Day 15: Networking

Question:
Be creative. What are some ways that we can design a network to handle (smoothly) 1) Addressing and 2) Communication conflicts in a bus topology.

First of all, it is important to understand what a BUS topology is. This is also referred to as ethernet today. It is when there are a series of computers which are connected to a network, often times through a bus in the wall. The first thing we must do to solve this problem is to figure out where all of the other computers are (addressing). This will enable you to navigate where your message must go or which direction your networking should take for the least amount of congestion. The goal of this is to allow a smooth handling of communication and addressing and to avoid conflicts in a bus topology. A large problem with BUS topology is that so many of the computers networks run through each other in some way which can slow one down if everyone is trying to get to the same network.

In order to design a network that smoothly handles communication conflicts, finding out where the other computers networks are is important. You must locate the computer which you are trying to communicate wtih. This wil increase communication speed so that your message is not lost in a wave of networking. Say I am computer A and I want to communicate with computer D. To communicate with D I would not want to go through B and C if I am in a hurry. Rather, I would want to find a way to go directly to D from A through perhaps a direct network or finding the path in the BUS which is the shortest. It is a lot like driving somewhere for a holiday. You would want to find the shortest route and if I85 will take you to where you want to go quickly in 2 hours, you would not take the backroads through small towns which get you there in 4 (unless you wanted a scenic tour but in this case we'll pretend we dont).

This answer is probably completely off topic, but in summary finding out the location of other computers on the same network may save you time in your communication process.