What is Star Network Topology in Computer Network?

A star topology is constructed with each node such as offices, printers, laptops, servers, etc., connected directly to a central computer known as a network switch. Each office has a wire that goes from its network interface card (NIC) to a network switch. It is one of the most popular network systems. It includes various devices or computers linked to one centralized computer. This central mainframe is referred to as a server, and other computers connected to the server are referred to as clients or workstations.

During communication or data transmission, the message first goes through the centralized computer to control communications or data transmission operations. The server enables the message to go to the destination or receiver and allocate resources of other computers in the network. In this topology, the remote terminals can be geographically widespread.

Advantages

There are the following advantages of a star topology −

• Star topology needs minimal line cost because connecting n nodes requires (n – 1) lines.
• If any of the work stations fails, it makes no effect on communication of the work stations, and thus the remaining portion of the network is unaffected.
• If new nodes are inserted into the network, it needs just a link to the server. Thus transmission delay between two nodes does not increase.
• The software, fault isolation and traffic flow is simple.

Disadvantages

There are the following disadvantages of a star topology −

• The entire network depends on a central computer, so if the server fails, the whole network’s working fails.
• The distributed processing capability is limited.