Figure 05

RING

Advantages
 Ring network works well there is central nodes for making routing decision.
 It is more reliable then star network because communication is not dependent on a single mode. If a link between two modes fails,
alternate routing is possible.

Disadvantages
 In a ring network, communication delay is directly proportional to number of modes in the network. Hence, addition of new nodes in a
network increases communication delay.
 It required more complicated control software than star network.

Completely Connected Network

Figure shows a completely connected network, in which each node has a direct link, called point-to-point link, with all other nodes in the
network. The control is distributed with each node deciding its communication priorities.

Figure 06

Completely connected

Advantages
 It is very reliable because any link failure will affect only direct communication the nodes connected by that link.
 Each node of the network need not have individuals routing capability.
 Communication is fast between any two needs.

Disadvantages
 It is most expensive network from the point of view of link cost because cost linking a system grows with square of the number of
nodes. If there are N nodes in a network, n (n-ln)/2 links are required.
 Radio broadcast technology uses FDM to support multiple radio stations simultaneously. It assigns a different frequency range
within a bandwidth of radio frequencies to each radio station. Several radio station transmit speech signal simultaneously over
physical channels ‘Ether’ which is an invisible, ever, present and un-provable medium through which waves travel propagate in
space. A radio receiver antenna receivers signals transmitted by all station, and a radio set uses a tuning dial to isolate signals of
the station tuned. As FDM can deal with only analog signals, a digital communication system using FDM must convert signals to
analog form.

Time-Division Multiplexing
TDM divides total time available in a channel among several users, and allots a time slice a short time interval to each user of the
channel, during which he/she may transmits a message. In this way, TDM interleaves multiple data streams of different user into
one data stream at sender end of the channel. At receiver end, a multiplexer reassembles individuals chunks of messages into full
of different user. Figure illustrates TDM process by multiplexing three different signals. The same idea may be extended for
multiplexing several signals.
Although ADM can multiplex either digital or analog signals, it is suitable for digital data transmission. It is also suitable for
communication between computers because computers communicate are short fast bursts. Moreover, TDM is efficient because it
enables network designers to drive more sub-channels. It is up to network designers to allocate time slots to different channels. It
is common to have 32 low-speed terminals connected to one high-speed line.

Three sliced signals Reassembled signals

3 2 1
A A A A A A
Signal A Sender end

Demultipl-
3 2 1
Channel -exer
Signal B B B B B B B

3 2 1
C C C C C C
Signal C ... C B A C B A

Figure 03
Multiplexing is cost effective when channel cost is high due to long distances. However, a drawback of multiplexing is that if a
multiplexed line fails, it affects all users sharing it. Failure of an individual(non-multiplexed) channel is likely to affect one user
only.