Allied Telesis AT-8500 Series manual Network Topologies, Power Workgroup Topology

AT-8500 Series Layer 2+ Fast Ethernet Switches Installation Guide

Network Topologies

Power

Workgroup

Topology

This section illustrates several of the network topologies you can create with the AT-8500 Series Fast Ethernet switch.

The topology shown in Figure 9 is commonly referred to as a power workgroup topology. Each workstation or end node is connected directly to a port on an AT-8524M Fast Ethernet Switch. This provides each end node with a dedicated data link to the switch for best performance and reliability. The devices can operate at either 10 Mbps or 100 Mbps.

Collapsed

Backbone

Topology

	AT-8524MFast Ethernet Switch
MODE	STATUS
AT-8524M Fast
Ethernet Switch
Legend
10 Mbps
100 Mbps

Figure 9. Power Workgroup Topology

In the topology illustrated in Figure 10, an AT-8524M Fast Ethernet Switch connects together 10/100 Mbps Ethernet hubs. This type of topology is often referred to as a collapsed backbone topology. The switch functions as the focal point of the network by acting as a bridge between the different workgroups. The switch transfers an Ethernet frame from hub to hub only when the destination end node for the frame is on a different hub than the end node that originated the frame. This reduces the amount of unnecessary data traffic in each workgroup, freeing up bandwidth and improving network performance.

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