Network topology in the context of Fieldbus

In computer science, computer engineering, and telecommunications, a network is a group of communicating computers and peripherals known as hosts, which communicate data to other hosts via communication protocols, as facilitated by networking hardware.

Within a computer network, hosts are identified by network addresses, which allow networking hardware to locate and identify hosts. Hosts may also have hostnames, memorable labels for the host nodes, which can be mapped to a network address using a hosts file or a name server such as Domain Name Service. The physical medium that supports information exchange includes wired media like copper cables, optical fibers, and wireless radio-frequency media. The arrangement of hosts and hardware within a network architecture is known as the network topology.

Networking cable is a piece of networking hardware used to connect one network device to other network devices or to connect two or more computers to share devices such as printers or scanners. Different types of network cables, such as coaxial cable, optical fiber cable, and twisted pair cables, are used depending on the network's topology, protocol, and size. The devices can be separated by a few meters (e.g. via Ethernet) or nearly unlimited distances (e.g. via the interconnections of the Internet).

While wireless networks are more easily deployed when total throughput is not an issue, most permanent larger computer networks utilize cables to transfer signals from one point to another.

In network science, a hub is a node with a number of links that greatly exceeds the average. Emergence of hubs is a consequence of a scale-free property of networks. While hubs cannot be observed in a random network, they are expected to emerge in scale-free networks. The uprise of hubs in scale-free networks is associated with power-law distribution. Hubs have a significant impact on the network topology. Hubs can be found in many real networks, such as the brain or the Internet.

A hub is a component of a network with a high-degree node. Hubs have a significantly larger number of links in comparison with other nodes in the network. The number of links (degrees) for a hub in a scale-free network is much higher than for the biggest node in a random network, keeping the size N of the network and average degree <k> constant. The existence of hubs is the biggest difference between random networks and scale-free networks. In random networks, the degree k is comparable for every node; it is therefore not possible for hubs to emerge. In scale-free networks, a few nodes (hubs) have a high degree k while the other nodes have a small number of links.

An ad hoc routing protocol is a convention, or standard, that controls how nodes decide which way to route packets between computing devices in a mobile ad hoc network.

In ad hoc networks, nodes are not familiar with the topology of their networks. Instead, they have to discover it: typically, a new node announces its presence and listens for announcements broadcast by its neighbors. Each node learns about others nearby and how to reach them, and may announce that it too can reach them.

Thunderbolt is the brand name of a hardware interface for the connection of external peripherals to a computer. It was developed by Intel in collaboration with Apple. It was initially marketed under the name Light Peak, and first sold as part of an end-user product on 24 February 2011.

Thunderbolt combines PCI Express (PCIe) and DisplayPort (DP) into two serial signals and provides DC power via a single cable. Up to six peripherals may be supported by a single connector through various topologies. Thunderbolt 1 and 2 use the same connector as Mini DisplayPort (MDP), whereas Thunderbolt 3, 4, and 5 use the USB-C connector and support USB devices.

A mesh network is a local area network topology in which the infrastructure nodes (i.e. bridges, switches, and other infrastructure devices) connect directly, dynamically and non-hierarchically to as many other nodes as possible and cooperate with one another to efficiently route data to and from clients.

This lack of dependency on one node allows for every node to participate in the relay of information. Mesh networks dynamically self-organize and self-configure, which can reduce installation overhead. The ability to self-configure enables dynamic distribution of workloads, particularly in the event a few nodes should fail. This in turn contributes to fault-tolerance and reduced maintenance costs.