Mesh Topoloy

Mesh Topoloy

In this topology, every node has a dedicated point-to-point connection to every other node on the network. A fully connected mesh network has n(n-1)/2 channels to link 'n' devices. Therefore, every device on the network must have 'n-1' input/output (I/O) ports.

In mesh network, each node is directly connected to all nodes on the network. This type of network involves the concept of routes. In this type of network, each node may send message to destination through multiple paths. It means that each node of mesh network has several possible paths to send (or to receive) message, but in Bus, Star, Ring and Tree topologies each node has only one path.

Advantages

Mesh topology has the following advantages:

• It has multiple links, so if one route is blocked then other routes can be used for data communication.
• Each connection can have its own data load, so the traffic problem is eliminated.
• It ensures the data privacy or security, because every message travels along a dedicated link.
• Troubleshooting of this topology is easy as compared to other networks.
• Its performance is not affected with heavy load of data transmission.

Disadvantages

Mesh topology has the following disadvantages:

• It becomes very expensive because a large number of cabling and 110 ports are required.
• It is difficult to install.