I have an Ethernet network," you are likely to ask, "What type of Ethernet?"

There are a number of types of Ethernet: 10BaseT, 10Base2, 10Base5, 100BaseT, and 1000BaseT being a few popular ones. All Ethernet architectures use CSMA/CD as the access method, but each type of Ethernet uses a different topology or cable type. The following sections outline the differences among them.

1.6.1.1. 10 megabit Ethernet standards

The following outlines some of the popular 10 Mbps network architectures that have been popular in past years. You need to be familiar with these for the A+ Certification exams.

When trying to remember the names of these network architectures, start ...