16 MULTILINK ETHERNET COMMUNICATIONS SWITCH – QUICKSTART GUIDE
QUICKSTART GUIDE

5.1.2 Fiber

• Longer distances possible, limited only by attenuation
• Immune to electrical noise
• More difficult termination and splicing
• Slightly higher cost for cable
• Two categories:
• multi-mode
• single-mode
5.2 Supported Network Topologies
With either media supported topologies include: star, mesh and ring. The port that
connects one switch to another is often called the uplink port and with many switches the
uplink port can operate at much higher baud rates than the standard ports. The link
formed by the connection of of several switches higher speed uplink ports is often referred
to as a backbone.

5.2.1 Star Architecture

• Single Point of failure before loss of communications
• Additional Ethernet switches Required
• Network Recovery in approximately 6 ms per Ethernet switch

5.2.2 Mesh Architecture

• Multiple Points of failure required before loss of communications
Ring
Mesh
Star