Network topologies (star, bus, ring, mesh) in Computer Networks - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Understanding Network Topologies

📖 Scenario: You are setting up a small office network. You want to understand different ways computers can be connected to share information efficiently and reliably.

🎯 Goal: Build a simple representation of four common network topologies: star, bus, ring, and mesh. You will create data structures that show how devices connect in each topology.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a dictionary named devices with exactly four devices named 'PC1', 'PC2', 'PC3', and 'PC4'.

Create a variable named central_hub with the value 'Switch' to represent the central device in the star topology.

Create a dictionary named topologies that maps each topology name ('star', 'bus', 'ring', and 'mesh') to a list of connections representing how devices are linked.

Add a final variable named description with a short explanation string about the star topology.

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Understanding network topologies helps in designing and troubleshooting computer networks in offices, schools, and homes.

💼 Career

Network administrators and IT professionals use knowledge of topologies to plan efficient and reliable network layouts.

1

Create the devices dictionary

Create a dictionary called devices with these exact keys and values: 'PC1': 'Computer 1', 'PC2': 'Computer 2', 'PC3': 'Computer 3', and 'PC4': 'Computer 4'.

Computer Networks

# Create the devices dictionary with four computers
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use curly braces {} to create a dictionary with the given keys and values.

2

Add the central hub variable

Create a variable called central_hub and set it to the string 'Switch' to represent the central device in the star topology.

Computer Networks

devices = {
    'PC1': 'Computer 1',
    'PC2': 'Computer 2',
    'PC3': 'Computer 3',
    'PC4': 'Computer 4'
}

# Create the central hub variable
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Assign the string 'Switch' to the variable central_hub.

3

Define the topologies dictionary

Create a dictionary called topologies with these keys: 'star', 'bus', 'ring', and 'mesh'. Each key should map to a list of tuples showing connections between devices. Use the following connections exactly:

'star': connect each device to central_hub (e.g., ('PC1', central_hub))
'bus': connect devices in a line: ('PC1', 'PC2'), ('PC2', 'PC3'), ('PC3', 'PC4')
'ring': connect devices in a circle: ('PC1', 'PC2'), ('PC2', 'PC3'), ('PC3', 'PC4'), ('PC4', 'PC1')
'mesh': connect every device to every other device (all pairs).

Computer Networks

devices = {
    'PC1': 'Computer 1',
    'PC2': 'Computer 2',
    'PC3': 'Computer 3',
    'PC4': 'Computer 4'
}

central_hub = 'Switch'

# Create the topologies dictionary with connections
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use lists of tuples to represent connections. For mesh, list all unique pairs of devices.

4

Add a description for the star topology

Create a variable called description and set it to the string 'In a star topology, all devices connect to a central hub.' to explain the star network.

Computer Networks

devices = {
    'PC1': 'Computer 1',
    'PC2': 'Computer 2',
    'PC3': 'Computer 3',
    'PC4': 'Computer 4'
}

central_hub = 'Switch'

topologies = {
    'star': [('PC1', central_hub), ('PC2', central_hub), ('PC3', central_hub), ('PC4', central_hub)],
    'bus': [('PC1', 'PC2'), ('PC2', 'PC3'), ('PC3', 'PC4')],
    'ring': [('PC1', 'PC2'), ('PC2', 'PC3'), ('PC3', 'PC4'), ('PC4', 'PC1')],
    'mesh': [
        ('PC1', 'PC2'), ('PC1', 'PC3'), ('PC1', 'PC4'),
        ('PC2', 'PC3'), ('PC2', 'PC4'),
        ('PC3', 'PC4')
    ]
}

# Add a description of the star topology
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Assign the exact string to the variable description.