The Computer Revolution/Networks/Network Topologies/Mesh

Mesh
There many different network topologies.Mesh network is widely used. Mesh networking is a topology where each node must not only capture and disseminate its own data, but also serve as a relay for other nodes. The network is redundant and fault tolerant. This makes it so that if one node goes

down it does not take the whole network with it.

This gives it self-healing capabilities. The network will change the route of the packets to a node that is still up and working. As a result, the network is typically quite reliable, as there is often more than one path between a source and a destination in the network.

Some of the advantages are as follows: Point to point line configuration makes identification and isolation of faults easy, messages travel through a dedicated line meaning that only the intended recipient receives the message, in the case of a fault in one link, only the communication between the two devices sharing the link is affected, and the use of dedicated links ensures that each connection carries its own data load thus eliminating traffic problems that would have been encountered if a connection/link was shared. Mesh networks are best for WAN, MAN and large LANs. For the average house hold this network is not recommend.

This is because the network will grow larger and expensive to maintain. The networks best for home use would be Star, Ad hoc, or bus. Ad hoc networks are a form of mesh network with the only difference being that every node connects directly to each other and not through a switch.