Disadvantages
Although the star topology is resilient to devices or their connections failing, I'd like you to look back at Figure 5.5 and see if you can identify what could bring down the whole network. If you said the central device, you would be correct. That central device is a single point of failure (sometimes referred to as an SPOF). If that device goes down, no one is going to be talking. While there is usually some contingency in having spare (redundant) switches, the endpoint devices usually will only connect to one.
The other issue that is common with a star topology is that it can be quite expensive. The images that I have used so far have illustrated a relatively short cable between devices. In reality, in a star topology, your ...
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